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Terror and the Legitimation of Violence: A Cross-National Analysis on the Relationship between Terrorism and Homicide Rates

ABSTRACT This study investigates the relationship between terrorism and interpersonal violence by conducting cross-national analyses on the effects of terrorism mortality rates on homicide rates. Results show that terrorism appears to be robustly and positively associated with homicide. This finding is based on the calculation of a series of independently pooled and twoways fixed-effects models on a panel that incorporates more than 165 countries over 24 years (1991–2014). The results lend tentative support to the so-called “legitimation-habituation” hypothesis that was formulated in regard to the effects of security-related stress on homicide rates in Israel more than 30 years ago. The topic has been largely neglected ever since. While confirming a positive relationship between terrorism and homicide, this study concludes that a causal influence of terrorism on homicide rates is conceivable, but cannot conclusively be proven within the confines of the research design. Future research on potential mediators of the supposed effect is needed, and data limitations need to be overcome.