Public database
Category
Thematic notes
Domain tags
Location tags
Topic tags
English (2019:9-10): Identifies 8 problems with defining terrorism:
- there are too many, often conflicting, definitions
- is terror really more central to this type of violence than others?
- Can it be perpetrated by state actors?
- it can be inherently difficult to classify violence according to its targets
- it can be difficult to determine that some acts are inherently terroristic
- terrorism overlaps with other forms of political violence
- terrorism in different time periods may not be directly comparable
- it has pejorative connotations
English (2019:11): On the problem of classifying something as terrorism because of the targets involved, argues "it would seem macabre and strange to suggest that some of those killed by a bomb were victims of terrorism while others killed by the same bomb were not."