A Comparison Study of the Typologies of Terrorist Organizations Using Geographic Information Systems

This study uses a geographic information system (GIS) and a zero-inflated negative binomial regression model to evaluate if terrorist organizations that display a higher level of abstract/universal characteristics are more lethal in individual terrorist attacks than those organizations that exhibit a higher level of limited/political characteristics The results from the zero-inflated negative binomial regression model indicate that indeed there is an association between organizations that demonstrate a higher degree of abstract/universal characteristics and higher fatality rates in individual attacks. Likewise, terrorist organizations with a greater degree of limited/political characteristics were determined to produce less fatalities in individual attacks.