Education for Security in Romania:
Survey on Young People

Ella Magdalena Ciuperca
National Intelligence Academy, Romania

Abstract

The latest events of terrorism have evoked, a series of different psychological reactions throughout the population - most of them being derived from a poor knowledge of the phenomenon. Since Romania became a part of the international alliances (OTAN and EU), terrorism has been listed at the forefront of the most important issues nowadays in our country, too. Therefore, it is extremely important for law-enforcing counterterrorist institutions to have correct information about the people’s social representations concerning this issue. In this survey, I investigated a part of the population, educated young people, regarding their knowledge and understanding of terrorism. The significant sociological tests I used provided some interesting information on this subject. The resulting data could be used in the elaboration of functional models for antiterrorist education. 

Introduction 

The events of September 2001 brought terrorism onto the list of fundamental problems of the present-day world. Numerous approaches in sociology, psychology, political and security studies demonstrate interest in the causes, motivations or explanations for such an unpredictable phenomenon. This is necessary in order to understand how conflicts such as those between Israel and Palestine, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, or the devastating terrorist attacks in the USA, Russia, Turkey, Spain and Great Britain were possible.

Research literature on terrorism has expanded dramatically since the 1970s, and especially since 11 September, 2001... In psychology, for example, a search of the PsycINFO database (the largest psychology database in the world, with entries dating back to the 1880s) reveals that more research on terrorism has been published since 2001 than in all previous years combined (Plous & Zimbardo, 2004).

However, the number of studies based on systematic empirical analysis is surprisingly limited - one of the main reasons for this being the low quality of available statistical data. Nevertheless, social scientists have succeeded sometimes in understanding and predicting terrorism even long before the events of September 11. For example, Hudson (1999) underlined, in his report on “The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism”, the possibility that a terrorist attack might occur in the United States. He was even more specific because, among some other suggested scenarios, there was one about suicide bombers of Al-Qaida who might crash an aircraft into the Pentagon or other buildings.

This represents only one argument in favour of a more active involvement of social scientists in the prevention and annihilation of terrorism. In trying to accomplish such a desirable objective, Romanian researchers could notice that terrorism is a theoretical field which has not been sufficiently well investigated in their own country also. In fact, after consulting the existing specialised literature from Romania, one could see that the great majority of studies related to the terrorist phenomenon have a generalist, historical and descriptive character, without using any of the specific techniques of scientific research. The real identification of the manner in which the civil population perceives the activities of terrorist groups has never been studied.

So, because of the insufficiency of the institutional and sociological approach to the terrorist phenomenon in the specialised literature, I consider that the originality of this study consists in exploring the epistemological discrepancy between the historical and descriptive approaches to the terrorist phenomenon and the way people perceive those items which aim to identify the level of knowledge and understanding of the terrorist phenomenon by the Romanian population.          

Results and discussion:

The goal of this survey was to identify the information level of the population regarding the terrorist phenomenon and its understanding, bearing in mind that a good knowledge of the processes involved is of great importance for the appropriate handling of such a danger.

I have chosen to use in this research only young, educated people, students or graduates in different fields. I chose them as I considered they were the most amenable to education and more interested in civic issues. So the sample comprised 332 subjects distributed as follows: 184 women and 147 men, 28 from rural areas, with ages ranging from 18 to 35 years - although most of them, 140, were aged between 21 and 30 years old). As a rule, their occupational, residency and gender characteristics follow those of the general population of Romanian young people. 

They answered a self-administered questionnaire during the period October 2006 - January 2007. The collected data were interpreted using Windows Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, in order to confirm or refute the following general hypotheses of this research:

• Regarding the terrorist phenomenon Romanian young people have a coherent pattern of knowledge connecting its causes, financing sources, actions and prevention methods.

• Age has a significant influence on the perception of the terrorist phenomenon by Romanian young people.

• Gender has a significant influence on perceptions concerning the terrorist phenomenon within the population of  young  people in Romania.

Contrary to my expectations, young people in Romania have well-defined opinions about terrorism. So that, 52.7 % of the respondents consider that terrorists have a good education, 60.2 % believe that they are mostly young people, and 41.6 % of the respondents understand the fact that the communities to which they belong do not reject terrorists. That means that the members of their belonging groups accept their activities thinking of them as the only way to achieve some, often common, goals.

