ABSTRACT
Recent advances in statistics and computer science along with an increasing availability of large databases have allowed scholars to develop and apply novel research methods to get unprecedented insight into terrorism. This chapter provides evidence that the clustering process observed may be associated with the selection of specific targets by terrorists, which explains the observed clusters of terrorist attacks. In particular, it illustrates cases where the following classification of terrorist events is considered: civilian versus non-civilian targets, state versus non-state terrorism, and political versus non-political terrorism. Furthermore, using the city of Baghdad as an illustration, it shows the limitations of the Global Terrorism Database with regard to spatial accuracy and compares the results of a simulation of potential locations of terrorist attacks within the city of Baghdad using various point processes.
