The Etiology of Terrorism

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511976384.004

3 - The Etiology of Terrorism

Identifying, Defining, and Studying Terrorists

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2011

Wayman C. Mullins and

Edited by

Jack R. Greene and

Brian Forst: Affiliation:
American University, Washington DC
Jack R. Greene: Affiliation:
Northeastern University, Boston
James P. Lynch: Affiliation:
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Identification is the first step in assessing, predicting, and ultimately intervening effectively in terrorist actions. To date, there has been limited success in identifying who terrorists are and where they can be found, tracking their activities, and then preventing them from engaging in attacks in the future. Despite successes by law-enforcement authorities at intercepting terrorists, whether reported to the public or not, a single unrestrained terrorist group or individual who succeeds in an attack can render devastating consequences. Just as Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City and al Qaeda in New York demonstrated, even overlooking one terrorist or terrorist cell can have significant, deadly societal and political ramifications.

But how were terrorists in the Oklahoma bombing and 9/11 allowed to slip through the cracks? Sophisticated intelligence-gathering capabilities, state-of-the-art investigative procedures, and other threat-analysis techniques seemingly failed in these instances. What specifically went wrong? Or did anything go wrong that was preventable? Why were we not able to identify these terrorists? Had they been identified, could we have stopped them from committing acts of mass murder against a helpless civilian population? This chapter will address the fundamental issues of defining terrorism and terrorists, and examine our ability to understand these phenomena. It will further examine the challenge of collecting data concerning the threat terrorism poses to public safety.

DEFINING TERRORISM

One of the most significant difficulties in the identification of terrorism and terrorist individuals or groups is that of multiple definitions of basic terms.

Type: Chapter
Information: Criminologists on Terrorism and Homeland Security , pp. 40 - 65

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511976384.004 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arena, M.P. & Arrigo, B.A. (2005). Identity and the terrorist threat: An interpretative and explanatory model. In Snowden, L.L. & Whitsel, B.C. (Eds.). Terrorism: Research, readings and realities. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.Google Scholar

Bolz, F., Jr., Dudonis, K.J. & Schulz, D. P. (2002). The counterterrorism handbook: Tactics, procedures, and techniques (2nd Ed.). NY: CRC Press.Google Scholar

Burger, (2004). Threat analysis: Decoding the clutter. Time, March 29, 28–29.Google Scholar

Combs, C.C. (2000). Terrorism in the twenty-first century (2nd Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar

Cooper, H.H.A. (2004). Terrorism: The problem of definition revisited. In Martin, G. (Ed.). The new era of terrorism: Selected readings. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar

Corley, S.H., Smith, B.L., & Damphousse, K.R. (2005). The changing face of American terrorism. In Snowden, L.L. & Whitsel, B.C. (Eds.). Terrorism: Research, readings, and realities. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.Google Scholar

Ellis, B. (2005). Countering complexity: An analytical framework to guide counter-terrorism policy-making. In Bradey, T.J. (Ed.). Annual editions: Violence and terrorism (8th Ed.). Dubuque, Iowa: McGraw-Hill/Duskin.Google Scholar

,FBI. (2005). http://www.fbi.gov.

Freilich, Joshua D. (2003). American militia: State-level variations in militia activities. New York: LFB Scholarly LLC.Google Scholar

Friedlander, R.A. (1981). Terrorism and the law: What price safety?Gaithersburg, MD: IACP.Google Scholar

George, J. & Wilcox, L. (1992). Nazis, communists, klansmen, and others on the fringe. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus.Google Scholar

Gregor, A.J. (1983). Fascism's philosophy of violence and the concept of terror. In Rapoport, D.C. & Alexander, Y. (Eds.). The Morality of Terrorism: Religious and Secular Justifications. NY: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar

Hacker, F.J. (1978). Crusaders, criminals, crazies: Terror and terrorism in our time. NY: Bantam.Google Scholar

Hewitt, C. (2003). Understanding terrorism in America: From the Klan to Al Qaeda. NY: Routledge.CrossRef Google Scholar

Hoffman, B. (2004). Rethinking terrorism and counterterrorism since 9/11. In Martin, G. (Ed.). The new era of terrorism: Selected readings. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar

Howard, R.D. & Sawyer, R.L. (2003). Terrorism and counterterrorism: Understanding the new security environment. Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Duskin.Google Scholar

Jenkins, B.M. (1975). International terrorism: A new mode of conflict. Los Angeles: Cresent.Google Scholar

