Perception Of Terrorism Research Articles

Evaluation of financial monitoring systems effectiveness in its relationship to the country's security indicators

Motivation: The motivation for this research work is its potential to identify critical issues with far-reaching implications for economic security, governance and development, and to contribute to more informed decision-making in the area of countering the financing of terrorism. Aim: The purpose of this research paper is to analyse the impact of the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) standards on crime and anti-corruption efforts and the effective implementation of the legal framework in countries. Results: The article examines the relationship between crime, corruption, terrorism and FATF standards in 54 countries. Based on the regression analysis, the influence of crime, terrorism and perception of corruption on the effectiveness and compliance with FATF standards is investigated. The specific coefficients show that the perception of terrorism and corruption have a statistically significant negative and positive impact on the dependent variable, respectively, while the impact of the crime index is not statistically significant. By examining the impact of crime rates and anti-corruption efforts on FATF standards and the effective implementation of legal frameworks in countries, the study aims to provide information that can inform decision-making. Understanding how these factors interact can help to improve anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing strategies at both the national and international levels, including the improvement of financial monitoring systems. Understanding the relationship between crime, corruption and terrorism can have practical implications for various stakeholders, including law enforcement, government officials and international organisations. The findings are important for the implementation of effective measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, improve governance, security and overall socio-economic stability.

TERRORISM AND REFUGEE PERCEPTIONS: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GERMANY AND TÜRKİYE

Since the 1990s, the dynamics between migration and security have undergone a profound shift, notably influenced by pivotal events such as 9/11, the Arab Spring, and conflicts in the Middle East. States now perceive migration as an asymmetric threat within the migration-security paradigm, extending concerns to border security, economic stability, ethnic identity preservation, and heightened xenophobia. This study explores the intertwined concerns of migration and security, examining shifts in perceptions of terrorism and refugees. The research uses an exploratory case study approach, focusing on Turkey and Germany, both hosting significant refugee populations post-Arab Spring. The analysis centers on the discourse surrounding terrorism, migration, and refugees in Turkish and German mass media, with a specific emphasis on widely circulated national newspapers. The study covers the period from 2015 to 2020, a critical time marked by heightened migration flows to Europe. The primary goal is to discern whether the discourse on "terrorism" functions as a securitization tool within this intricate nexus.

Public perception of terrorism attacks: A conjoint experiment

In democratic societies, governments cannot act in isolation from public opinion. This is especially true regarding terrorism, where public perception is the instrument targeted by terrorists to achieve their political goals. Nevertheless, governments must also be able to resist public pressure and preserve individual rights. All this suggests that researching public perception of terrorist attacks is crucial. We make an important contribution in this direction by measuring the importance the public assigns to various attributes of terrorist attacks. Using novel methodology (conjoint experiment) and survey data from the UK and The Netherlands (N = 6,315), we find that people are concerned with attacks by immigrants (in the Netherlands), and by individuals acting as part of a terror cell, and with jihadist motivation. Furthermore, past experience with specific terrorist tactics drive preference to address such attacks more than others. In both countries people strongly focus on the severity of attacks, and under-weigh probabilities. The terror attack in the Netherlands in 2019 provided an opportunity to examine perception right after an actual attack. Also there we have found that people’s concerns are driven by experience with specific attacks. A better understanding of terrorism perception can inform policymakers about the gap between optimal strategies to combat terrorism and the expectations of the public.

Is terrorism necessarily violent? Public perceptions of nonviolence and terrorism in conflict settings

AbstractDiscussions of terrorism assume actual or threatened violence, but the term is regularly used to delegitimize rivals' nonviolent actions. Yet do ordinary citizens accept descriptions of nonviolence as terrorism? Using a preregistered survey-experiment in Israel, a salient conflictual context with diverse repertoires of contention, we find that audiences rate adversary nonviolence close to terrorism, consider it illegitimate, and justify its forceful repression. These perceptions vary by the action's threatened harm, its salience, and respondents' ideology. Explicitly labeling nonviolence as terrorism, moreover, particularly sways middle-of-the-road centrists. These relationships replicate in a lower-salience conflict, albeit with milder absolute judgments, indicating generalizability. Hence, popular perceptions of terrorism are more fluid and manipulable than assumed, potentially undermining the positive effects associated with nonviolent campaigns.

