'Conciliatory tactics' more effective than 'punishments' in reducing terrorism, finds study

Washington, Aug 1(ANI): Policies that reward abstinence from terrorism are more successful in reducing such acts of violence than tactics that aim to punish terrorists, a new study has suggested.

A research in the American Sociological Review, titled, "Moving Beyond Deterrence: The Effectiveness of Raising the Expected Utility of Abstaining from Terrorism in Israel," looked specifically at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and found that between 1987 and 2004, Israeli policies and actions that encouraged and rewarded refrain from terrorist acts were more successful in reducing terrorism than policies focused on punishment.

"Our argument begins to challenge the very common view that to combat terrorism, you have to meet violence with violence," Erica Chenoweth, study co-author and Assistant Professor at the Josef Korbel School of International studies at the University of Denver, was reported, as saying.

The study found that Israel's repressive and punishment centered attempts to reduce terrorism by passage of anti-terrorism laws, extension of prison sentences, assassination, deportation, and military retaliation, to be less effective in reducing terrorism.

However, in an average month between 1987 and 2004, Israel took approximately 18 repressive or punishment based actions against Palestinian targets and less than eight conciliatory actions, the survey revealed.

In addition, Dugan and Chenoweth argued that terrorists do not commit terrorist acts for the same reasons that common criminals commit crimes, and therefore, they believe counter-terrorism tactics should not mirror typical crime fighting approaches.

"Strategies that successfully deter common criminals may be ineffective for terrorists. This is because terrorists are generally less concerned about being punished and more concerned about their role in ensuring the well-being of their movement and its constituency," Chenoweth said. (ANI)