The Softest of Targets: A Study on Terrorist Target Selection

Asal, Victor; Rethemeyer, R. Karl; Anderson, Irina; Stein, Alfred; Rizzo, Jeffrey; Rozea, Matthew

doi:10.1080/19361610902929990

Cited by 64 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…As almost all humans have compassion‐driven psychological restraints against harming others (Bandura, ), understanding how terrorists can justify their extremely injurious acts is difficult at first glance. Asal et al () argued that the desire for political change is one of the most common driving factors of violent terrorist activity. When terrorists feel threatened by their political‐social system, they are particularly likely to be violent (Sprinzak, ).…”

Section: Research On Terrorist Groups’ Motivationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying Moral Foundations Theory to Identify Terrorist Group Motivations

Hahn¹,

Tamborini

Novotny

et al. 2018

Political Psychology

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Previous research distinguishing terrorist groups has employed categorical schemes that are (1) ideologically broad and ambiguous (e.g., right‐wing versus left‐wing) or (2) focused on single‐issues (e.g., guns, abortion). Broad schemes often fail to clearly distinguish groups’ motivations, and single‐issue schemes provide no coherent theoretical structure for understanding terrorist behavior. To address these limitations, we applied the conceptual framework of moral foundations theory (MFT) to derive a content‐analytic scheme identifying universal instincts we term “moral motivations.” We then applied this scheme to classify descriptions found in the Profiles of Perpetrators of Terrorism in the United States, an open‐sourced dataset providing information on terrorist organizations that committed violence on U.S. soil. Analyses examined how terrorist‐group activities are associated with specific moral motivations in order to distinguish dominant motives among different groups. Results showed that extremist right‐wing, religious, and ethno‐nationalist/separatist ideologies were associated with the binding motivations of loyalty, authority, and purity. Extremist left‐wing and single‐issue ideologies were associated with the individualizing motivations of care and fairness. These findings are discussed regarding the value of using MFT’s motivations to distinguish terrorist groups and how describing their moral motivations might advance efforts to curtail their activities.

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Section: Research On Terrorist Groups’ Motivationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying Moral Foundations Theory to Identify Terrorist Group Motivations

Hahn¹,

Tamborini

Novotny

et al. 2018

Political Psychology

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“…Target selection typically involves substantial planning. Analyzing the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) data to explore terrorist motivation for targeting civilians, Asal and colleagues found that terror organizations are logical in their target selection, with ideology playing a role in the selection decision [6]. Targets are selected based on generating the most fear and producing the most attention to the terror group's causes [28].…”

Section: Proposition Iii: Targets Are Selected Based On Opportunitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Looking at terrorism through left realist lenses

Gibbs

2010

Crime Law Soc Change

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While terrorism has moved into the spotlight of criminological study, including critical criminology, it has yet to be thoroughly explored from a left realist perspective. Left realism addresses four aspects of crime: causes of offending, impact on the victims, and both official and public responses to crime. A left realist approach to terrorism would argue that similar to those who engage in street crimes, many terrorists are socially or economically disenfranchised young men who become involved in terrorism through connections with similarly situated members of the fringe population, and "get tough" policies on terrorism will backfire. Four propositions of left realist theory organized by DeKeseredy and colleagues are presented and addressed through the extant literature, which offers partial support for a left realist explanation of terrorism.Terrorism has been explored through a variety of perspectives. A large portion of the literature examining causes of terrorist activity tends to be psychological [see 18,33] or sociological [e.g., 2], with criminologists recently attempting to explain terrorist activity. For example, Hamm and Van de Voorde applied criminological theoriesspecifically social learning and opportunity theories-to terrorist involvement in transnational crime [30]. While criminology has much to offer the study of terrorism, lacking from the literature is an assessment of the left realist framework to understand terrorism (but see Taylor for an examination of terrorism through a critical criminological perspective) [60]. This paper explores terrorism through the left realist perspective. The next section reviews left realist theory, followed by a review of terrorism and the applicability of

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“…Various organizations, such as the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) [1][2][3][4], National Security Research Division at the RAND Corporation [5][6][7], Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) [8], and others have made intensive researches of terrorist attacks to develop countermeasures that mitigate or eliminate the negative impacts of terrorism. However, terrorist attacks still present a serious tendency.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on Correlation Factors that Influence Terrorist Attack Fatalities Using Global Terrorism Database

Li¹,

Song²,

Yang³

et al. 2014

Procedia Engineering

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A better understanding of terrorist attacks and the relationships between the fatality and the influencing factors is helpful to improve the decisions to allocate resources in the fight against terrorism. The fatality is divided into four levels: 1-2, 3-9, 10-29 and ≥30. The article uses a novel approach of correspondence analysis to explore the associations between terrorist attacks and factors. The fatality level of terrorist attacks is influenced by countries, regions, weapons, attack types and targets. The factors that tend to result in high fatality levels are identified. The attacks occur in developing countries and regions are associated with fatality level of ≥30 while the developed countries such as the North America and Western Europe tend to be related with low fatality level. The attacks caused by the weapons of Incendiary and WMD (Biological, Chemical, Radiological, Nuclear) tend to precipitate a relatively high fatalities. The attack types of Hijacking, Barricade Incident and Facility/Infrastructure Attack have strong relationships with fatality level of ≥30. Compared to other targets, Airports & Airlines and Maritime are more likely to generate extremely high fatalities. The results are useful for understanding the fundamental cause of fatalities in terrorist attacks.

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The Softest of Targets: A Study on Terrorist Target Selection

Cited by 64 publications

References 25 publications

Applying Moral Foundations Theory to Identify Terrorist Group Motivations

Applying Moral Foundations Theory to Identify Terrorist Group Motivations

Looking at terrorism through left realist lenses

Study on Correlation Factors that Influence Terrorist Attack Fatalities Using Global Terrorism Database

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