The Effect of Confidence in the Government on Worrying about Terrorism

• In Event: Fear, Myths, Perceptions, and Exposure to Terrorism and Political Violence

Abstract

There have recently been numerous studies about terrorism incidents, less attention, however, has been given to worrying about or fear of terrorism.

By using the wave 6 data of the World Value Survey including approximately 71,000 respondents in almost 100 countries, this study investigated both citizen and country level factors of worrying about terrorism. Based on the community control model of the fear of crime thesis, special attention has been given to the confidence in the government as a factor of worrying about terrorism. Other factors of fear of crime models (e.g., perceptions of physical disorder, crime victimization) were also applied. In addition to these citizen-level variables, country-level variables were also considered in the hierarchical modeling procedure of the analysis. Suggestions for policies and future research will be discussed based on the findings.

Authors

• YooJung Cha, Kyonggi University

• EuiGab Hwang, Kyonggi University, South Korea

• Jungyun Cho, Kyonggi University