Modelling Terrorist Behavior: Developing Investigative Decision Making through the Analysis of Empirical Databases.

Abstract

The broad aim of the project bas been to understand the nature of behavior during terrorist hostage taking events. This has been approached through the establishment of databases on kidnapping, barricade-siege, and aerial hijacking. Following the creation of the databases, the range and types of actions exhibited have been analyzed through the use of multi-dimensional scaling techniques. The findings of the project to date indicate very clearly that there is a consistent structure to the way in which terrorist hostage taking events are carried out, with consistent core actions defining the fundamental nature of an approach and a number of subsets of actions indicating differing types of strategy. Such information can be very useful to decision makers and negotiators, in addition to the information already available to them, in making the most effective decisions as rapidly as possible.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1996
Accession Number
ADA313509

Entities

People

  • Alaster Smith
  • David Canter
  • Margaret Wilson

Organizations

  • University of Liverpool

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical
  • Cyber
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Applied Psychology
  • Behavioral Sciences
  • Crime
  • Criminal Investigations
  • Criminals
  • Criminology
  • Databases
  • Explosives
  • Law
  • Personnel Management
  • Police
  • Psychology
  • Public Policy
  • Social Psychology
  • Social Sciences
  • Societies
  • Terrorists

Readers

  • International Relations and Conflict Resolution
  • Systems Analysis and Design
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.