Title: Terrorism Definition - Criminal Justice - IresearchNet
Headings: Terrorism Definition
Terrorism Definition
Content: The literature identifies state sponsors of terrorism to include, but not limited to, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and North Korea. Hoffman (1998, 25) contends that ”such usages are generally termed ‘terror’ in order to distinguish that phenomenon from ‘terrorism,’ which is understood to be violence committed by non-state entities.” Mark Burgess (2004) argues that ”such a state-centric reading is Western in outlook, and would probably be questioned by those non-state actors who regard themselves as politically disenfranchised.” The term ”terrorism” may bestow illegitimacy on individuals or groups acting for a cause; it can also confer legitimacy on the governments combating it and their methods. It should be acknowledged that culture, ethnicity, and religious upbringing may engender either sympathy or disapproval for a cause, for a regime, or for counter-terrorism methods and strategies. The individual’s perception can therefore lead to inconsistency in deciding what is and is not terrorism, epitomized in the oft used phrase ”One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” As a consequence of such reasoning, what might be viewed as terrorism by the Western democratic states may be regarded as legitimate protest when it happens in states found in less politically stable regions of the world and that do not embrace the philosophy of a liberal Western democracy. Hoffman (1998, 42-43) argues that a debatable assertion is that ”to qualify as terrorism, violence must be perpetrated by some organizational entity with at least some conspiratorial structure and identifiable chain of command beyond a single individual acting on his or her own.” That being so, then arguably an individual, if politically motivated and using the methods of terrorists, should also be called a terrorist.