Each year humanity encounters terrifying news about terroristic attacks around the globe, whereas some people become the victims of one. One of the terroristic acts that shifted the world order occurred on September 11th, 2001, when every human felt fear, anxiety, repugnancy, and uncertainty that still dominates the society. Since the emergence of that devastating act on TV screens, people started a long-term discussion concerning terrorism. It may be asserted that it has become a part of life as the media inundate every waking moment with the details of terrorist deeds from all corners of the globe (Combs, 2017). Alongside terrorism, there are other numerous forms of violence the humanity faces every day. The purpose of this paper is to define terrorism and identify the crucial features that distinguish terrorism from different types of abuse.
The definitions of terrorism are controversial and complicated; thus, there is no universal one. However, viewing the phenomenon from different perspectives can formulate a more or less common idea. Terrorism represents politically motivated violence committed by groups, individuals, or sometimes state-sponsored agents aimed at instilling the sense of terror in a population to change the behavior (Carriere et al., 2018). According to Carriere et al. (2018), “terrorism is so unexpected, so sudden, and so damaging that it increases our fears, magnifies our distrust, and forces us to face our own mortality” (p. 15). This term has a connotation of something that is “morally perverse”. There are five types of terrorism:
- State-sponsored terrorism, which implies terroristic acts on a state by another state;
- Criminal terrorism, which facilitates crime raids;
- Dissent terrorism that represents a group of rebels protesting their government;
- Religious terrorism, which consists of religion-motivated individuals;
- Terrorism and the Left and Right, which include politically rooted groups (Combs, 2017).
The relationship between terrorism and violence is compound, as different types of abuse may contribute to terrorism or vice versa. Even though terrorism is defined as a form of violence, some specific features distinguish one from another. First of all, abuse, in a broad sense, implies the implementation of usually physical force to injure, damage, or destroy (Carriere et al., 2018). The crucial issue is that differentiating terrorism from other forms of ferocity is complicated. It can be compared with state armed conflict, hate crime, homicide, or one-sided violence. All these forms have peculiar traits, and, logically, terrorism is somehow different from these forms.
Thus, several criteria differentiate a mere act of violence from an act of terrorism. First and foremost, an action must threaten violence or be violent to be considered terroristic. In this case, political dissent or activism will not be viewed as terrorism. Another criterion presupposes that a terroristic deed should have social, political, religious, or economic objectives (Combs, 2017). For instance, the notorious terroristic organization the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) proclaimed its political aim to establish a caliphate on its territory. Besides, the extremists perpetrated the attacks holding sociopolitical motives behind them.
Unlike such actions, acts devoid of religious, economic, political, or social incentives are considered mere ‘violent crimes.’ Moreover, to be classified as a terroristic act, an action should obtain a long-term psychological repercussion that goes far beyond a victim or a target (Ritchie et al., 2020). In other words, the deed must create a feeling of terror with its ferocity, lack of discrimination, and neglect of the warfare rules. Normally, terrorism’s main target is represented by civilians as they represent the most vulnerable group in comparison with the politicians, the heads of the states, etc.
What is more, terrorism is usually a group activity, so it can be conducted by an organization with an unequivocal set of commands, or by a conspiratorial structure (whose members may hide among ordinary people). Some other terrorist acts are committed by individuals, typically known as ‘lone-wolf’ attacks, or a small group of them who pursue the aims of some existent terroristic movements (Ritchie et al., 2020). Finally, such acts are committed by subnational or non-state entities and should not be confused with governmental armed actions, which are viewed as a different form of violence.
Based on the previously mentioned criteria, it is possible to differentiate terrorism from other forms of violence. For instance, killings devoid of ideological nature, committed by a non-state subject are considered homicides (Ritchie et al., 2020). Violence based on sexuality, gender, or religion and perpetrated by non-state actors is a hate crime. Moreover, the governmental armed actions towards civilians are thought to be one-sided conflicts. A non-state conflict where none of the parties is the government of a state must not be interpreted as a terrorist act. Eventually, if one of the parties in the opposing combat is the government of a nation, it is a state-based armed conflict.
Given the abovementioned points, it is necessary to state that even though terrorism represents an act of violence and may comprise different forms of it, it has distinctive features. Usually, it is a non-state politically, religiously, socially, or economically motivated group created to instill fear and cause destruction and deaths with the aim to alter the decision-making process or behavior. Therefore, the specific features of terrorism must be identified accurately to avoid misinterpretation.
References
Carriere, K. R., Garney, G., & Moghaddam, F. M. (2018). Terrorism as a form of violence. In A. T. Vazsonyi, D. Flannery, & M. DeLisi (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of violent behavior and aggression, (2nd ed., pp. 626-644). Cambridge University Press.
Combs, C. (2017). Terrorism in the twenty first century (8th ed.). Routledge.
Ritchie, H., Hasell, J., Appel, C., & Roser, M. (2019). Terrorism. Our World in Data. Web.