Terrorism, Crime, and Public Policy

Terrorism, Crime, and Public Policy describes the problem of terrorism; compares it to other forms of aggression, particularly crime and war; and discusses policy options for dealing with the terrorism. It focuses on the causes of terrorism with the aim of understanding its roots and providing insights toward policies that will serve to prevent it. The book serves as a single-source reference on terrorism and as a platform for more in-depth study, with a set of discussion questions at the end of each chapter. Individual chapters focus on the nature of terrorism, theories of aggression and terrorism, the history of terrorism, the role of religion, non-religious extremism and terrorism, the role of technology, terrorism throughout the modern world, responses to terrorism, fear of terrorism, short-term approaches and long-term strategies for preventing terrorism, balancing security and rights to liberty and privacy, and pathways to a safer and saner 21st century.

“This is a very useful book. Anyone who plans to study terrorism will wish to have this excellent overview – and list of sources – on their desk." – Amitai Etzioni, author of Security First: For a Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy and Professor of International Relations at The George Washington University, “Finally, a well-researched, objective analysis based in integrity . . . by a leading American scholar of the larger issues and dilemmas engendered by the events of September 2001. Brian Forst is a beacon of moral clarity in a dark world.” – Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University, “Brian Forst has written a carefully reasoned text on terrorism in its many historical and contemporary manifestations. His discussion of rational short- and long-term responses to terrorism is masterful. He shows the relevance of criminology to the problem of terrorism and the fear it engenders, while insisting that terrorism differs in important respects from conventional crime. I strongly recommend this book to instructors in courses on terrorism and its control and to anyone interested in why terrorism has become a major contemporary problem and how to manage it.” – Richard Rosenfeld, Curators Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri-St. Louis, “Terrorism, Crime, and Public Policy provides students, researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers with the single most authoritative treatment of the literature and issues surrounding the study of terrorism. Its inter- and multi-disciplinary survey of the knowledge base on the nature and sources of terrorism and the interventions that can serve to remove its causes and decrease its incidence is an exemplar of how the fields of criminology, criminal justice, and law and society cannot be – and should never be – considered in isolation. Combined with the accumulated knowledge from psychology, history, sociology, political science, and other fields, Professor Forst has struck the ideal balance between universality and relevance in discussing the critical issue of public policy. All of us will learn more about terrorism than when we first opened the book, and all of us will walk away coming up with many more research questions, which is the goal of education and scholarship.” – Professor Alex R. Piquero, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland College Park, “The 20th century’s rhetorical ‘war on crime’ has in important ways yielded to a 21st-century rhetorical ‘war on terrorism.’ With a jeweler’s eye, in Terrorism, Crime, and Public Policy Brian Forst combines a rationale and method for understanding and developing public policy to address terrorism, based in part on the advantages of improved criminological thought. That thought requires a deep and sophisticated understanding of the multiple contexts, symbols, and meanings of terrorism; a clear explication of the differences among a wide range of acts that constitute ‘terrorism’ (all terrorism, like all crime, is not the same); and the specification of both short- and long-term interventions that address proximate and root cause. Like crime, terrorism has many root and proximate causes, meanings and interpretations, and implications and consequences. And, like crime, approaches to effectively and lawfully addressing terrorism and its consequences are most likely derived from probing and thoughtful analysis, rather than knee-jerk or fear-inspiring policies that intentionally or unintentionally mask terrorism and its dynamics. Terrorism, Crime, and Public Policy is a very well-reasoned assessment of the many strands of thought that comprise our understanding of terrorism, its genesis, and possible ways to ameliorate its effects. Brian Forst has done us all service in artfully linking history, religion, politics, and philosophy to the range of public policy choices the world faces in dealing with terrorism, drawing from his deep understanding of crime and public policy.” – Jack R. Greene, Professor, College of Criminal Justice, Northeastern University, Boston

Brian Forst joined the American University faculty after twenty years in nonprofit research, including positions as research director at the Institute for Law and Social Research and the Police Foundation. He is author most recently of After Terror (with Akbar Ahmed, 2005), Errors of Justice: Nature, Sources, and Remedies (Cambridge University Press, 2004), and The Privatization of Policing: Two Views (with Peter Manning, 1999). He is a member of the American University Senate and chairs the Department of Justice, Law, and Society's doctoral program. He is also a voting member of the Sentencing Commission for the District of Columbia.