Domestic violence and terrorism in the United States.
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to find out the public perception of domestic terrorism. It presented background information about domestic terrorism. The study reviewed a wide range of literature on public opinion of domestic violence and terrorism. A survey was imposed for data collection, where 76 participants responded to the research questions in the survey. The study applied four types of statistical tests, namely, One-Way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance), Bivariate Correlation, Chi-Square, and T-Test. The ANOVA test examined whether there are statistically significant differences between demographic factors such as age, gender, education level, social status, race, etc., on various dependent variables. The Bivariate Correlation test determined whether the participants’ age correlated with their levels of concern regarding domestic terrorism. The Chi-Square test was used to determine whether the political party affiliation was significantly related to participants’ level of mental health. Finally, the T-test assessed whether participants’ level of education had a significant impact on the number of friends they had who supports nationalist organizations.
The study found that most people in the United States are concerned about increased incidents of domestic terrorism. About 58% of the participants believe that nationalist organizations do not have a significant impact on minorities. Even though approximately 9.2% of the respondents are not concerned at all, the stud found that 19.7% of them are extremely concerned. Most people do not support the concept of criminalizing domestic terrorism. The present research discovered that only 40.8% of the participants supported the criminalization of domestic terrorism acts, while about 59.2% did not support it. Therefore, although incidents of domestic terrorism in the United States have triggered fear among the citizens, they do not want perpetrators to be held criminals.
The study also assessed the public perception of gun control laws towards combating domestic terrorism. Results revealed that most people in the United States do not believe that gun control laws are an efficient or effective way to handle domestic violence and terrorism. Approximately 44.7% of the respondents believed that laws controlling gun use and sale could be somehow effective, while about 55.3% believed that they are not an efficient way of handling domestic terrorism. Most people consider gun control laws to be against the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution, and enforcing them violates citizens’ rights to bear arms.
The study also focused on the role of media on public perception about domestic terrorism. It was discovered that media, including social media and other official news outlets, played a significant role in interfering with the public view of domestic terrorism. Results revealed that about 49% of the respondents were influenced by the media, which changed their thoughts or attitudes on domestic violence and terrorism in the United States. However, views and perceptions of approximately 35.5% are not influenced by the media, while 14.5% of the respondents were undecided.
Furthermore, the study considered public opinion about imposing tough consequences on domestic terrorism acts. Incidents of terrorism tend to be horrific, and this research was intended to understand the public view on how to handle perpetrators after attacks. It was discovered that most people believe imposing tough consequences on perpetrators was not effective. About 50% agreed that it could not be useful, while approximately 48.7% of the participants stated that it would be effective to handle criminal offenders perpetrating domestic terrorism. However, the difference between those who believed in the effectiveness of tough consequences and those who disagreed was only one person since 37 people agreed, while 38 disagreed. A more elaborate study should be conducted to examine the perception of tough consequences for domestic terrorism acts.
Even though the public is not supporting tough consequences, the study found that most people believed that imprisonment for acts of domestic terrorism was effective and the best method of combating it. Results revealed that approximately 67.1% of the participants believed that imprisonment of perpetrators in the United States jails and prisons was an essential means of reducing incidents of domestic terrorism. However, approximately 31.6% believed that imprisonment could not work. On the question of an increased rate of domestic terrorism in the United States for the last ten years, all participants responded. Results discovered that most of them, about 30.3% of the participants, were neutral or undecided on whether domestic terrorism had increased in the last ten years. Approximately 22.4% of the respondents disagreed with the notion that the rate of terrorism had increased, while 21.1% strongly agreed.