Counterterrorism Evaluation and Citizens: More Than about Policing?

Pierre Philippe Balestrini
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Pierre Philippe Balestrini: Jiaxing Honesty Electron Co., Ltd., 38070 ST Quentin Fallavier, France

Social Sciences, 2021, vol. 10, issue 8, 1-18

Abstract: The police force is one of the few institutions still trusted by the public today. Yet, whilst the recent waves of terrorism have “stimulated” academic activity on the determinants of public fear of terrorism, much less academic effort has been focused on measuring and assessing the effectiveness of anti-terrorism strategies. The present article makes some contributions towards addressing this gap by investigating what shapes public attitudes towards the effectiveness of terrorism policing. Using Eurobarometer data, our results demonstrate that objective national economic, societal and political indicators do not tend to influence popular opinion on the effectiveness of the police in dealing with terrorism. They also show that individuals’ perceptions about the national socio-economic situation are better predictors of public opinion on terrorism policing than individuals’ financial and social positions or levels of education. The influence of these perceptions on public attitudes towards the effectiveness of counterterrorism seems to be more potent than the one on public fear of terrorism found in the extant literature. The implications of these findings are then considered.

Keywords: policing; public opinion; terrorism; citizens’ social positions; socio-economic perceptions; socio-economic aggregates (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:10:y:2021:i:8:p:298-:d:609587

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