Why does terrorism exist

However, no comprehensive review of why some countries experience terrorism more than others, exist. Explanations are varied and disagreements occur. For example, psycho-pathological explanations for terrorism tend to divest terrorism of socio-economic and political motivations.

While researchers agree that one of the characteristics of a terrorist is normality, psycho-pathological factors amongst group leadership can play a significant role. Other theories over the causes of terrorism include:. Terrorism can occur in a variety of manners and instances. Terrorists may be deprived, uneducated, affluent and from both sexes. It can occur in developed and undeveloped countries, in a variety of regimes.

It encompasses ideology and religion. Though what gives rise to terrorism may be different from what perpetuates terrorism over time. One key reason we have reservations about the completeness of earlier data is that there are several incidents we would have expected to have featured in the GTD which are not included.

The other limitation to inferring particular trends in terrorism are changes in methodology and shifting — or unclear — definitions of terrorism over time. Even within the research community there are differences in its scope, and there are often blurry lines between what constitutes terrorism as opposed to other forms of violence such as homicide and civil war.

We discuss the definition of terrorism used by the GTD here and how its methodology differs from other well-known databases here. But an additional question when trying to understand changes, is whether the GTD had a consistent definition and methodology over time. As previously mentioned, the GTD has been maintained by four organizations since With time — and particularly with the shift towards maintenance by an academic organization — the criteria for a terrorist incident improved and refined over time.

Whilst researchers have attempted to retrospectively revise estimates particularly of the period from to based on updated criteria, the authors caution that there will inevitably be issues in data consistency over this period. This inconsistency will, most likely, be expressed in an underestimate of terrorist incidents earlier in the dataset. For this reason, again, we would be cautious about trying to infer changes in the prevalence of terrorism globally and across most regions since In terrorism research, there are multiple databases available which attempt to record and detail terrorist incidents across the world.

Nonetheless, estimates of the number of terrorist incidents and fatalities vary across these databases. Understanding why these differences exist is important for how this data is interpreted, and what we can conclude about the prevalence, causes and consequences of terrorism.

Our understanding of the sources and frequency of terrorism can have a significant impact on many areas of society and policy, including immigration, counterterrorism efforts, and international relations. Why is this the case? In a study published in the Journal of Peace Research , Sandler looked at the differences in methodology, estimates, and conclusions from the various terrorism databases in detail. Domestic terrorist incidents are those where the venue, perpetrators and victims are all from the same country: for example, a terrorist attack committed in the United States by a US citizen against victims from the US.

If an attack involves more than one country — if the venue or victims of the attack are not the same country as the perpetrators — then it is classified as transnational. During this time it included domestic incidents, whilst RAND did not. Since — when RAND also included domestic attacks — their figures have converged.

A very clear example of this is seen if we look at figures in the United Kingdom. Understanding the reasons for variations in the estimates of terrorist deaths may have a substantial impact on research and resource allocation.

The root causes of transnational and domestic terrorism can be very different. The economic impacts — whether in the form of counterterrorism strategies; defence measures; or tourism impacts — can also vary significantly. Beyond differences in the inclusion of domestic and transnational events, some differences in estimates exist. Most databases used in terrorism research are curated and maintained from media reports, whether print or digital media.

Differences in the completeness and choices of media sources can lead to further variation between databases. This is because media sources do not always report, or accurately report terrorist events; this can lead to absent or conflicting estimates. Therefore, even when databases use the same definition of terrorism, the reported number of deaths depend on which media sources the database uses. The data visualisations in this page are generated using the Global Terrorism Database GTD , and so it is important to understand the definition used in their construction.

The GTD database uses the following definition of a terrorist attack:. The threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation. In practice this means in order to consider an incident for inclusion in the GTD, all three of the following attributes must be present:. In addition, at least two of the following three criteria must be present for an incident to be included in the GTD:.

We may therefore now attempt to define terrorism as the deliberate creation and exploitation of fear through violence or the threat of violence in the pursuit of political change.

All terrorist acts involve violence or the threat of violence. Terrorism is specifically designed to have far-reaching psychological effects beyond the immediate victim s or object of the terrorist attack. Terrorism is designed to create power where there is none or to consolidate power where there is very little. Through the publicity generated by their violence, terrorists seek to obtain the leverage, influence, and power they otherwise lack to effect political change on either a local or an international scale.

One important point of departure in many legal definitions of terrorism is computer hacking. The UK the Terrorism Act defines terrorism as:.

The use or threat of action designed to influence the government or an international governmental organisation or to intimidate the public, or a section of the public; made for the purposes of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause; and it involves or causes:. Summary Over the past decade, terrorists killed an average of 21, people worldwide each year. The global death toll from terrorism over the past decade ranged from 8, in to a high of 44, in In , terrorism was responsible for 0.

