Prisoners and Politics: Western Hostage Taking by Militant Groups

Date
2017
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Abstract
Hostage taking of Westerners by militant groups has increased since 9/11. Despite this rising problem, there has been little academic research on how a hostage’s individual characteristics influence the outcome of the incident. Using a newly collected dataset of over 1,000 individuals taken hostage in incidents involving terrorist groups since 2001, this article evaluates how individual, national, and group characteristics influence the likelihood that hostage incidents end with the release or execution of the hostage. The findings show that a hostage’s nationality and occupation are significant individual-level drivers of outcomes, while the nature of the militant group itself also matters.
Description
Keywords
Hostage Taking, Militant Groups, Negotiation Policy
Citation
Seth Loertscher & Daniel Milton (2018) Prisoners and Politics: Western Hostage Taking by Militant Groups, Democracy and Security, 14:1, 1-23, DOI: 10.1080/17419166.2017.1380523
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14216/538
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/17419166.2017.1380523
Collections
Works of Scholarship