Krieger, D.M. (1977). What happens if? Terrorists, revolutionaries and nuclear weapons. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, 430, 44–57.CrossRef Google Scholar

Laqueur, W. (1977). Terrorism. Boston, MA: Little Brown.Google Scholar

Laqueur, W. (1987). The age of terrorism. Boston, MA: Little Brown.Google Scholar

Laqueur, W. (1999). The new terrorism: Fanaticism and the arms of mass destruction. NY: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar

Lodge, J. (1981). Terrorism: A challenge to the state. Oxford: Martin Robertson.Google Scholar

Martin, G. (2003). Understanding terrorism: Challenges, perspectives, and issues. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar

May, W.F. (1974). Terrorism as strategy and ecstasy. Social Research, 41, Spring, 277–298.Google Scholar

Mullins, W.C. (1997). A sourcebook on domestic and international terrorism: An analysis of issues, organization, tactics, and responses (2nd Ed.). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.Google Scholar

Goals, National Advisory Committee of Criminal Justice Standards and, Task Force on Disorder and Terrorism (BACCJSG, 1976). Disorders and terrorism. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar

Poland, J.M. (2005). Understanding terrorism: Groups, strategies, responses (2nd Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.Google Scholar

Post, J.M., Ruby, K.G., & Shaw, E.D. (2002). The radical group in context: Identification of critical elements in the analysis of risk for terrorism by radical group type. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. 25, 101–126.CrossRef Google Scholar

Reid, T. (2005). The 28,000 victims of terrorism. Times Online: World News, August 17. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0..3–1684077.00.html.

Richardson, V. (2005). FBI targets domestic terrorists. In Bradey, T.J. (Ed.). Annual editions: Violence and terrorism (8th Ed.). Dubuque, Iowa: McGraw-Hill/Duskin.Google Scholar

Ripley, A. (2004). How we got homeland security wrong. Time, March 29, 34–37.Google Scholar

Ross, J. (1993). Research on contemporary oppositional terrorism in the United States. In Tunnell, K. (Ed.). Political crime in contemporary America. NY: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar

Schmid, A.P. (1983). Political terrorism: A research guide to concepts, theories, data bases, and literature. New Brunswick, CT: Transaction Books.Google Scholar

Schmid, A.P. & Graaf, J. (1982). Violence as communication: Insurgent terrorism and the western news media. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar

Schmid, A.P. & Jongman, A.J. (1988). Political terrorism: A new guide to actors, authors, concepts, data bases, theories, and literature. New Brunswick, CT: Transaction Books.Google Scholar

Simonson, & Spindlove, . (2004). Terrorism today: The past, the players, the future (2nd Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.Google Scholar

Smith, B. (1994). Terrorism in America. Albany, NY: State University of New York.Google Scholar

Sobel, L.A. (1975). Political terrorism. NY: Facts on File.Google Scholar

Thornton, T.P. (1964). Terror as a weapon of political agitation. In Echstein, H. (Ed.). Internal war: Problems and approaches. NY: Free Press of Glencoe.Google Scholar

,U.S. Air Force Special Operations School. (1985). Hurlburt Field, FL.

,U.S. Department of State. (2002). Patterns of Global Terrorism. Washington, DC: U.S. Govt. Printing Office.

,U.S. Department of State. (2005). Patterns of Global Terrorism – 2003. http://www.state.gov/s/ct/c14151.htm and http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2003/33771.htm.

Wardlaw, G. (1982). Political terrorism: Theory, tactics, and counter-measures. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Weinzierl, J. (2004). Terrorism: Its origin and history. In Nyatepe-Coo, A.A. & Zeisler-Vralsted, D. (Eds.). Understanding terrorism: Threats in an uncertain world. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.Google Scholar

Whitaker, D.J. (2001). The terrorism reader. NY: Routledge.Google Scholar

White, J.R. (1991). Terrorism: An introduction. Pacific Grove, CA:Brooks-Cole.Google Scholar

White, J.R. (2002). Terrorism: An introduction. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.Google Scholar

White, J.R. (2006). Terrorism and homeland security (5th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.Google Scholar

Wilkinson, P. (1977). Terrorism and the liberal state. NY: Wiley.CrossRef Google Scholar

Wilkinson, P. (2000). Terrorism versus democracy: The liberal state response. NY: Frank Cass.Google Scholar

Book contents

3 - The Etiology of Terrorism

Summary

Access options

References

Save book to Kindle

Save book to Dropbox

Save book to Google Drive