Impact of Risk Assessment, Media, and Offender's Characteristics on Lay People’s Fairness in Judgement of Terrorist Offenders

Objectives: Successful reintegration of ex-terrorist offender requires community support. However, support is often low, due to fear of potential recidivism, particularly for extremist Islamist perpetrators. Such fear can be exacerbated by the media, which provides an emotionally-charged and often Islamophobic perspective on terrorism. We explored whether offering a facts-based perspective through risk assessment demonstrating low risk may help to reduce fear of ex-terrorist reintegration. Design: A 2 (ethnicity: South Asian, White) x 2 (ideology: far-right, Islamist) x 2 (risk assessment information: present, absent) between-subjects factorial design was adopted in the current study. Information about type of media consumption was treated as the covariate. Methods: 232 participants read one of eight vignettes detailing a fictional story of an ex-terrorist offender due for release. Half included a risk assessment detailing the offender’s low risk. Participants then provided their decision on releasing the ex-offender, their perceived likelihood of recidivism, and their fear and comfort levels regarding the terrorist’s release. Results: The presence of the risk assessment significantly increased participants’ choice to release the ex-offender on parole, comfort levels, and reduced perceived likelihood of reoffending and fear levels. Media consumption (specifically TV access) significantly increased fear levels and decreased comfort levels. Contrary to previous literature, terrorists of far-right ideology significantly increased fear. Conclusions: Risk assessments provide an effective fact-based alternative to media, encouraging the public to accept an ex-terrorist offender to be reintegrated into their community. However, media remains influential of fear and comfort levels, and therefore more research is recommended into how to reduce fear of ex-terrorist reintegration