Lithuanians’ perception of terrorism: Are Muslims “folk devils” for Lithuanians?

ABSTRACT A considerable amount of research in Western countries during the past 30 years has found a strong tendency to associate Muslims with violent acts. This has resulted in an increase in Islamophobia. This article examines Lithuania’s media, politicians, and public perceptions on terrorism-Muslims in order to understand the correlation between Lithuanian media and political discourse on Muslims and their connection with public discourses. I propose that the weaker the linkage between media and political portrayals associating terrorism with Muslims is with public perceptions of terrorism and Muslims, the less likely the latter will see Muslims as folk devils. My analysis of the data supports this hypothesis and conclusively shows that media and political discourse do not have a hegemonic power to control the portrayal of Muslims and to create a sense of moral panic among Lithuanians.

Security vs. civil liberties: How citizens cope with threat, restriction, and ideology

How do citizens balance their preferences for civil liberties and security in the context of a competitive party system? Using the case of terrorism and counter-terrorism, I argue that the willingness to support restrictions of civil liberties does not only depend on external shocks and being targeted by a counter-policy. Instead, it also depends on their ideological match with policymakers and terrorist actors. Using an original survey experiment conducted in Germany in 2022, I study how the four factors feeling threatened by a terrorist attack, being targeted by a surveillance measure, the ideology behind an attack, and the partisanship of counteracting politicians influence the attitudes of citizens and whether these factors are mutually dependent. While earlier research has focused on one kind of terrorism (mostly Islamic), this paper examines various forms of terrorism (religious, right-wing, and climate-radical) and how they affect peoples' attitudes toward civil liberties and surveillance. The results show that terrorist ideology plays a minor role, but that it matters whether citizens sympathize with the party that proposes a policy. The study extends our understanding of the political consequences of polarization, threat perceptions of terrorism, and public support for surveillance policies.

Should I Signal Trust? Effect of Terrorism on Interpersonal Trust in Post-Conflict and Non-Post-Conflict Countries

ABSTRACT Generalized interpersonal trust is an essential component of a functioning society. While some studies have examined how the perception of terrorism affects trust, cross-national works investigating the impact of actual terrorist attacks on individual trust remain mixed. In this paper, I use insights from existing studies to disaggregate generalized interpersonal trust in response to terrorism in two distinct dimensions, prosocial motivation, and strategic signaling. While threat perception from terrorism lowers interpersonal trust in all contexts, I argue that actual events distinctively shape a person’s interpersonal trust. In a relatively stable and secure context of a non-post-conflict country, individuals living closer to terrorist incidents express increased interpersonal trust. But in post-conflict countries, those closer to terrorist incidents tend to show more distrust. To test the argument, I use the World Values Survey dataset of fifty-two states and create a terrorism scale for 717 survey regions within the countries, considering their spatial and temporal closeness to each terrorist incident. Results obtained from three-level hierarchical models (state, region, and individual) are robust and contribute to our understanding of how terrorism shapes interpersonal trust in different contexts.

Terrorism Studies and the Far Right – The State of Play

Terrorism Studies as a specific area of research came to prominence in the aftermath of the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA, but had existed across a range of disciplines long before albeit as a less consolidated and certainly less visible subject area. However, despite the existence of a body of work on terrorism, the impact of 9/11 on western perceptions of terrorism ensured that the direction of study was firmly focused on Islamic extremism for many years after the attacks. It is only very recently that significant attention has been focused on other ideologically motivated extremisms, namely the Far-Right. This article examines the nature of research into the Far-Right in the field of terrorism studies and examines what we mean when we refer to the Far-Right, and to what degree the field of terrorism studies has attended to this form of ideological extremism over the past two decades. In order to achieve these aims, this article presents an analysis of the academic publications concerned with the Far-Right produced in three Terrorism Studies journals: Terrorism and Political Violence, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and Critical Studies in Terrorism. The results demonstrate that between 2001 and 2018 only 41 articles exclusively focus on the Far Right, and of these only 6 use primary data in their analysis. The results of a content analysis carried out on these 41 articles provides an insight into the research trajectory on the Far Right. Ultimately the results of the rapid appraisal and the content analysis speak to the extent to which and nature of how Far-Right terrorism is attended to in the field of Terrorism Studies.

