Difference between revisions of "RAND Corporation/St Andrews database"

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#REDIRECT [[RAND/Terrorism Chronology Database]]
|description=A database of international terrorist incidents
 
|constitutes=database
 
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The '''RAND-St Andrews database''', also known as the '''RAND-St Andrews Chronology of Terrorism''' was a database of international terrorist incidents which was developed by [[Bruce Hoffman]] whilst he was at the [[terrorexpertise:University of St. Andrews|University of St. Andrews]], and was later maintained by students at the university.
 
 
 
The database had its origins in the [[RAND Terrorism Chronology Database]] first developed by [[Brian Jenkins]] at [[terrorexpertise:RAND Corporation|RAND]] in the 1970s, and started on 3” x 5” cards. <ref>Brian K. Houghton, [http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php?option=com_rokzine&view=article&id=52 'Terrorism Knowledge Base: A Eulogy (2004-2008)'], Perspectives on Terrorism Volume II, Issue 7</ref> When Jenkins left the [[RAND Corporation]] to become a managing partner at [[Kroll Associates]], the database was taken over by his successor [[Bruce Hoffman]]. <ref>RAND Corporation News Release, [http://rand.org/news/Press.97.98/hoffman.8.31.html 'BRUCE HOFFMAN TO HEAD RAND’S WASHINGTON OFFICE. LEADING TERRORISM EXPERT RETURNS AS THINK TANK BEEFS UP PROGRAM. ALSO BACK AT RAND: BRIAN JENKINS'], 31 August 1998</ref>
 
 
 
The database was essentially brought with [[Bruce Hoffman|Hoffman]] when he left [[terrorexpertise:RAND Corporation|RAND]] in 1993 to set up the [[Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence]] at [[terrorexpertise:University of St. Andrews|St. Andrews]]. At St. Andrews [[Bruce Hoffman|Hoffman]], his wife [[Donna Hoffman|Donna]] and doctoral candidate [[David Claridge]] continued to update the database with the assistance of various graduate students. <ref>Laura Dugan, Gary LaFree, Kim Cragin, Anna Kasupski, '[http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/223287.pdf Building and Analyzing a Comprehensive Open Source Data Base on Global Terrorist Events (PDF)]' (National Institute of Justice/NCJRS, March 2008</ref>
 
 
 
[[Bruce Hoffman]] and his wife left [[terrorexpertise:University of St. Andrews|St. Andrews]] in December 1997 taking data from the chronology back to RAND. <ref>Laura Dugan, Gary LaFree, Kim Cragin, Anna Kasupski, '[http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/223287.pdf Building and Analyzing a Comprehensive Open Source Data Base on Global Terrorist Events (PDF)]' (National Institute of Justice/NCJRS, March 2008</ref> According to [[Alex Schmid]] the St Andrews database was thereafter run under the name 'CSTPV Database project' mainly by students.
 
 
 
It was discontinued in the original form due to the fact that [[MIPT]] continued the [[terrorexpertise:RAND Corporation|RAND]] database with more manpower than available at St. Andrews while at the same time the [[terrorexpertise:University of Maryland|University of Maryland’s]] [[National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism]] (START) also started a large database. [[CSTPV]] donated its events and profiling databases to [[START]] and now focuses its data gathering efforts on the collection and analysis of primary full-text and audio-visual documents from terrorist groups.
 
 
 
==Criticism==
 
In a 2005 article, British academics Jonny Burnett and Dave Whyte criticise the methodology employed in the compilation of the database, which was and is the basis of much of the mainstream terrorism research:
 
 
 
<blockquote style="background-color:ivory;border:1pt solid Darkgoldenrod;padding:1%;font-size:10pt">Since the RAND-St Andrews chronology only records those incidents that are ‘international’, the database is orientated towards the recording of attacks on foreign visitors to, and military occupiers of, relatively poor countries. By definition those victims are normally business representatives and military personnel from economically strong, normally Western, nations. The second observation, which reinforces this latter point, is that the Chronology explicitly excludes acts of state terror committed by any government against its own citizens, and acts of violence occurring in war or in war-like situations. Incidents involving Western armies of occupation and businesses are included in the Chronology only where they are victims rather than the perpetrators of violence. Third, some of the methodological inconsistencies in the use of data in the Chronology database are reminiscent of the counter-insurgency position. It is possible to find non-violent activities and protests against state violence recorded in the database as ‘terrorism.’ <ref>Jonny Burnett & Dave Whyte, '[http://www.jc2m.co.uk/Issue%204/Burnett&Whyte.pdf Embedded Expertise and the New Terrorism (PDF)]', ''Journal for Crime, Conflict and the Media'' 1 (4) pp.9-10</ref></blockquote>
 
{{SMWDocs}}
 
==References==
 
<references/>
 
[[category:Terrorism Industry]]
 

Latest revision as of 12:47, 5 February 2018