Abstract
Terrorist acts have become an integral part of modern life. Terror (lat. terror – fear, horror) is aimed at “intimidation.” It is this circumstance that defines terror as a special form of political violence, characterized by cruelty, purposefulness, and apparent effectiveness. Terror is horror, that is, an emotional state, the emergence of which terrorists achieve by carrying out certain special actions: terrorist acts. An act of terrorism is a means that brings real or potential victims to a state of horror. The totality of links terrorist-terrorist act-terror constitutes terrorism as an integral phenomenon. Terrorism is the use of violence to intimidate people. This violence is carried out in various forms: it is physical, political, social, economic, informational, etc. violence. Taking into account the degree of mass character and the degree of organization, four types of violence are distinguished: mass organized and mass spontaneous and individual spontaneous and individual organized. Each of them has its own specifics and features.
TopIntroduction - The Concept Of “Victim Of Terrorism”
A terrorist act is a special kind of emergency event, and its main goal is to spread a feeling of horror and fear among the population. The loss of security in the mass consciousness becomes chronic and leads to a violation of mental and physical health. The characteristic features of a terrorist act include suddenness (carrying a life threat that breaks all the basic values of a person, Which leads to the disorientation of a person in the psychological and social space) and the violent nature of the event. The psychological consequences of terrorism include a negative impact on the psycho-emotional health of a person. A victim of a terrorist act is a person (or a group of persons) who has directly suffered an infringement on his fundamental rights by another person (or a group of persons) acting consciously (UN, 2022). Victims of terrorism tend to consistently experience the following feelings: fear, which develops into horror, causing apathy, or panic, which can turn into aggression. There is also an opinion about the existence of differences in the behavior of the victim depending on gender, education level, intellectual abilities, and the level of human well-being. One of the main consequences of a terrorist act is the psychopathological symptoms of its victims and witnesses. The meaning of psychic trauma is that people who have experienced a stressful event may find after a while that they cannot live and interact in society, coping with the life problems that arise as before. Post-traumatic stress affects both the victims themselves and the “spectators” who witnessed the traumatic event or learned about it through the media. Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are among the most serious psychiatric disorders from exposure to psychic trauma. Such diseases seriously impair the quality of life of people and can cause a person's permanent mental inability to function normally.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Victims of Terrorism: Most victims of terrorism are innocent citizens who find themselves at the wrong place and at the wrong time, randomly targeted in brutal attacks. The lives of survivors of attacks, and those of victims’ families, are irreparably damaged. Many survivors take years to recover physically from their injuries or come to terms with their losses, and many remain deeply traumatized. While states take terrorism very seriously as a security threat, they do not necessarily always ensure adequate support to victims and their families. Victims of terrorism and their families need focused and dedicated mechanisms to ensure that their rights as individuals are upheld and protected.
Terrorism: Is the calculated use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby bring about a particular political objective. Terrorism has been practiced by political organizations with both rightist and leftist objectives, by nationalistic and religious groups, by revolutionaries, and even by state institutions such as armies, intelligence services, and police.