These  findings are consistent with those of the specialist researchers which show that terrorists have, in general, more than average education and that only a very few of them are uneducated or illiterate (Merari, 2005, Taylor, 1988). To exemplify, Taylor identified the average age of terrorists as about 20 years, although there are many organisations which use persons of about 14-15 years old, especially for dangerous missions. Russell and Miller (1977) also assembled demographic data about 350 individuals engaged in terrorist activities in Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East and had found that about two-thirds of terrorist group members had received some form of university training.

My respondents’ answers to the item “Terrorists are mostly uneducated persons” correlate (underlined through Spearman test) with those to “Terrorists are mostly women” (S=0.229, p≤0.001) and with those given to “Terrorists are mostly young people” (S=0.192, p≤0.001). To explain such perceptions I have to recall that, because of the latest international events, many people make an incorrect assumption, superimposing the image of Islamic terrorism over the multiple types of it. In such conditions, being questioned about terrorism, people activate the stereotype about Islam. So that women, here terrorist women, should be uneducated persons because of the belief that they have fewer chances to gain a high level of education in their communities. In addition, those who answer that terrorists are mostly women believe that media objectively reflect the terrorist phenomenon (S=0.118, p≤0.044). Considering the fact that the media have a tendency to present more cases involving women terrorists than men (because of the greater impact of such news) and because people trust the media, they could wrongly perceive that women terrorists are the more numerous in spite of the fact that they are greatly outnumbered by men.

People from the rural areas think that terrorists are persons rejected by their own communities (U=2638.00, p≤0.045). Such a belief could be the result of the values shared and internalised in rural communities, in harmony with a high sense of moral value and also the power that social control has. Therefore, in their opinion, a person involved in those types of acts has no option but to be ostracised by his/her group.

Analysing the answers regarding the population’s perception of the main causes and motivations of people who become terrorists, it is noticeable that many subjects consider religious extremism as an important source of the phenomenon. The discrepancy between these subjects and those reflecting reasons such as territorial problems, political regimes or nationalism permits us to conclude that the population is not well informed on these issues. Therefore, their social representation of reality is based on only disparate pieces of information without any further, profound, inquiry into the inner mechanisms of terrorism. 

It is very interesting that those people who have as their only information sources their family and peers consider that the main causes of terrorism are the lack of proper dialogue and reconciliation conditions and the presence of dictatorial political regimes. Learning about terrorism from familiar sources leads to emphasising the perception of external motivation for individuals who join terrorist networks to the prejudice of internal motivations such as beliefs, patriotism and so on. It is also possible for those respondents who are well integrated into their social networks to understand less about reasons such as revenge and violence.

In addition, the subjects’ answers to the item “The reason for terrorism is the existence of a political dictatorial regime” correlate with those referring to the cause of terrorism as the poverty of a population (Rp=0.360, p≤0.001). In this matter, researchers have not identified a general pattern to use in an endeavour to understand people who join terrorist organisations. But Russell & Miller (1977) found that more than two thirds of the terrorists surveyed came from middle-class, or even upper-class, backgrounds. Nevertheless, terrorists in much of the developing world tend to be drawn from the lower sections of society. Also the rank and file members of Arab terrorist organisations include substantial numbers of poor people (Hudson, 1999). So those, in this particular matter, people have appropriate perceptions of the terrorist phenomenon.

If people consider religious extremism and nationalism as the causes of terrorism, they believe that terrorist networks intend to attack public places with bombs and to take hostages. It is possible for people to make such correlations having in mind that because of their profound beliefs terrorists would engage themselves in actions characterised by a great amount of visibility.

One dimension of a mental model of terrorism is reflected in the correlation between the answers to the question whether the lack of dialogue and of a reconciliation framework could be a cause of terrorism and the idea that terrorist networks have as an objective gaining support from the world population (Rp=0.135, p≤0.015). So it seems to be easier for everybody to accept terrorist actions because of this rationalisation. This way, their violence and irrationality could be considered as a result of despair, a way to express themselves and to make everybody know and understand their grievances. So people tend to believe in a logical development of terrorist actions.

