ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the potential factors associated with the choice of educational institutions as terrorist targets. While terrorist attacks on schools are rare, the targeting of children causes widespread outrage and these incidents receive extensive media coverage. The basic premise of terrorist action is to bring about political, social or religious change by instilling fear. Soft targets are those which have little or no security and as such present an easier alternative for a terrorist attack. Since attacks on children lack legitimacy, they are likely to cause shock and outrage in the terrorists' audience. Specifically targeting children may cause existing supporters to distance themselves from the organisation and can subsequently lead to the withdrawal of financial support, material resources and other forms of assistance. When targeting schools, terrorist groups are likely to run the risk of provoking a severe governmental response and the threat of such counteraction might reasonably act as a deterrent to some organisations.
