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38 - Terrorism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2014

Graeme R. Newman
Affiliation:
The State University of New York at Albany, USA
Ronald V. Clarke
Affiliation:
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA
Mangai Natarajan
Affiliation:
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York
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Summary

Criminology and criminal justice programs were late in recognizing the relevance of terrorism to international criminology because it was thought that terrorism was completely different from crime, the province of political scientists. But it was also because the traditional approaches of criminology have remained preoccupied with root causes of crime and have been only secondarily interested in how to prevent it. The 9/11 attack demanded immediate action to make sure that nothing like it ever happened again. Applying the perspective of situational crime prevention, this chapter will demonstrate that it is possible to explain terrorism and develop a systematic way to prevent it without necessarily studying its “root causes.”

DEFINING TERRORISM

There have been many attempts to define terrorism and here are two notable examples:

  1. Terrorism is the use or threatened use of force designed to bring about political change (Brian Jenkins, Rand Corporation).

  2. Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives (FBI).

The first definition makes no mention of illegality, thus leaving open the possibility that the acts of the terrorists may be legitimate. The FBI definition states clearly that terrorism is unlawful, but of course, this leaves open the problem of “freedom fighters” acting against an unlawful government. Both of the definitions make force and violence central to a description of terrorism. While the majority of terrorist attacks are obviously violent (some are not, such as cyberterrorism), focusing on the violence itself ignores the conditions and behaviors that make for the successful completion of terrorist attacks. These are the opportunities of which terrorists take advantage.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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References

Clarke, R. V. & Newman, G. R. (2005). Outsmarting the Terrorists. CT: Praeger Security International.Google Scholar
Freilich, J. & Newman, G. R. (Eds.) (2009). Reducing Terrorism through Situational Crime Prevention. Crime Prevention Studies. No.25. NY: Criminal Justice Press.
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and the Responses to Terrorism. Global Terrorism Database (GTD). http://www.start.umd.edu/start
Newman, G. R. & Clarke, R. V. (2008). Policing Terrorism; an Executive’s Guide. Washington. D.C. Office of Community Oriented Police Services.Google Scholar

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  • Terrorism
  • Edited by Mangai Natarajan, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York
  • Book: International Crime and Justice
  • Online publication: 05 October 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511762116.045
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  • Terrorism
  • Edited by Mangai Natarajan, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York
  • Book: International Crime and Justice
  • Online publication: 05 October 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511762116.045
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Terrorism
  • Edited by Mangai Natarajan, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York
  • Book: International Crime and Justice
  • Online publication: 05 October 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511762116.045
Available formats
×