Terrorism and Terrorists: A Definitional Perspective (From Domestic Terrorism and Incident Management: Issues and Tactics, P 5-34, 2001, Miki Vohryzek-Bolden, Gayle Olson-Raymer, et al., -- See NCJ-193133)

• NCJ Number: 193134
• Author(s): Miki Vohryzek-Bolden; Gayle Olson-Raymer; Jeffrey O. Whamond
• Date Published: 2001
• Length: 30 pages
• Sale Source: Charles C. Thomas
• Publication Format: Book Chapter
• Publication Type: Research Paper
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The objective of this chapter is to provide a definitional framework of terrorism and terrorists. It includes a number of topics: a definition of terrorism; terrorism from above and terrorism from below; characteristics of terrorists and the tools of terrorists.

Abstract

Terrorism is most aptly defined as an action that terrorizes a target population on behalf of a political goal. This violence is motivated by political, social, economic, religious, or ideological grievances that may be emotionally driven by fear, hate, and intolerance; and this action has the anticipated or unanticipated consequence of causing terror and is not stopped once such terror is discovered. Terrorism is explained within two broad typologies: terrorism from above and terrorism from below. Terrorism from above involves the overt and covert use of political violence conducted from a position of established authority in order to maintain and defend positions of power against actual or perceived enemies of the state. Terrorism from below involves the use of political violence by people who wish to challenge or overthrow official state power. There is no typical profile of the contemporary terrorist, but researchers have identified a series of general characteristics. Terrorists tend to be male and young, as well as less politically and technologically sophisticated than their predecessors in the 1960's and 1970's. These contemporary terrorists are mainly from the lower to middle classes. They are attracted to terrorism because they believe violence presents a viable option to poverty. In general, the tools of terrorists from both above and below have remained the same throughout history. It was not until the late twentieth century that the tools started to change. These changes were modifications of the old tools and as a consequence were not revolutionary. Instead, they involved evolutionary improvements that were directly related to the growth of modern communications, transportation, and weaponry technology. References