Victims of Terrorism

"Based on fieldwork in several countries, this book examines the politicisation of victims of terrorism and creates a picture of the needs of victims and the reality of the victimisation experience.Victims of terrorism are a unique group of individuals whose experience, while being exceptional in so many regards, is relegated to insignificance in the literature on terrorism. The theoretical approaches to terrorism recognise categories of victims of terrorism (primary, secondary and tertiary) and relate these victims to the notion of audience. This framework considers that the primary victims are in fact incidental to the act of terrorism as opposed to the 'audience' who is the true intended recipient of the communicative act. The positioning victims of terrorism in such a framework has contributed to their neglect in the study of terrorism. While this traditional approach may have been relevant when the incidence of terrorism remained of little significance globally, the same cannot be said of this group in recent years. After 9/11, many European countries (as well as the USA) took active steps to protect and provide for the victims of terrorism, particularly given the nature of vi