RT Article
T1 The rational foraging terrorist: analysing the distances travelled to commit terrorist violence
JF Terrorism and political violence
VO 31
IS 5
SP 929
OP 942
A1 Gill, Paul
A2 Horgan, John 1974-
A2 Corner, Emily
LA English
YR 2019
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1846133084
AB This paper applies the distance-to-crime approach to the case of Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and shooting attacks conducted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) during the Northern Ireland conflict, 1970–1998. The aim is to (a) measure the typical ‘distance to crime’ (b) detect whether a distance-decay effect is noticeable and (c) investigate whether there is a discernible difference in the distance traveled depending upon individual offender characteristics or aspects of how the offence was committed. In particular, it highlights that many of the same dynamics that influence offender decision making within the volume crime world, also apply within the terrorism realm. Five findings stand out in particular. First, a distance decay effect is identifiable. Second, younger offenders travel significantly smaller distances. Third, complex attacks typically involve greater distances. Fourth, our results show the ability of leading decision-makers within PIRA to impact upon the day-to-day operations of the field operatives. Together the results reinforce the argument that when we focus on terrorism from a preventative angle, we should focus on their behaviors: what they do rather than remain preoccupied with concerns about who they are and/or what they might be like. Collectively the results also highlight the fact that for a finer-grained understanding of terrorist behavior we need to disaggregate on a number of levels: within the cadre of operatives, across terrorist attacks, across targets and within conflicts.
NO Gesehen am 24.05.2023
NO Published online: 22 Mar 2017
K1 provisional IRA
K1 Situational Crime Prevention
K1 distance to crime
K1 offender decision making
K1 crime pattern
DO 10.1080/09546553.2017.1297707