Claimed or Unclaimed: Patterns of Attribution in Global Terrorism

Introduction

Despite extensive research on terrorist violence, far less attention has been paid to whether attacks are publicly claimed and what those attribution decisions reveal about organizational strategy. Claiming responsibility is not a trivial byproduct of terrorism but a deliberate communicative act that shapes public perception, government response, and inter-group competition. Yet, empirical trends suggest that most terrorist attacks today go unclaimed, raising important questions about when...