Terrorism and crime may be an interlinked phenomena

This paper probes the relationship between crime and terrorism conceptualised against the case study of terrorism in Northern Ireland. The research probes both causes and the effects of ongoing (and perhaps underlying) hostility in the province. Whilst a review of contemporary literature is drawn upon to determine the fundamental basis of the terrorism/crime nexus; a quantitative synopsis is undertaken to glimpse at the continued manifestation of crime and terrorism; for which we use information gathered from public sources. Accepting that terrorist groups, or for that matter, criminal enterprises are clandestine by nature and design we contend that a review of ongoing sectarian violence may provide an indication of the ongoing tension and the levels of violent criminality. The review is structured to illuminate the foundations of the crime and terrorism and to set these within the context of Northern Ireland (more particularly post the Anglo-Irish Accord). At length, the paper sets out exemplars of terrorist/criminal activity before concluding that crime and terrorism share a pronounced yet discrete level of intimacy depending upon time, space, and ideology and structure; one size does not fit all