The rise in vehicle ramming attacks (VRAs) is as much the product of a virus-like spread of the act due to mass media coverage and online networks inspiring others to do likewise, as it is the rise of terrorist propaganda or a response to heightened security at high-profile targets.
Dr Vincent Miller, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Cultural Studies, and Professor Keith Hayward from the University of Copenhagen, examined why vehicle attacks, such as in Nice in July 2016, Finsbury Park in 2017 or Charlottesville also in 2017, have become so prominent in the last few years, having previously been a rarity.
Their research found that the rise in vehicle ramming attacks (VRAs) is as much the product of a virus-like spread of the act due to mass media coverage and online networks inspiring others to do likewise, as it is the rise of terrorist propaganda or a response to heightened security at high-profile targets.
To read their analysis in full see:
- University News Centre article
- ‘I did my bit’: Terrorism, Tarde and the Vehicle-Ramming Attack as an Imitative Event’ – The British Journal of Criminology