NCJ Number
79926
Date Published
1980
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Broad trends in terrorism during the 1970's are reviewed, and terrorism's likely developments in the 1980's are considered, with particular attention to the United States.
Abstract
Terrorism can be defined as the use of actual or threatened violence to create fear and alarm. Terrorism is defined by the nature of the act, not by the identity of the perpetrators or the nature of their cause. The use of terrorist tactics has increased during the last 12 years, as has its lethality. This suggests that terrorists are more willing to kill and perhaps also to risk being killed. For the most part, terrorists have so far avoided killing large numbers of people. This suggests self-imposed moral or political constraints. Those terrorists faithful to political goals fear creating revulsion for their cause by so attacking the masses that broad support for their movement is rendered impossible. Terrorists appear to be at a critical juncture, however, since the tactics of the 1970's have failed to yield any significant progress toward the stated political goals of any terrorist group. This may erode self-imposed constraints within terrorist groups against large-scale indiscriminate violence. Further, groups without political goals who wish to extort huge sums of money through threats of mass murder or widespread destruction may increase. In sum, there are no indications that terrorism will decrease in the 1980's, and there is a good possibility that terrorist violence will escalate to new levels. In the United States, the climate for political and socioeconomic disaffection appears conducive to the creation of pockets of people who could resort to political violence. Some of these conditions are described. Major trends in security by governments and the private sector are also indicated.