Domestic Terrorism and Incident Management: Issues and Tactics

by Miki Vohryzek-Bolden, Gayle Olson-Raymer, Jeffrey O. Whamond

After reading this text, the reader will have a fuller understanding of the nature of domestic terrorism and a clearer understanding of the basics. These basics include a review of the complex history that spans thousands of years, an explanation of definitions, a review of contemporary domestic terrorism, and the examination of intelligence gathering, threat analysis, and emergency responses to terrorism-incident management. It is hoped that such knowledge as presented here will enhance the public’'s understanding of domestic terrorism and law enforcement’'s ability to prevent and respond to its acts. It focuses almost exclusively on right-wing domestic terrorism because of its strong presence in the last twenty years and the projection of experts that right-wing terrorism will prevail well into the twenty-first century. The book is divided into three parts. The first part deals with definitional problems associated with policymaker’'s and law enforcement’'s handling of terrorism, an historical overview of terrorism and terrorist incidents in the global community, and an historical examination of terrorism from below in the United States. Part Two addresses the American Hate Movement and patriot-militia activities. It also discusses the emergence of special- interest extremist and terrorism groups that advocate violence based on an ideology or belief, which may include the desire for political and social change. They include ecological resistance groups, antienvironmental movements, animal rights and antiabortion activists. Part Three focuses on effective criminal intelligence-gathering techniques and the implementation of terrorism-incident management strategies.

314 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Anne Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good scholarly work, apparently designed as a textbook or self-study text. The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five is that it's woefully out-of-date, having been published before the attacks on 9/11. Given the radical changes to both the perception of threat and the response to threats instituted in the wake of 9/11, this work could perhaps be benefitted by the publication of a revised 2-volume set: Domestic Terrorism and Incident Management in the Pre-9/11 Era (which would be essentially this book) and Domestic Terrorism and Incident Management in the Post-9/11 Era.