Badi Hasisi

The Impacts of Policing Terrorism on Society: Lessons from Israel and the US

The phenomenon of terror became widespread in the last decade, especially after 9-11 events and the attacks in Madred and London, emphasizing the severity of this threat to the western society and the challenge they bring on police-community relations. This chapter tries to address three major questions: first, what kinds of methods do the police use in order to reinforce public feelings of security, safety and legitimacy; second, to what extent do the public and the police work together to co-produce justice and address terrorism; and third, what are the public’s priorities in relation to the policing of terrorism?

Rational Choice Rewards and the Jihadist Suicide Bomber

Suicide terrorism is the most violent and horrifying form of terrorism in the world today. This kind of terrorism causes many fatalities and can throw an entire nation into a state of panic. We usually attribute this kind of terrorism to altruistic motivation, assuming that bombers are willing to sacrifice themselves for a higher cause. The current study uses the criminological theory of Rational Choice to analyze the motivation of jihadist suicide terrorism. By reviewing the religious, personal, and social incentives, we demonstrate that even those who kill themselves in suicide attacks, which are seemingly examples of irrational or altruistic behavior, do so while considering future, self-gratifying benefits. Since this self-destructive behavior is mostly driven not by altruistic motivation but by the anticipation of costs and benefits, we find that there is no fundamental difference between the perpetrators’ motivations and those of other criminals; both groups are committed to maximizing self-gratifying, beneficial behavior.

Does ethnic composition make a difference? Citizens’ assessments of Arab police officers in Israel

Remarkably little research has been conducted on policing in Israel. This is a major omission in the scholarly literature, given the security situation in the country and the role of policing in the control of the minority, Arab population. One specific deficiency in the literature is the limited research on police officers who come from minority ethnic groups – in Israel and elsewhere. According to the conventional wisdom and official policies in many multiethnic societies, ethnic diversification of a police force should improve police relations with minority populations – either because it will improve the overall treatment of the minority or because of its symbolic value. Yet this assumption has rarely been tested empirically. This article addresses this issue by examining survey data on citizens’ attitudes towards Arab police officers in Israel.

Policing Terrorism in Israel

This article challenges the approach that supports the efficiency of the war model in combating terrorism and shows, by drawing on empirical support, the advantages of using the criminal justice model not only because of its response to the legal—moral issue but also because of its effectiveness. A conceptualization of the term policing terrorism is presented through a general model that defines the role of the police in combating terrorism within a democracy. By analyzing how this model is implemented in Israel, the article illustrates that police forces are preferable to military ones in three main realms: counterterrorism intelligence, thwarting of terrorist attacks, and restoration of civilian infrastructure after a terrorist attack.

Policing terrorism and police–community relations: views of the Arab minority in Israel

Police involvement in counterterrorism has special ramifications on minority groups that may be viewed as presenting high risk to homeland security. Our public survey shows that the Jewish respondents in our sample expressed positive attitudes toward police involvement in mission of counterterrorism, while Israeli Arabs expressed more concern with the ramifications of police involvement in counterterrorism on its relations with the Arabs in particular. The results show that both communities recognized the central role that the police may play in dealing with terrorism, and they both expressed high levels of willingness to cooperate with the police to fight against terrorism.

Who is the lone terrorist? A study of Vehicle-Borne attackers in Israel and the West Bank

ABSTRACT Lone actor terrorism has become a significant challenge for Western democracies. Previous studies have failed to point out a comprehensive profile of lone terrorists, and suggested that examining more specific sub-groups of lone actors, sharing contextual factors or ideology, may produce such a profile. The current study examines the sub-group of vehicle-borne lone terrorists, who committed their attacks in Israel and the West Bank between January 2000 and March 2016. Based on confidential and open-source data, we find that general sociodemographic characteristics did not produce a unique profile of attackers. However, a deeper examination of behavioral factors preceding the attack yields common traits. Specifically, we find that previous experience—both in different forms of unlawful behavior and in training related to the attack method—was significantly related to a successful attack. Similarities in regards to the triggers for the attack and personal motivations also emerge, suggesting that while operating independently, lone actors are very much influenced by ongoing events. We conclude that focusing on a sub-group of lone attackers following a spatio-methodological-oriented approach contributes to the construction of a profile for lone terrorists, and discuss these findings in the context of mitigation.

