This continues our series of student reflections and analysis authored by our research team. The tPP database contains a lot of variety. There are the types of cases you would expect: bombings, shootings, attempts to join ISIS. But there are also some cases that would not necessarily spring to mind when you hear the word “terrorism”: […]

This continues our series of student reflections and analysis authored by our research team. Location was one of the first variables our team decided to code for within cases. Nationally and internationally, some places appear to attract more terrorist attacks than others. Why is this though? Globally, this may be easier to understand as some countries […]

This continues our series of student reflections and analysis authored by our research team. Another dimension to researching our data involves looking at some of the geographical aspects of our data.  This is mainly through looking at the location of attacks within our dataset.  Although our data explores terrorism prosecutions within the United States, some of […]

This continues our series of student reflections and analysis authored by our research team. The  Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly known as RICO, has gone far beyond the bounds of its initial intention. Enacted by congress in 1970, RICO was passed “with the declared purpose of seeking to eradicate organized crime in the United […]

This continues our series of student reflections and analysis authored by our research team. When tPP was still in its coding stage, I enjoyed perusing through documents to find the codable variables within our dataset. I was consistently interested in where defendants fell in terms of ideology and group affiliation. I would often notice similarities between […]

This continues our series of student reflections and analysis authored by our research team. Taking a step back from coding further cases for the dataset, tPP’s researchers wanted to take the time to answer some of the questions which had arisen around the trends we identified over months researching and coding prosecutions of political crimes. For […]

This continues our series of student reflections and analysis authored by our research team. Much of how the West understands the term “terrorism” today is shaped by the events that transpired after 9/11. The Patriot Act was enacted six weeks after the fall of the twin towers, and with it the prerogative of law enforcement officials […]

This continues our series of student reflections and analysis authored by our research team. In my last blog post, I discussed how cases are deemed fit for inclusion in the tPP database. That post ended with a question about when and why crimes without a clear political motive are labeled as terrorism by the government. As […]