ABSTRACT
Terrorism is a social problem which has endured over several centuries, involved multiple aggressors and led to a troubling number of human casualties. La terreur was the collective term used at that historical juncture to describe the gruesome methods of violence exacted during the violent conflict between rival Girondin and Jacobin factions. In contemporary society, security analysts are agreed that the global terrorist threat is largely constituted by a collection of Islamist extremist groups, including ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab and Lashkar-e-Taiba. One of the clear requisites for determining an effective response to terrorism is a detailed and cultured understanding of the root causes of terrorism. In a climate of political manipulation and anxiety around national security, it is incumbent on criminologists to specify what it is that is 'new' or otherwise about 'new terrorism' and to question the extent to which attempts to regulate political violence by Western nation-states have been either socially just or materially effective.
