Download the file - United Nations Rule of Law

66Urban crime and violenceTable 3.4Examples of majorterrorist incidents since1997Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents■ Recent trends in the incidence of urbanterrorismTable 3.4 shows major terrorist incidents that have takenplace since 1997, which include: the attack on the WorldTrade Center in New York, US, on 11 September 2001; thebombing of holidaymakers in Bali, Indonesia; the coordinatedbombings in Madrid in March 2004; the London bombingsof July 2005; and the bombing of commuter trains inMumbai in July 2006. Although these acts of terrorism arelocal events, they have had international repercussions thathave ricocheted across the world. Therefore they tend toreceive greater media and international coverage than, forexample, riots or disturbances in an urban slum that mightclaim more lives. Although not indicated in the table, mostterrorist-related attacks and subsequent loss of human livesthat have occurred in 2007 are linked to the situation inIraq, where deaths from car bombing have remarkablyincreased. It is pertinent to note that a greater proportion ofrecent terrorist attacks have taken place in developingcountries (see Table 3.4). If the situation in Israel is left out,the lowest level of terrorist attacks occurs in developedcountries. 117 Colombia, more than any other country,experienced a total of 191 terrorist attacks in 2001 alone. 118Although mass transit systems, particularly commutertrains, are frequently targeted, recent international researchthat compares several modes of travel has shown that masstransit systems are extremely safe and that other travelmodes, such as the automobile, represent a far greater riskDate Incident Number of Number ofpeople killed people injured17 November 1997 Gunmen attack tourists in Luxor, Egypt 62 247 August 1998 US embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, 225 > 4000Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya18 October 1998 Blowing up of the Ocensa pipeline near 84 100Machuca in Antioquia, Colombia11 September 2001 A series of hijacked airliner crashes into the 3500World Trade Center in New York City andThe Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, USA9 May 2002 Bomb explosion in Kaspiisk in Dagestan,Russia during Victory Day festivities 42 13012 October 2002 Bombing of holidaymakers Bali, Indonesia 20223–27 October 2002 Moscow theatre hostage crisis, Russia 16027 December 2002 Truck bombing of the Chechen parliament 83in Grozny7 February 2003 El Nogal Club bombing in Bogotá, Colombia 36 15012 May 2003 A truck bomb attack carried out on a 59government building in the Chechen townof Znamenskoye25 August 2003 South Mumbai bombings: Gateway of India 48 150and Zaveri Bazaar6 February 2004 Bombing of Moscow Metro, Russia 4127 February 2004 Bombing of Superferry 14 in the Philippines 11611 March 2004 Coordinated bombing of commuter trains in 191 1500Madrid, Spain24 August 2004 Terrorist attack on two domestic Russian 90aircraft in Moscow, Russia7 July 2005 London bombings: Bombs explode on three 56 700underground trains and on one double-decker bus23 July 2005 Bombing of tourist sites in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt 88 > 10029 October 2005 Multiple bomb blasts in markets in Delhi, India 61 2009 November 2005 Three explosions at hotels in Amman, Jordan 60 12011 July 2006 A series of explosions rock commuter trains in 209 714Mumbai, Indiato society than does transit terrorism. 119 For example, whilenot intending to minimize the horror of the events, thisstudy notes that the 56 deaths resulting from the 7 July2005 London bombings were equivalent to about six days ofnormal British traffic fatalities and that the 9/11 attackskilled about as many as die in a typical month of US trafficaccidents.In relation to ‘everyday violence’ or common crime,the incidence of terrorist attacks is significantly small.Consequently, the risks of terrorism cannot be as easilycalculated, since such small numbers of attacks defy probabilityanalysis when compared to huge numbers of commoncrimes. For example, the US National CounterterrorismCenter reported 13 terrorist incidents in the United Statesbetween February 2004 and May 2005 and, for approximatelythe same period, the Federal Bureau of Investigationidentified 10.32 million property crimes and over 1.36million violent crimes. 120 Nonetheless, the impacts of terrorismon cities have been enormous in recent years.FACTORS UNDERLYINGCRIME AND VIOLENCEThis section discusses some of the factors associated withcriminal and violent activities. Crime and violence are lifechangingevents that are often facilitated by the convergenceof several risk factors. These include the immediate availabilityof guns, drugs and alcohol. The last two serve as triggers,rather than the causes of violence. These facilitators play offindividual and relationship characteristics, such as personalitytraits, histories of abuse and neglect, dysfunctional familysettings, age and gender, and risky lifestyles. At broadnational and societal (macro) levels, crime and violence arelinked to a range of long-term underlying economic, social,cultural and political circumstances that produce opportunitiesand incentives for criminal behaviour and violent acts, aswell as the situations that frame victimization. Some of thesefactors are described in the following sub-sections.Social and cultural factorsGlobally, informal forces embedded in social and culturalvalues are arguably the most powerful factors acting toencourage or discourage crime and violence. In somesocieties, crime and violence are common components ofdaily life and are accepted social and cultural norms, or (inthe case of ‘structural violence’) are built into, or encouragedby, law. For example, in Kabul, Karachi and Managua,violence is so interwoven into the fabric of daily life that ithas become ‘routinized’, or normalized, as ‘terror as usual’for many slum dwellers. 121 Structural violence helps to legitimizeother forms of ethnic- and gender-based domesticphysical and sexual assault that have immediate impacts onindividuals, and which may result in re-victimization. Forinstance, between 70 and 90 per cent of Pakistani womensuffer from domestic violence incidents, many of which haveresulted in other victimizations such as rape and murder. 122