Deterring Involvement in Terrorism

Abstract

The deterrence mechanism is based on increasing the costs of terrorism or other crimes by (threat of) punishment, retaliation or other social sanctions, aiming at reducing the motivation to carry out such acts. Measures are generally repressive, such as imprisonment, violent force and other sanctions. The police, criminal justice system and military forces are main actors. However, diplomatic and economic sanctions have also been used against states sponsoring terrorists. Deterrence has generally been more effective against such states than against highly motivated terrorists, whose decision making is often based on different rationalities. The use of military reprisals after terrorist attacks has frequently been justified as means of deterrence but the side effects are grave and have often turned out to be counter-productive, reinforcing a spiral of violence.