The Relationship between University Students’ Perceptions of Terrorism and Academic Specializations

By conducting a set of quantitative surveys, this study aimed to detecting the correlation between Jordanian University students’ perceptions of terrorism and a variety of demographic variables. The results revealed that the majority of students viewed terrorism as the most heinous crime, and is never justified, and that terrorists are hard-core criminals, separatist groups that want to weaken the unity of the country. Therefore, they should be treated as traitors and punished as they pose a threat to national interest, and the safety and security of citizens. While a few of student indicated that there are some terrorist activities’ as a repercussion of repressed needs and the demands of society, it should however be managed and the violations committed by states against their nationals be confronted with the aim of eliminating injustices to vulnerable citizens. Most students believe that poverty and material deprivation are of the most prominent causes of terrorism. They also stress the necessity of providing food security and optimal life for citizens to limit the spread of the phenomenon of terrorism and achieve societal solidarity to save human lives and stability of communities. Furthermore, the results confirmed that there are no academic specializations, age, sex, academic level, and monthly income statistically significant differences in perceptions of the terrorism among university students. Received: 8 April 2021 / Accepted: 5 June 2021 / Published: 8 July 2021

A study of police officer's perceptions of terrorism

A study of police officer's perceptions of terrorism

Perceptions of Generation Z regarding Terrorism: A Cross-Regional Study

Although the threat of terrorism remains a high priority among Americans, no study has explored the regional differences in perceptions of terrorism in the United States. In order to address the current gap in the literature, the present research specifically examines the fear and risk perceptions of college students regarding the threat of terrorism. The research sample consisted of 1,384 undergraduate students from three major regional universities in the United States. Bivariate and multivariate analyses of the collected data yielded significant regional differences, and uncovered several associations and predictors, such as political identity, that previous studies have not revealed.

Unpacking Public Perceptions of Terrorism: Does Type of Attack Matter?

The study explores terrorism threat perceptions, focusing on the American public’s views of conventional and cyber-terrorism methods. Based on a national survey data, we find that when asked about the likelihood and the extent of threat associated with each type of terror method, citizens make clear and significant distinctions. Furthermore, these distinctions translate to variations in counter-terrorism policy preferences. Our analyses reveal that, considering the low level of knowledge of complex security issues, measuring citizens’ `true attitudes’ requires using survey instruments with lower level of abstraction, which force respondents to ‘stop and think’, and better reflect their associated opinions.

Diskurs savremenog terorizma

In this paper author discusses the characteristics of discourse on modern terrorism. When it comes to the terrorism ordinary people gain knowledge mostly through media. The influence of specific image of terrorism is not limited to citizens who live in countries which faced with a terrorist threat or concrete attack but goes further to the different part of the world, some of them very far from the possibility of terrorist attack. Demystification of discourse on modern terrorism begins with analysis of the phenomenological dimension of modern terrorism, in terms of being defined and assigned. We can talk about two different approaches: older and newer, in understanding the terrorism. The new approach gains momentum with the events of 11 September and took shape after similar events on European continent. At the core of understanding of modern terrorism is the discourse on religious-based Islamic terrorism. Specific discourse on modern terrorism affects how it is understood by the general public, and it influences, in particular, the creation of stereotypes about a modern terrorists and the spread of fear of terrorism. The formation and maintenance of stereotypes about modern terrorism, which emphasizes the role of Islam and members of the Islamic community in planning and carrying out terrorist actions, creates a growing gap among people, especially in countries affected by terrorist attacks. The discourse on modern terrorism also implies an appropriate perception of the risk of terrorism all over the world. From that point of view risk of terrorism is real and constant. Similar situation is in Serbia and in that sense the results of limited research about perception of terrorism in Serbia presented in work show to a certain extant the existence of such global influence.

