Terrorism and Resilience
Terrorism and Resilience
Introduction
Terrorism constitutes the systematic use or threat of unpredictable individual attributes such as violence and easily aroused temperament by organized terror groups that aim at achieving certain political objectives. On the other hand, resiliency is the ability to cope or adapt well to instances of adversity, tragedy, trauma and threats such as those posed by terrorism. Research in resiliency dates back to half a century, but there has been little research in terrorism as phenomenon as well as issues relating to resiliency in times of terror attacks.
Research in terrorism has been limited, and as a result most of the available literary work that can be used as literature review material is not research or evidence based. Thus, there is no provided basis upon which to base a research study along the line of terrorism and resiliency as well. A large number (about 80%) of published articles on terrorism are not based on any data, and neither are they empirical (Borum, 2004).Those that happen to have any inferential analysis mostly use information obtained from media sources. Numerous available researches are incidental and as such they do not have an in-depth analysis of terror groups, terrorist ideologies, structure, motivations and decision making processes. The fact that researchers cannot gain inside access to terror groups makes it even more difficult to study and research about terrorism and resiliency (Borum, 2004).
Resiliency is greatly affected by factors such as poverty, racism, ethno cultural allodynia (exposing individuals repetitively to racial discrimination) and historical trauma from past injustices (APA Task Force on Resilience in Response to Terrorism, n.d). People exposed to these conditions usually have lower resiliency when it comes to coping with incidences of terror attacks. A lack of focus on the affected and understanding of how terror attacks affect various more vulnerable groups impedes the study of resiliency in research about terrorism. Researches on terrorism greatly focus on terrorists and terror incidences rather than how terror threats and attacks impact the victims. This is the greatest reason behind the lack of knowledge on resiliency related issues in terrorism studies.
References
APA Task Force on Resilience in Response to Terrorism, (n.d). Fostering Resilience in Response to Terrorism: For psychologists working with people of color. Retrieved from http://www.deep.med.miami.edu/media/FstRsilRspTerColorAPA.pdf, on 25thAugust, 2010.
Borum, R. (2004). Psychology of Terrorism. Tampa: University of Florida. Retrieved from http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/208552.PDF, on 25th August, 2010.
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