Citation

Romyn DJ, Kebbell MR. Psychol. Crime Law 2018; 24(6): 589-602.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/1068316X.2017.1396332

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In this study we sought to identify which locations appear more, or less, attractive to a terrorist in planning an attack and to investigate what attributes of those locations influence preferences. A sample of undergraduate university students (N = 147) were given the role of terrorists, and provided with five potential attack locations, including a pedestrian mall, a shopping center, a train station, a university and an airport. After using the Internet to learn about the target locations, participants placed the locations in rank-order from most to least preferred as targets and indicated why they had selected those targets.

RESULTS showed both a clear rank-order of target preferences: locations perceived as being more crowded were more preferred, while locations with a greater security presence were less preferred.

RESULTS also demonstrated a moderate positive correlation between the amount of online information viewed for a specific location and the preference for that location as a terrorist target, where participants who viewed more online content for a particular location were more likely to also prefer that location as a terrorist target.

FINDINGS from this study can potentially be used to reduce the likelihood of a terrorist attack occurring on specific locations, by altering the publicly available information on that location regarding the security and how crowded that location is.

Language: en

Keywords

internet; red-team; risk assessment; target selection; Terrorism