Terrorist Attacks In London Research Articles

Terror salience and punishment: Does terror salience induce threat to social order?

In recent times, international terrorism has become one of the most serious concerns of the modern Western world. As a consequence, the risk and fear of terrorism is more salient in people’s minds (i.e. terror salience), which is supposed to affect behavioral responses in our society. The present research suggests that increased punishment of violations of criminal laws is one societal reaction to increased terror salience. It was consistently shown that increased terror salience, induced by either varying the temporal distance from the London terrorist attacks of July 7, 2005 (Study 1), by vignettes in the form of newspaper articles manipulating the expected terror risk (Study 2), or by pictures of recent terrorist attacks (Studies 3 and 4), significantly increased the punishment assigned to a violation of criminal laws that was completely unrelated to terror (i.e. car theft and rape). Finally, Study 4 revealed that (a) the effect of terror salience on punishment is indeed due to increased perception of threat to social order and (b) that this effect cannot be explained by the general negative nature of the stimulus material employed in this study.

Journey of the jihadist: inside Muslim militancy

Middle Eastern expert and media commentator Gerges takes us into the mindset of the jihadi, or holy warrior, that lies behind so many front-page headlines yet remains nearly impenetrable. Even before the 9/11 attacks, Gerges had gone in search of those whose lives were devoted to this crusade of hatred, first against their own secular governments, then against the West and the United States in particular. He talked extensively with Kamal al-Said Habib, a founder of the Jihadist Movement. Using Habib's life story, as well as the stories of dozens of other Islamic fundamentalists, Gerges's book puts a human face to events in the Middle East over the last thirty years, from the civil war in Lebanon to the war in Iraq and the terrorist attacks in London. Behind the jihadism of Habib and others, a battle is being waged for the soul of Islam itself.

Impact of London's Terrorist Attacks on a Major Trauma Center in London

During the morning rush hour on Thursday, 07 July 2005, a series of four bombs exploded, affecting London's public transport system. These terrorist attacks killed 52 people and injured > 700. A major incident was declared, and the Royal London Hospital (RLH) was a primary receiving hospital. A total of 194 patients presented to the RLH. Twenty-seven patients required admission. A total of 11 amputations were performed on eight patients. One patient died intra-operatively. Another patient died on Day 6 due to complications related to a head injury. Coordination is vital to the implementation of the hospital's Major Incident Plan in such an emergency. Subsequent internal reviews of the response of the RLH on 07 July 2005 highlighted problems with communication and documentation, as well as the need for extra staffing. These areas should be improved for the management of future major incidents.

THE SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF RADIOLOGICAL TERRORISM

The July 2005 terrorist attacks in London demonstrated the resilience of Western society in the face of low-level conventional terrorism. But the psychological damage from the London bombings would likely pale next to the severe, unpredictable, long-lasting effects of a radiological attack. One unique hazard of radiation exposure beyond the obvious physiological effects is that it is colorless, odorless, and tasteless, making it difficult for ordinary citizens to evaluate, quantify, and rationally understand the dangers confronting them. Radiological weapons stand out among the tools available to terrorists for their capacity to inflict far-reaching psychological damage to civilian populaces well beyond the immediate victims. A possible solution to mitigate the psychological consequences is to build a “resilience culture,” an interlocking set of beliefs, attitudes, approaches, and behaviors that help people fare better in any disaster or extraordinary circumstance. The “all-hazards approach,” which emphasizes the identifiable similarities among the “disaster triad”—that is, natural, accidentally man-made, and intentionally man-made disasters—extends to acts of terrorism and could help demystify the fears associated with radiological terrorist weapons.

Violence in Bloomsbury: A Theological Challenge

Abstract: This article argues for a new, incarnational conception of theology in its relation to the world. The terrorist attacks in London on 7 July 2005 are subjected to hermeneutical analysis as cultural and political signs, and are seen to reflect an extreme version of religious and social incommensurability. They present a theological challenge, the response to which is the development of a positive theological account of world. This comes into view in London, the ‘City of the Incommensurable’, in a special way, since it is nevertheless a domain of negotiated time and space and an environment held by many in common. This environment of pluralism and proximity is taken to be both iconic of globalization and a particularly dynamic locus of its many instantiations. The intersection of global and local, and the kinds of encounters it supports, argue for a new kind of theology which, with all its proper resources in scripture, doctrine and tradition, can recognize the world as sphere of common human interests and practices, and can allow itself to become, in accordance with its own incarnational ground, an agent of transformation within it.

Briefing: How UK construction killed 76 people last year

In the past year the UK construction industry killed 76 people, virtually the same as last year and 20 more than in the much more widely reported London terrorist attacks. Donald Lamont, Health and Safety Executive representative on ICE's health and safety board, analyses the latest statistics in the hope civil engineers can help save more lives.

London terrorist attacks heat up identity card debate and highlight uncertainties over their efficacy

The terrorist attacks in London have stoked up the debate over the UK Government's identity card scheme, and highlighted the central issue of whether they would actually make such incidents less likely. Yet it is not just core privacy activists who continue to argue that any benefits will be outweighed by the growth of surveillance and snooping that would inevitably in their view occur once the scheme is up and running. A counter argument is that the cat is already out of the bag, and that we will live under a canopy of increasing surveillance and leakage of personal information whether or not identity cards come in. According to this argument, biometric passports, combined with growing databases of personal information relating to health, life style and identity, held by both government and private agencies, will ensure that privacy will be eroded come what may. The technologies, such as rapid and affordable DNA sequencing, proliferating and increasing cross-linked databases comprising personal information, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), as well as improved video cameras, are or will be out there anyway, all threatening to invade privacy in various ways.