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11

Understanding Our Fears

Crime is a broad term that can refer to a huge range of different illegal activities, including stealing cars, selling drugs, cheating on taxes, and many other things. When people talk about a “fear of crime,” their biggest fears tend to involve a person (or people) causing physical pain, such as murder, kidnapping, and assault . (There is one interesting exception to this trend, however; see “Computer Fears” on page 13.) Terrorism is a specific type of crime that causes people huge amounts of anxiety. In fact, fear is actually built into the name: the point of terrorism is to cause terror. And it works. According to surveys, terrorist attacks are one of the things Americans fear most. Most crimes are motivated by the desires of the criminal. For example, someone wants money, and so he steals. Someone else wants revenge, and so she hurts another person. Terrorism is different. Terrorists are not trying to get rich, and they have no grudge against a specific person. Instead, their victims are usually chosen at random. The goal is simply to terrify an entire population. Terrorists use political arguments to justify their actions. For example, terrorists on both sides of a conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland murdered innocent civilians for generations. Both groups said their actions were justified because their “side” was being mistreated by the other “side.” Likewise, groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS argue that bombings and mass shootings

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why our perceptions of crime don’t match reality.