A Preliminary Exploration on the Views of Terrorism Among Indian and U.S. College Students

• Author: Eric G. Lambert,Shanhe Jiang,N. Prabha Unnithan,Sudershan Pasupuleti
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1057567720979166
• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Date: 01 December 2022
• Subject Matter: Original Articles

Original Article

A Preliminary Exploration on

the Views of Terrorism Among

Indian and U.S. College Students

Eric G. Lambert

1

, Shanhe Jiang

2

,

N. Prabha Unnithan

3

, and Sudershan Pasupuleti

4

Abstract

No corner of the world is completely safe from terrorist attacks. Both India and the United States

have suffered horrific acts of terrorist-inspired violence. While views of terrorism vary for different

reasons, culture certainly plays a role. A total of 918 undergraduate college students, composed of

434 Indian students and 484 U.S. students, were surveyed on their views of terrorism, responses to

terrorism, and appropriate punishment of terrorists. Ordered ordinal regression results indicated a

significant difference on 20 of the 26 items by nationality. Indian participants were more likely to

express strong views on the problem of terrorism for society and to see terrorists as more similar

to common criminals than their U.S. counterparts. Indian students were also more likely to feel that

the government should do whatever was necessary to win against terrorists, while U.S. students

were more likely to view winning against terrorists as difficult. Further, Indian respondents were

more likely to feel that terrorists needed to be punished harshly and the death penalty would deter

them, while U.S. respondents more likely to feel convicted terrorists should be able to appeal their

sentences. The results suggest that culture plays a role in shaping terrorism views.

Keywords

terrorism views, punishment views, India, United States

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, caused a dramatic change in U.S. public opinion on

terrorism and led to numerous changes in public policy to address terrorist threats. These changes

included the creation of the Department of Homeland Security at the federal level. President George

W. Bush called for a global “war on terror” (U.S. Department of State, 2009). As noted by West and

Orr (2005), public views on terrorism play a crucial role in how the U.S. government responds to the

1

Department of Criminal Justice, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA

2

Department of Criminal Justice, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

3

Department of Sociology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

4

School of Social Work, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:

Eric G. Lambert, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Nevada, Reno, 1664 North Virginia Street, Reno, NV 89557,

USA.

Email: ericlambert@unr.edu

International CriminalJustice Review

ª2020 Georgia State University

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DOI: 10.1177/1057567720979166

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2022, Vol. 32(

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issue. A budding field of research has explored and examined U.S. residents’ views on how to

respond to terrorists and terrorism (D. Davis & Silver, 2004; Gross et al., 2009; Lewis, 2005; Sun

et al., 2011; West & Orr, 2005). This line of research provides important information on how U.S.

residents view terrorism and efforts to combat it; however, terrorism knows no national borders.

A comparison ofU.S. citizens’ views on terrorismand the views of citizens in other nations is lacking.

Attitudes toward issues arise due to a multitude of factors, including cultural forces (Chung &

Bagozzi, 1997). According to Mayhew and van Kesteren (2002), “with a few exceptions—

researchers have explored public opinion within, rather than across, jurisdictions” (p. 63). For

both theoretical and practical reasons, understanding cultural differences in terrorism views is

important. Using a cross-cultural perspective, a better overall understanding will be gained. As

Jowell (1998) pointed out,

The importance and utility to social science of rigorous cross-national measures is incontestable. They

help to reveal not only intriguing differences between countries and cultures, but also aspects of one’s

own country and culture that would be difficult or impossible to detect from domestic data alone. (p. 168)

Exploring views on issues, including terrorism, and comparing them across different cultures

provides more information on how we think and how we differ in our views. Additionally, cross-

national research helps narrow the gap between different cultures and creates bridges, so salient

information flows more freely. Likewise, understanding similarities and differences in terrorism

views across nations can help with the possible partnerships to combat terrorism. In addition, such

information is important for historical purposes. It shows the views at the time and how they vary

between different groups and nations (Boussios & Cole, 2010a, 2010b).

How terrorism views differ between the United States and other nations is an area that has been

little researched. India and the United States were selected for comparison for three reasons. First,

India and the United States are the two most populous democracies in the world (World Factbook,

2020a, 2020b). Democracies should reflect the views of the majority of their citizens; therefore,

citizens’ views of terrorism are important (Lewis, 2005). As Boussios and Cole (2010a) indicated,

“This is centralto what is often called ‘democratictheory’: in which politicalactors are alert to shiftsin

public opinionand adjust their behavior accordingly” (p. 210). On theother hand, politicians may not

be swayed by publicopinion if they feel the response is needed andjustified. As Carter and Fay (2019)

pointed out, “[b]y design, democracies allow for policy feedback (public signals) in the presence and

absence of disruptive shocks as economic crisis, war, and, in this case, terrorism” (p. 6).

Second, both nations have experienced significant and ongoing terrorist attacks and threats in the

past several decades. While terrorist attacks can and do result in death and destruction, and all

nations wish to avoid them, ideas about how to respond to terrorism and terrorists differ across

cultures. Public views play an important role in this process. Regardless, research on public opinion

and differences in these views is important. There are also scholarly reasons to explore people’s

views and how they differ. Exploring differences in social views supports a better understanding of

the matter as a whole (Houck & Conway, 2013). What needs to be further explored is whether there

are differences between nations with different cultures. India and the United States have both

historical and cultural similarities and differences, and these may influence on how terrorism is

viewed.

Third, the authors had access to collect data from both U.S. and Indian college students, who were

selected for two reasons. First, college students often become active citizens upon graduation and,

therefore, are more likely to influence governmental responses to terrorism. As noted above, the two

nations are the most populous democracies in the world, and in democratic cultures, government

responses are partially shaped by public views and sentiments. College students were also selected

because the study had limited funds and college students are easily assessable. In addition, past

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