Representation or Retribution? Examining the Relationship Between Perceptions of Government Legitimacy and Support for Political Violence in the United States

• In Event: Criminological Advances in the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence in the United States

Abstract

Objective: This research seeks to help answer the question ‘why are some Americans more supportive of political violence than others?’ Adapting criminological and psychological theories, I compare perceptions of election integrity, confidence in institutions, experiences of economic distress, and political polarization as they explain variation in support for political violence in a representative sample of US adults.

Data and Methods: This study used the United States subset of the World Values Survey (Wave 7), a nationally representative sample of 2,596 citizens 18 or older interviewed in 2017. To capture latent theoretical influence, I conducted factor analyses and estimated OLS and binary logistic regression models on respondent belief in the justifiability of terrorism, and separately political violence.

Results: At the bivariate level, perceptions of election integrity were significantly and negatively associated with both belief in the justifiability of terrorism (r = -0.124) and political violence (r = -0.081). When accounting for all theoretical covariates however, experience of economic distress was robustly and positively associated with a greater belief in the justifiability of both terrorism ( B = 0.410, SD = 0.041) and political violence (B = 0.483, SD = 0.056).

Conclusions: This research provides a valuable demonstration of both an under-utilized dataset in the study of support for political violence, the utility of criminological theory in the explanation of political violence, and a promising point of departure for future work.

Author

• Michael H. Becker, American University