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2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

8. The Experience of Victimhood

Author : Neil Southern

Published in: Policing and Combating Terrorism in Northern Ireland

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The victims of terrorist attacks have received little scholarly attention. Moreover, the nature of victimhood, as it is experienced by members of the security forces, has been ignored in terrorism studies. This has resulted in a gap in academic knowledge. Victimhood is experienced differently amongst RUC officers. For example, injured officers have a justifiably stronger sense of victimhood than officers who emerged from the conflict unscathed. However, many officers feel alienated in the post-settlement period. They believe that there is an effort to sully the name of the RUC and portray the organisation as a causal factor in the conflict. Yet the facts demonstrate that it was terrorist groups, most notably the IRA, which was responsible for the majority of killings during the Troubles and not the RUC (nor wider security forces). This chapter considers the nature of victimhood as it is experienced by members of the RUC.

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previous chapter Women Officers and the Conflict
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Footnotes
2
Interview with senior UUP negotiator.
 
3
BBC Spotlight programme Spy in the IRA, 2016.
 
4
Professor Jordan Peterson’s interview on the Joe Rogan Experience, 28 November, 2016. Available from https://​www.​youtube.​com/​watch?​v=​04wyGK6k6HE, accessed 18 July, 2017.
 
5
Serving in the Royal Ulster Constabulary, The Royal Ulster Constabulary George Cross Foundation, p. 1.
 
6
NIRPOA’s written submission to Richard Haass made available to the author, p. 3.
 
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Metadata
Title
The Experience of Victimhood
Author
Neil Southern
Copyright Year
2018
Book
Policing and Combating Terrorism in Northern Ireland

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-75998-2

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-75999-9

Copyright Year: 2018

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75999-9_8