Terrorist Targeting of Schools

• In Event: Terrorism: Motivations, Strategy, and Messaging

Abstract

The research question in this project queries whether there are important social correlates of the number of attacks against educational institutions in a given year for the 152 countries around the world from 1981-2013. We explore the idea that terrorist attacks against educational institutions will be more common in states that demonstrate less respect for human and civil rights, particularly for women. We expect this relationship due to the idea that in states with more respect for the lives of their citizens, there will be less violence towards these innocent targets. This is an important question as attacks against educational targets, civilian students, teachers and schools, shock the conscience and devastate the public.

Authors

• Victor Asal, University at Albany, SUNY

• Susan Fahey, Stockton University