Looking at terrorism through left realist lenses

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

While terrorism has moved into the spotlight of criminological study, including critical criminology, it has yet to be thoroughly explored from a left realist perspective. Left realism addresses four aspects of crime: causes of offending, impact on the victims, and both official and public responses to crime. A left realist approach to terrorism would argue that similar to those who engage in street crimes, many terrorists are socially or economically disenfranchised young men who become involved in terrorism through connections with similarly situated members of the fringe population, and "get tough" policies on terrorism will backfire. Four propositions of left realist theory organized by DeKeseredy and colleagues are presented and addressed through the extant literature, which offers partial support for a left realist explanation of terrorism.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)171-185
Number of pages15
JournalCrime, Law and Social Change
Volume54
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2010

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Pathology and Forensic Medicine
  • General Social Sciences
  • Law

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Looking at terrorism through left realist lenses'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this