The Subconscious Effect of Subtle Media Bias on Perceptions of Terrorism

Media outlets strategically frame news about violent events using sensationalist labels such as “terrorist” or “Islamist” but also more subtle wording choices that affect the overall article tone. We argue theoretically and show empirically using a conjoint experiment that, contrary to existing studies, the effect of these two framing devices on readers’ perceptions of terrorist events should be carefully separated. Even though article tone transports no factual information, in our experiment negative and sensational wording choices carried a greater impact on threat perceptions than the explicit “terrorist” and “Islamist” labels. In a realistic news article setting, which varied other salient context cues such as proximity or event size, subtle shifts in article tone still subconsciously influenced threat perceptions. This highlights the potential dangers of media coverage fueling otherwise unjustified fears by injecting unnecessary editorial tone.

Perceptions of terrorism in Australia: 1978–2019

ABSTRACTHow and why have Australians come to view some infringement of their civil liberties as an acceptable trade-off in the interest of countering terrorism? This article contributes to understandings of preference formation by placing the focus on the interaction of public and elite perceptions of terrorism and counter-terrorism, over an extended time period. I trace the trajectory of Australian public debate over the course of four decades, through the lens of three intervening critical junctures; the 1978 Hilton bombing, Australia’s experience with international terrorism in the early twenty-first century, and the rise of ‘home grown’ terror from 2014. By uncovering the domestic dynamics that characterise public discourse and debate at each of these junctures, a more complete picture emerges of how Australian society understands and enacts counter-terror policy in response to the transnational terror threat.

The Subconscious Effect of Subtle Media Bias on Perceptions of Terrorism

Media outlets strategically frame news about violent events using sensationalist labels such as “terrorist” or “Islamist” but also more subtle wording choices that affect the overall article tone. We argue theoretically and show empirically using a conjoint experiment that, contrary to existing studies, the effect of these two framing devices on readers’ perceptions of terrorist events should be carefully separated. Even though article tone transports no factual information, in our experiment negative and sensational wording choices carried a greater impact on threat perceptions than the explicit “terrorist” and “Islamist” labels. In a realistic news article setting, which varied other salient context cues such as proximity or event size, subtle shifts in article tone still subconsciously influenced threat perceptions. This highlights the potential dangers of media coverage fueling otherwise unjustified fears by injecting unnecessary editorial tone.

Perceptions of Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Fear, Risk and the 2016 Trump Effect

Abstract Our study examines respondents’ perceptions of terrorism and counterterrorism in the USA during the 2016 presidential campaign. It does so by conducting an experiment where a group of respondents were randomly assigned to a vivid example of a terrorist attack and another group did not receive this treatment. The study’s results find opposing individual perceptions of the job government is doing to protect the country from terrorism and on differences among respondents as to the root causes of terrorism. Our research points to one explanation of this difference: Americans feel there is little they can do about terrorism and though the government is working to protect the nation, the public feels the government cannot stop, only prevent, terrorist acts from occurring. This causes the public to shift their perceptions of terrorism away from questions of efficient public policy responses to one of values. The experiment suggests heightened levels of fear among 2016 Trump voters who received the treatment compared to both Republican voters and Clinton supporters, though control and treatment groups also showed variation. Finally, this work highlights a major challenge for counter-terrorism policymakers in dealing with a highly polarized public. Recent electoral campaigns have demonstrated that politicians are actively trying to politicize terrorism. This work provides evidence that these efforts are resonating among the public. The danger of politicizing terrorism is that it blocks efforts to find common ground, between polarized groups in society in keeping the nation safe.