In most countries terrorism accounts for less than 0. Airline hijackings were once common but are very rare today. Public concern about terrorism is high — in many countries more than half say they are concerned about being a victim. Media coverage of terrorism is often disproportionate to its frequency and share of deaths. All our charts on Terrorism Battle-related deaths in state-based conflicts since Conflict and terrorism deaths IHME, GBD to Conflict deaths per ,, World various sources Death rates from conflict and terrorism Deaths from conflict and terrorism IHME, GBD to Deaths from terrorism GDP per capita vs State fragility Global number of airliner hijackings and fatalities Incidence, fatality and injury from terrorist attacks Incidents of conflict and one-sided violence since Number of deaths from terrorist attacks Number of non-fatal injuries from terrorist attacks Number of terrorist attacks Rate of violent deaths in conflicts and one-sided violence per , since Share of US citizens who say they're less willing to do certain activities because of terrorism Share of people who are worried about terrorism Share who are worried about vs.

GTD Terrorist attacks by region World conflict deaths various sources. What is terrorism? The criteria for terrorism. Distinguishing terrorism from other forms of violence. Based on the criteria above, we can begin to separate terrorism from other types of violence based on some very simplified distinctions: killings perpetrated by non-state actors against civilians, which are not ideological in nature i.

How terrorism and other forms of violence overlap. Terrorism deaths globally. Click to open interactive version. How many people die from terrorism relative to other causes? Which regions experience the most terrorism? Global map of deaths from terrorism. Share of deaths from terrorism by country.

Is terrorism increasing? Has terrorism in Western Europe been increasing? Airline hijackings. Fatalities from hijackings are now very rare. The risk of hijacking in perspective. Public opinion on terrorism. Half of the US population are worried about about being a victim of terrorism.

Do we see these claims when we look at actual patterns of behaviour? In most countries levels of concern are disproportionate to the likelihood of being a victim. Media coverage of terrorism. What we die from; what we Google; what we read in the news. So, what do the results look like? In the chart below I present the comparison.

And the discrepancy between what we actually die from and what we get informed of in the media is what stands out: around one-third of the considered causes of deaths resulted from heart disease, yet this cause of death receives only percent of Google searches and media coverage; just under one-third of the deaths came from cancer; we actually Google cancer a lot 37 percent of searches and it is a popular entry here on our site; but it receives only percent of media coverage; we searched for road incidents more frequently than their share of deaths; however, they receive much less attention in the news; when it comes to deaths from strokes, Google searches and media coverage are surprisingly balanced; the largest discrepancies concern violent forms of death: suicide , homicide and terrorism.

All three receive much more relative attention in Google searches and media coverage than their relative share of deaths. When it comes to the media coverage on causes of death, violent deaths account for more than two-thirds of coverage in the New York Times and The Guardian but account for less than 3 percent of the total deaths in the US.

How over- or underrepresented are deaths in the media? Should media exposure reflect what we die from? How to combat our bias for single events. Additional information Shares of deaths, media coverage and Google searches over time The interactive charts present the full annual data series published by Shen et al. Data Quality. In summary, this is our assessment of what the GTD should and should not be used for: Recent data — particularly over the past decade — is likely to be sufficiently complete to infer the distribution of incidents and fatalities across the world, and how they have changed in recent years; The complete series, dating back to , for North America and Western Europe we expect to be sufficiently complete to infer trends and changes in terrorism over time; GTD data — as its authors acknowledge — undercounts events in the earlier period of the database — the s and s in particular.

We would caution against trying to infer trends in terrorism globally since the s; We would also caution against trying to infer trends in terrorism across most regions — with the exception of North America and Western Europe — in the earlier decades of this dataset.

Completeness of terrorist incidents over time. Definition and methodology of assessing terrorist incidents. The largest difference between the datasets is therefore that: GTD includes both domestic and transnational incidents across its entire dataset from onwards; RAND includes only transnational incidents until ; thereafter it included both domestic and transnational; ITERATE includes only transnational incidents.

The GTD database uses the following definition of a terrorist attack: The threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation. In practice this means in order to consider an incident for inclusion in the GTD, all three of the following attributes must be present: The incident must be intentional — the result of a conscious calculation on the part of a perpetrator.

The incident must entail some level of violence or immediate threat of violence -including property violence, as well as violence against people.

The perpetrators of the incidents must be sub-national actors. Talk through your feelings around terrorism on the ReachOut Forums. If you're finding it really tough to process stuff around terrorism, think about getting some professional help. Explore other topics It's not always easy to find the right place to start. What's on your mind? Related topics Coping Leaving home Work and career.

Al-Qaida and IS are two related groups that justify their violent actions as part of a crusade against nonbelievers. IS wants to establish a Caliphate , or an Islamic-ruled state. How different terrorist groups act is informed by what they are trying to achieve. Some adopt a reactionary perspective aimed at stopping or resisting social, economic and political changes.

Others adopt a revolutionary doctrine and want to provoke change. Despite the intensity of media coverage and public perception, terrorism is actually not more frequent today than a few decades ago. Some experts believe terrorism peaked during the s. Despite the recent attacks, the U. In the United States, terrorism attacks were in sharp decline from to , decreasing from approximately incidents a year to fewer than Terrorist attacks in were mainly concentrated in Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria.