The Differences Between Terrorism And Organized Crime

Although terrorism and organized crime share some similarities, they are very different. On the one hand, organized crime is a way of committing crimes. These crimes require some degree of planning and coordinated participation of several people.

On the other hand, terrorism is marked by extremely violent events. Terrorism uses violence as a way to fight civilians and achieve political response. Thus, terrorism seeks to confuse, intimidate or irritate citizens and / or their rulers.

It seeks international public attention, so doubts about the legitimacy of a political regime, provoke internal conflicts in threatened communities as well as support and mobilize supporters.

Terrorism and organized crime

First and foremost, organized crime seeks profit. Criminal organizations want money – and the more, the better. Terrorism, on the other hand, seeks to change systems, gain independence, or gain a political or religious advantage.

However, these two variables also have certain similarities. Terrorist organizations need money to finance themselves. For example, they have to buy weapons, organize recruitment and propaganda, prepare and carry out the attacks, among other things. And it all requires money.

Organized crime seeks to exploit, but does not change, the established order, while terrorism seeks to transform or destabilize existing institutions or force their representatives to adopt measures that go against their principles and interests.

The frequency of criminal activity

In short, both terrorism and organized crime seek to profit economically and influence political activities. The big difference is that while profit is the ultimate goal of organized crime, terrorism has political goals. Despite these differences, they are both involved in criminal activities.

On the other hand, organized crime is more frequent than terrorism. This means that crimes are more likely to be committed by criminal organizations than terrorist groups.

This is because organized crime is more willing to sacrifice security to get better funding. In contrast, terrorist acts do not usually involve financing. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Therefore, terrorist groups often prefer security.

The use of violence

One final but significant difference between terrorism and organized crime is the way they use violence. The effectiveness of a terrorist attack depends on its impact. A terrorist group can attack a small group of people to scare many.

The more extravagant the attack, the greater the response. But the attack can be counterproductive if many people die because of it. If this happens, they will not gain more followers.

Nevertheless, organized crime seeks anonymity. The criminals commit their crimes undercover to avoid risking their criminal careers. For that reason, organized crime tends to avoid any kind of attention.

In conclusion, although terrorism and organized crime have some things in common, they are different in many ways. Organized crime seeks economic gain and terrorism seeks political change. Furthermore, organized crime is usually anonymous, while terrorist violence is conspicuous.