The Phenomenon of Terrorism as a Threat to International Security

The article presents terrorism as a threat to international security in the 21st century. The problem with defining terrorism has been present for many years and the available definitions are developed based on the main features of terrorism. The article emphasises that terrorism has evolved through the 20th and 21st centuries. Terrorist incidents have become more unpredictable in terms of place and time, and so did methods of carrying out the attacks. The further section describes the impact of terrorist attacks on public opinion and the perception of terrorism. The consequence of presenting terrorist incidents in the media is the widespread sense of threat of terrorism. Terrorists use the mass media to convey their ideologies and the medium that is most used by them is the Internet. Based on examples, the author demonstrates that terrorism has an influence on policies adapted by countries and is an economic threat. Finally, the article states that despite the lower frequency of incidents in Europe, terrorism is still a problem and subsequent terrorist incidents are only a matter of time. Fewer terrorist attacks in Europe do not mean that terrorist organisations are weaker.

Make Hegel great again: on Hegel’s epistemological contribution to critical terrorism studies

ABSTRACTDespite the contribution of Foucaultian inspired approaches to Critical Terrorism Studies, this article invites us to consider Hegel’s epistemological insights. Foucault’s power-knowledge nexus is an invaluable intellectual tool which reveals how terrorism can be a “social fact”, yet it rests on a genealogical account of history and a passive notion of subjectivity determined by power (regimes). Hegelian philosophy maintains some of the benefits met in Foucault’s approach (sociality and contingency of knowledge) while providing a richer epistemological account. This article introduces Hegel’s epistemological insights to: i) challenge the portrayal of terrorism as a major external threat against the western liberal democratic states in the vein of “New Terrorism” or the “Clash of Civilizations”; and ii) domestically explore how the concept of liberal democratic rights, equality, freedom affect the interpretation of counter-terrorist bills, the threat perception of terrorism and domestic polarisation. Hegel’s insights critically interrogate the notions of “liberal rights”, “equality” and “freedom”, revealing how their ambiguous definition accommodates inherent contradictions which can fuel a controversial interpretation of counter-terrorist bills, leading to domestic polarisation and (reciprocal) radicalisation. Therefore, Hegel’s epistemological insights reveal how the defective definition of human rights, equality and liberty can amplify the effects of Terrorism and radicalisation.

Terrorism as Socially Constructed Crime in Indonesia

In the aftermath of Bali Bombing 2002, which is considered the biggest terrorist attack in Indonesia, the Indonesian government launched the so-called ‘war against terrorism’. Subsequently, the government established and applied laws on terrorism and formed a special counter-terrorism police squad: The Detachment 88. A state body that coordinates counter-terrorism measures is quickly established, the National Anti-Terrorism Agency (BNPT –Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Terorisme). Therefore, terrorism in Indonesia has been considered a ‘big and serious business’ since 2002. It also raises a serious question in defining and judging terror crime. Indeed, Indonesia has the law of terrorism since 2002, yet the definition is not very clear. Even in international forum, there is no single and approved definition of terrorism. For instance, an armed group who attacked civilians in Central Sulawesi was named terrorists by the state. On the other hand, a group of militias who attacked and held hostages in Timika, Papua was labelled as an armed criminal group. In Jakarta, there were some bomb threats during 2015 and 2017. Nevertheless, the law enforcement agencies have never named them as ‘terrorists’, although their actions deserve to be called as ‘lone-wolf terrorism’. This paper aims to identify the social construction of terrorism. Terrorism is a term that is used regularly by news media and politicians. Whether its application is impartial or biased is fundamental to a debate. In a society where, international terrorism monopolizes news media and political discussion, there is no greater need than to analyze the boundaries of the term ‘terrorism’ construction within social processes. One of the serious problems involving terrorism in Indonesia is to define an offense as terrorism. The laws of terrorism are existed. The judgment and conviction to terrorism suspects also have been made in various jurisdictions. Yet, the types of offenses constituted as terrorism are still unclear. Ordinary people, media, opinion makers, and law enforcement officers have socially constructed terrorism and have their own perceptions of terrorism. This condition leads to law uncertainty and, to some extent, it leads to victimization and stigmatization of innocent people because their appearances and social environments have been associated to terrorism. This study employed two approaches: Social construction and guilt by association theories.