Trends in Israeli policing: terrorism, community, victimization and crime control

Policing has become an important area of innovation in criminology and in practice over the last few decades. In methodology, policing has emerged as a key area of evidence-based policy in criminal justice (see Lum, Koper, & Telep, 2011; Sherman, 1998; Weisburd & Neyroud, 2011), and the police have become one of the most open agents of the criminal justice system to new ideas and new approaches (see Weisburd & Braga, 2006). The science of policing has advanced greatly, and there is now much evidence not only that the police can be effective (National Research Council, 2004; Weisburd & Eck, 2004) but also that policing and police data can play a role in advancing scientific understanding of crime and the relationships between the community and criminal justice (e.g. Gill, Weisburd, Bennett, Telep, & Vitter, in progress; Telep & Weisburd, 2012; Tyler, 2011; Weisburd, Groff, & Yang, 2012). The advances in police science over the last few decades in the US and the UK have also impacted scientific study of the police in many other countries. This special issue reports on the advancement of police research in Israel. As the papers suggest, cuttingedge methods and cutting-edge questions are being asked regarding Israeli policing. But the papers suggest as well that there is much to learn about the police enterprise by looking to Israel. Clearly, comparative studies are critical to identify whether phenomena observed in the US for example can also be found in other settings. The paper by Weisburd and Amram provides a good example of the utility of examining key findings in different contexts. Weisburd and Amram show that the concentration of crime at micro-geographic units or crime ‘hot spots,’ occurs in Tel Aviv. Indeed, their results are strikingly similar to those reported in Seattle, Washington and other American cities (e.g. Weisburd et al., 2012). They argue for a law of crime concentrations. Examining crime hot spots in Israel provides accordingly important comparative data for advancing this area of study. This is also illustrated in Aviv’s examination of attitudes of victims and non-victims towards the police. Using data from a national survey in Israel, Aviv asks whether the data on victims in Israel mirrors that of US and European studies. Her findings show the remarkable salience of performance, treatment and trust evaluations, and provide important new data in a different national context, in support of work that emphasizes not only the importance of police legitimacy but the special situation of crime victims. Factor, Castilo and Rattner broaden the examination of public evaluations of the police. While public views are often measured in Israel, the ‘legitimacy’ of the police as frequently examined today (e.g. National Research Council, 2004; Tyler, 2004, 2009), its antecedents and outcomes have rarely been examined in the Israeli context (see JonathanZamir & Weisburd, 2013, for an exception). Factor et al. replicate the process-based model

Lone terrorists: A study of run-over attacks in Israel:

There is agreement amongst scholars regarding the lack of a unique profile for lone wolf actor terrorists. Therefore, this study focuses on the characteristics of the lone attack, which has rarely been studied. The study seeks to fill these gaps, examining the element of opportunity and situational conditions by focusing on the offence/attack rather than on the offender/attacker in cases of run-over terrorist attacks. In order to shed more light on this dangerous phenomenon of lone-actor terror in general, and lone run-over attacks more specifically, this study examines all 62 run-over attacks carried out in Israel between January 2000 and March 2016. Data for this study were obtained from confidential and open sources. The study’s findings reveal certain characteristics of lone run-over attacks regarding the ‘four pillars of opportunity’ (target, weapon, tools/training and facilitating conditions). These findings suggest that, in order to prevent run-over terrorist attacks or to minimize the damage, one should not concentrate primarily on identifying the profile of the potential attacker. Rather, effective counter-measures should identify the run-over attack elements of situational opportunities and introduce effective situational crime prevention measures that have been found to be effective in preventing non-terrorist crime.

For Prisoners, “Work Works”: Qualitative Findings From an Israeli Program

The study’s purpose was to assess the contribution of the Work Release Program of the Israel Prison Service (IPS) to the processes of prisoners’ rehabilitation. We interviewed 22 serving and released prisoners who participated in the program at two prisons in central Israel. Most respondents were positive toward the core components of the program, mainly the work outside the prison. Responses also indicated that the program eased their transition from prison life to life outside. However, some respondents criticized the way in which the program was operated. The article discusses the program’s strengths and weaknesses, and proposes some improvements.

Terrorist Threats and Police Performance

Do terrorist threats impact police performance in fighting crime? In this chapter we provide a systematic quantitative examination of the impacts of terrorist threats on the ability of police to “solve,” or “clear” cases. We take advantage of the unusually high terrorist threats in Israeli communities during the Second Palestinian Intifada in Israel (2000–2004), while paying special attention to the type of community (Jewish/Arab). Our findings show that, as expected, terrorist threats have a significant effect on police performance: overall, as threat levels rise clearance rates decline. However, the effect varies strongly by type of community: higher levels of threat are associated with lower proportions of cleared cases in the majority Jewish communities and higher proportions in the minority Arab communities. We attribute the negative effect in Jewish communities to the decline in police services that comes with a concentration on terrorism. The positive effect in Arab communities is attributed to the increased surveillance that is brought to communities that have ethnic, religious, and national relationships with groups that are associated with terrorism. At the same time, we discuss the ways in which higher clearance rates produced by higher surveillance of minority communities is likely to lead to lower evaluations of police legitimacy.