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30 Int'l Crim. Just. Rev. 302 (2020)
Addressing the Myths of Terrorism in America

handle is hein.journals/intcrm30 and id is 296 raw text is: Article International Criminal Justice Review 2020, Vol. 30(3) 302-324 Addr ssi g t e M ths© 2019 Georgia State University Addressing the Myths ' Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions of Terrorism in Am erica DOI: 10.1177/1057567719833139 journals.sagepub.com/home/ic OSAGE Jason R. Silva', Celinet Duran', Joshua D. Freilich', and Steven M. Chermak2 Abstract In the aftermath of 9/1 1, the intersection of sensational media coverage, public fears, and political motivations has contributed to misconceptions about the nature of terrorism and the perpetrators of extremist violence. The current study uses data from the Extremist Crime Database and Global Terrorism Database to address the myths of terrorism in the United States. We examine jihadist- inspired, far-right, and far-left incidents to provide an empirical critique of turn of the century popular discourse that suggests terrorism (I) incidents are increasing, (2) fatalities and injuries are increasing, and is committed by (3) internationally based, (4) jihadist-inspired extremists, (5) of Arab decent, (6) working in organized groups. The results highlight the reality of the terrorism problem finding incidents are decreasing and often involve no deaths or injuries. Additionally, terrorists are more often domestic-based, White, far-right extremists, acting alone. We conclude with a discus- sion of findings and implications for public knowledge and policy responses to terrorism and extremist violence. Keywords terrorism, extremist violence, ideologically motivated crime, discourse, open-source data The terrorist attacks on 9/11 were the most deadly to occur in the United States. The attacks provoked deep concern and led to a series of responses. In its wake, America became inundated with media, public, and political discourse surrounding terrorism and extremist violence. The terrorism discourse developed into one of the most important conversations in the modern era (Jackson, 2007; Nacos, 2016). Public opinion became increasingly focused on the terrorist threat, with the majority of Americans indicating their top safety concern was rooted in targeted terrorist attacks from international actors (Clement & Eilperin, 2015; Freeman, 2016; Martin & Sussman, 2015; Mechanic, 2017; Salvanto, De Pinto, Dutton, & Backus, 2015; Telhami, 2015). Current popular discourse suggests terrorism poses a greater threat than war, invasion, accident, natural disasters, and ' John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY, USA 2Michigan State University, East Lansing, Ml, USA Corresponding Author: Jason R. Silva, Criminal Justice Doctoral Program, Graduate Center, CUNY, 524 West 59th St, New York City, NY 10019, USA. Email: jasilva@jjay.cuny.edu

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