An interesting negative correlation appears between the items “The reason for terrorism is the lack of dialogue and a reconciliation framework” and “When do you think that Romania could become a target for a terrorist network?” (Rp=-0.172, p≤0.003). So the respondents who believe in those as causes of terrorism outnumber those who believe that within a short time period Romania could became a terrorist target. This finding signifies that in their inner conscience, the respondents believe that Romania is not a country with a proper interinstitutional dialogue, but instead is characterised by the lack of an efficient framework for reconciliation - all of these in spite of its democratic regime. So that it is important to understand, when constructing a future educational model, that young Romanian people tend to have little trust in their country’s institutions.

An additional argument is that people who think that political dictatorial regimes and the gaining of resources are the most important determinants of terrorism also think that terrorists aim to destroy strategic institutions and to put the lives of the general public in danger. Therefore, in the opinion of our respondents, those who hate the political regime do not attack innocent people as a form of revenge, focusing their attention on public issues. Although this is not true, as so many terrorist acts have proved, people persist in trying to attach rational explanations to the irrationality of terrorists’ behaviours.

Perceptions of the causes of terrorism are influenced by the sources of information used by the perceivers.  Those who keep themselves informed through radio tend to consider nationalism (Rp= 0.124, p≤0.026), dictatorial regimes (Rp=0.119, p≤0.035) and territorial problems (Rp=0.131, p≤0.019) to be the main reasons for terrorism, while those who are kept informed through newspapers consider religious extremism (Rp=0.171, p≤0.002) and nationalism (Rp=0.119, p≤0.032) as its sources. The lack of dialogue and of a reconciliation framework (Rp=0.162, p≤0.004) is considered to be an important cause of terrorism, especially by those who are used to reading scientific studies. Such findings are of a great importance in order to be able to choose a proper channel to widespread information within the framework of an educational model. 

Regarding the perception of the methods which terrorists use to finance their networks, it appears that Romanian young people consider that illegal weapons trade (89.7%), money laundering (82.6%) and drug trafficking (69.6%) represent their most important sources of money. Their answers reflect, at the same time a series of correlations as follows: drug dealing and the white slave trade (Rp=0.422, p≤0.001), drug dealing and money laundering (Rp=0.190, p≤0.001), drug dealing and the illegal weapons trade (Rp=0.156, p≤0.005), white slave trade and money laundering (Rp=0.222, p≤0.001), money laundering and the illegal weapons trade (Rp=0.220, p≤0.001), and legal commercial operations and money laundering (Rp=0.301, p≤0.001). So that if a terrorist network is suspected of being involved in one form of organised crime it is also suspected of being implicated in other forms of it. This is explained especially through the social psychological notion of   the ”halo effect” which refers to a situation where  a quality or an action of somebody in one field diffuses into other fields where that person has no competence (Thorndike, 1920). On the other hand, in spite of the fact that terrorist organisations use especially legal commercial exchanges to get money, especially donations (O’Neill, 2002), this possibility has the lowest rate of answers.

Most of the subjects who believe that terrorism is financed through organised crime methods also agree with the restraining of certain civil rights. For example, if terrorism is considered to be financed through drugs trade operations, they agree that houses should be searched in an endeavour to prevent this (Rp=0.147, p≤0.022). Subjects who accept the idea that terrorists intend to detonate bombs in public places consider that physical control of access into public institutions should be a normal procedure (Rp=0.239, p≤0.001), and also the photo-video surveillance of public places (Rp=0.218, p≤0.001) or giving information about people who are suspected of engaging in criminal activity (Rp=0.135, p≤0.016). In addition, those who think that terrorists’ aim is to take hostages accept the photo-video surveillance of public places (Rp=0.225, p≤0.001) and would be happy to take part in some actions organised by legally appointed counterterrorist institutions (Rp=0.139, p≤0.013). It was noticeable that the perception of every type of terrorists’ goal is linked with related civil rights the restriction of which could prevent that phenomenon, showing a strong cause - effect correlations of answers.

Most of the respondents consider that military intervention is useful to fight against terrorism, but in order to carry out such a scenario, they consider (79.8%) that a united effort of the entire international community is required. Their belief contradicts existing research (Enders & Sandler, 1993, Silke, 2003) which shows that military responses to terrorism tend to be ineffective and, more than that, lead to an increase in acts of terrorism.  For example, Enders & Sandler (1993) examined 20 years of terrorist activity and found a significant rise in terrorism following U.S. military reprisals against Libya. Military responses to international terrorism can unwittingly reinforce terrorists’ images of their enemies as violent and aggressive, make the recruiting of new members easier and strengthen alliances among terrorist organisations (Plous & Zimbardo, 2004). 

