Crime, terrorism and public opinion in Sweden

What is the impact of criminal activities like assassinations of politicians or terrorism attacks on public opinion? Are individuals more willing to trade civil liberties for improving 'public security' in the light of terror attacks? And is there a diffe rence between local and remote terror incidents? This research project should contribute to a broader understanding of the association between crime and public opinion exploiting a unique Swedish Survey dataset. The research project particularly focuses o n three interrelated aspects: First, if there is an impact of criminal incidents on public opinion, does the impact quickly vanish over time or is it rather a permanent impact? Second, does the strength of this relationship depend on the 'type' of the ter rorist incident? For example, does a local terrorist event like the assassination of the former Swedish minister for Foreign Affairs Anna Lindh on Sep 11, 2003 cause a more permanent shift in public opinion compared to a remote terror attack as the 2005 L ondon bombings or the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington DC? And third, is there a large heterogeneity regarding this association across different but related aspects of public opinion? For example, do terrorist events simply increase the demand for police or are they associated with a general shift toward policies that are commonly defined as 'right-wing'-policies? A particular important challenge for the analysis of such observational data is the estimation of causal relationships. To this end, the analysis will compare survey responses close before and close after a particular terrorist incident.