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A Comment on the Power Law Relation Between Frequency and Severity of Terrorist Attacks

Author

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  • Saperstein Alvin M.

    (Wayne State University)

Abstract

Richardson first pointed out the power-law relation between the occurrence of war-like events and the consequent casualties. More recently, attention has been paid to the observed power-law relation between the frequency of terrorist acts and the number of resulting casualties and attempts have been made to explain these observations by deriving them from a model of randomly aggregating and disaggregating terrorist groups. This comment points out a weakness in the model and offers a simple extension to eliminate it.

Suggested Citation

  • Saperstein Alvin M., 2010. "A Comment on the Power Law Relation Between Frequency and Severity of Terrorist Attacks," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 1-6, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:pepspp:v:16:y:2010:i:1:n:7
    DOI: 10.2202/1554-8597.1200
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Aaron Clauset & Frederik W. Wiegel, 2010. "A Generalized Aggregation-Disintegration Model for the Frequency of Severe Terrorist Attacks," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 54(1), pages 179-197, February.
    2. Aaron Clauset & Maxwell Young & Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, 2007. "On the Frequency of Severe Terrorist Events," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 51(1), pages 58-87, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Rafael González-Val, 2016. "War Size Distribution: Empirical Regularities Behind Conflicts," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(6), pages 838-853, November.
    2. Clauset Aaron & Young Maxwell & Gleditsch Kristian Skrede, 2010. "A Novel Explanation of the Power-Law Form of the Frequency of Severe Terrorist Events: Reply to Saperstein," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 1-7, December.

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