TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2009//
TI  - The Softest of Targets: A Study on Terrorist Target Selection
JO  - Journal of applied security research
A1  - Asal, Victor H.
A1  - Rethemeyer, R. Karl
A1  - Anderson, Irina
A1  - Stein, Alfred
A1  - Rizzo, Jeffrey
A1  - Rozea, Matthew
SP  - 258
EP  - 258
VL  - 4
IS  - 3
N2  - What factors may lead a terrorist organization to attack undefended and unaware civilians—or as we style them, “soft targets”? We examine two distinct processes in choosing to attack soft targets: the one-time decision to begin attacking soft targets and the continued use of violence against such targets. Our analysis points to ideology—specifically religion—as the decisive factor in turning to target civilians, while organizational factors such as group size and network centrality are related to the number of incidents perpetrated.    Keywords: Terrorism; targeting; social networks; ideology; quantitative modeling<p />
LA  - 
SN  - 1936-1610
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19361610902929990
ID  - ref1
ER  -