A large percentage of the persons included in this study consider that the present alliance system of Romania raises the risk of a terrorist attack against our country. In view of this, it is somewhat surprising that most of the subjects (62%) believe that Romania will not be the target of a terrorist attack in the short term. These contradictory findings could be explained by invoking the social psychological “belief in a just world” which is people’s tendency to believe that they live in a world where everybody gets what s/he deserves (Lerner, 1966, 1980). So, people do not accept that negative events could happen to them only by pure chance. Also “the optimistic bias of individuals” (Weinstein, 1980) could be fertile in explaining this apparently unusual answer. According to that response, people tend to present an unrealistic optimism about their future life events, considering that negative events are meant for other people, not for themselves, while happy events will probably happen to them - not to others.

Another amazing finding concerns the opinions of the subjects on the degree that the civil population could prevent terrorism. Although 66.5% of the subjects agree with this idea and answered positively to the question “Do you agree to having some of your civil rights constrained in order to prevent terrorism?”, they are still reluctant to accept all the implications of this - what they might all mean, such as the surveillance of their private communications, the supplying of information about suspects from their surroundings and about their families or acquaintances, the searching of houses, the arresting of suspects, the censoring of mass media, corporal examination as a precondition of access to public institutions,  photo-video surveillance of public places, prohibition  against  the setting up of certain types of organisations, or- on the positive side - being involved in civil volunteers’ teams or other actions organised by law enforcement institutions to combat terrorism.  

The subjects’ anxiety because of a potential terrorist attack and their need to be safe are reflected in correlations between answers such as those to questions regarding bomb attacks in public places and those regarding the acceptance of corporal examination before being allowed access to public institutions (Rp=0.239, p≤0.001) and photo-video surveillance in public places (Rp=0.218, p≤0.001). People tend to be consistent with their own answers, as illustrated by the fact that those who agree with the interceptions of private communications felt the same regarding the searching of houses (Rp=0.456, p≤0.001), the arresting of suspects (Rp=0.442, p≤0.001) and about the media control (Rp=0,171, p≤0.009).

Regarding the main sources of information on terrorism, people who keep themselves informed mostly through television, papers, school, radio and scientific works, consider that they do not find relevant information in their peer groups and family, which is an indicator of the low level of knowledge - or of the lack of interest - about the terrorist phenomenon throughout the general population.

 Mann – Whitney test revealed some significant differences between women and men. Men consider that terrorist networks have lower logistic possibilities when compared with the states against which they fight. This is a correct assumption sustained by the fact that men are usually more interested in the army industry so that they are better informed.

On the other hand, all items that concern the necessity to negotiate with terrorists are better scored by women who have a far more sympathetic and sensitive nature. Some significant differences appear regarding the usefulness of negotiations to gain time in serious cases (U=11481.00, p≤0.024) and to release hostages (U=11744.00, p≤0.043). The less submissive nature of men and their high level of independence are shown in the score they have regarding agreement to having some civil rights restrained (U=9684.00, p≤0.001).

The Mann-Whitney significance test reveals also some expected findings regarding some meaningful differences between the way people who had chosen to work in areas connected to terrorism (psychology, sociology, history, political studies, military studies) perceive terrorism and the others. The former have answered correctly that most of the terrorists are young people (U=9213.00, p≤0.001) and that they are not rejected by their own communities (U= -8752.00, p≤0.001). Their level of knowledge about the phenomenon is reflected also in the answers regarding the underequipping of terrorist networks (U=8627. 00, p≤0.001) and the fact that the present alliances system of Romania increases the danger of a terrorist attack (U=10045.50, p≤0.001). All their knowledge supplied them with a higher level of responsibility so that they agree to a larger extent to the restraining of their civil rights in order to prevent terrorist acts.

The answers of the age categories considered in this study were discriminated through a one-way ANOVA test. As a general conclusion, the period from 16 to 25 years is the most efficient for an individual to learn about different issues including terrorism. This is supported by the fact that their answers reflect the lowest level of knowledge about terrorism, a level which is significantly different when compared with that indicated by the other respondents. I am not suggesting that there is a significant difference between generations (as there was no significant event to explain this) and I consider that the fact that they have not yet completed their studies is the cause of such data.

