Terrorism Data Bases - A Comparison of Missions, Methods, and Systems

• NCJ Number: 88709
• Author(s): W W Fowler
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 48 pages
• Corporate Author: Rand Corporation
• Sale Source: Rand Corporation; National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This review of eight terrorism data bases considers (1) the relationship between the use of terrorism data and the design of the data bases, (2) the scope and content of the data bases, (3) the structure of terrorism data, and (4) the systems used for retrieval and analysis of the data.

Abstract

The data bases reviewed are those sponsored or compiled by the Rand Corporation; Edward Mickolus; the Central Intelligence Agency; the Department of State; the Defense Intelligence Agency; Risks International, Inc.; the University of Southern California; and Thomas Snitch of American University. Terrorism data bases are primarily used in basic research on the underlying patterns and causes of terrorism, in making intelligence estimates of the probabilities of future terrorist activities, and in responding to specific queries about terrorist activities. While each of the data bases reviewed can be used for all of these applications, they are classified according to their primary mission. The major problems in the collection of terrorism data are the definition of terrorism itself and the determination of the scope and content of the data. Most of the data bases have implicit conceptual definitions of terrorism which were developed to meet the needs of particular missions or application domains. These definitions determine the scope and content of the data bases. Most data collection centers on the chronologies of terrorist events. Various data bases include ancillary files in which locations, groups, and individuals are used as the units of analysis. The data bases are implemented on a wide variety of access and analysis systems, from manual to sophisticated data base management systems. Most users report a relatively high degree of satisfaction. The greatest potential weakness of current data-collection efforts is the development of chronologies to the exclusion of other types of data bases and the lack of rigor in incident sampling. The appendix contains descriptions of individual data bases. Sixteen bibliographic entries are provided. (Author summary modified)