In this vein of thinking, teenagers of 16-20 years consider - to  a larger extent  than do those aged 26-30 - that terrorists are mostly rejected by their own communities           (F(4.294)=3.169, p≤0.014; R= -0.371, p≤0. 015), which reflects a lower degree of knowledge of the phenomenon. The age categories gave also different answers about dictatorial political regimes as a cause of terrorism (F(4, 315)=5.936, p≤0.001). Thus people from 16 to 20 years appreciate to a lesser extent than do adults aged 26-30 (R=0.606, p≤0.002) and 31-35 (R=0.829, p≤0. 019) that terrorism is caused by totalitarian political regimes.

Every age category has a different perception regarding the main goals of terrorists’ networks. So that  those aged 16-20 consider, to a lesser  extent than do those aged 26-30 that terrorists intend to attack well-known people (F(4, 320)= 3.182, p≤0,014), but they believe – more than do those in other age categories - that terrorists intend to produce panic inside populations (F(4, 324)= 8.359, p≤ 0.001) as 21-25 shows (R= -0,336, p≤0, 011) or 26-30 shows  (R= - 0.494, p≤0. 001).

Although the respondents from  the age category  16-20 do not agree to having their civil rights restrained (F(4, 321)=3.333, p≤0.011), they  are more accepting of corporal examination before entering  public institutions (F(4,238)= 4.087, p≤0.003/                          R= - 0.519, p≤0.022) and of prohibition against the establishment of some types of organisation  (F(4, 242)=8.019, p≤0.001, R= - 0.871, p≤0.000, R= - 0.826, p≤0.017). The same teenagers would agree to a greater extent to supply information about suspects (R= - 0.401, p≤0. 016). They are also prepared to supply information about persons who are dear to them to a greater extent than are people of 26-30 (F(4,312)=2.767, p≤0.028, R= - 0.522, p≤0. 034). These are surprising data, but we could explain them having as a premise the known fact that teenagers are a particular type of population with certain characteristics. Their need for independence, their willingness to prove their value to others or to save the world causes them to simultaneously reject the possibility of having their rights restricted, while also being willing to do almost everything to combat terrorism. 

The subjects from the 16-20 age group consider that school is the least efficient source of information regarding terrorism (F(4,316)=15.426, p≤0.001) compared to the respondents in the 26-30 age group (R= 0.980, p≤0. 001) and  the 31-35 age group (R= 0.998, p≤0. 001). The same difference of opinion can be found between the age groups 21-25 and 26-30 (R= 0.713, p≤0.001) and also between the age groups  21-25 and 31-35 (R= 0.730, p≤0. 026). The phenomenon of social criptomnezy (Mugny & Péréz, 1989) suggests that after a certain period of time the origin of information is forgotten and people tend to attribute it to other sources. So it could be possible for those subjects aged between 26 and 35 years to consider, some time later, that some of the information they have received over the course of time had been provided by school. But one should not neglect the possibility that they did not receive any information from this source as, during their school years, terrorism was not an important civic issue.

As people usually fear the things they know less about, an educational model regarding a better understanding of the terrorist phenomenon and of the methods to deal with it could be a good solution in preventing such acts. All the findings presented here could constitute the base for such a future approach.  

Conclusions

As we supposed in the first place, there are significant influences of gender and age criteria regarding the perception of different aspects of the terrorist phenomenon.

The results obtained indicate also some significant differences and correlations between the given items that confirmed the general hypotheses of the survey, providing some insights regarding the existence of a particular coherent model in representing the terrorist phenomenon. Hence, the population  studied was shown to make multiple connections between the  aspects investigated (terrorists’ characteristics, causes, financing sources, actions,  the importance of Romania on the map of terrorism or the methods to prevent and fight against such a danger), their opinion often reflecting the influence exercised by  their information sources.

As a conclusion, it  may be said that the civil population should be trained in order to correct their false perceptions and to provide them with strategies to face terrorism. Such self-protective measures have the benefits of being not in the least provocative and less costly than a war is.  

Keywords

terrorism, sociological survey, social representations, educational model, youth.

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