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After the events of 9/11, many police-responders developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and were potentially vulnerable to developing depression and/or anxiety; in addition, nearly half of police with probable PTSD had comorbid depression and anxiety. Having in mind that victims who experience the effects of terrorism are exposed to high levels of psychological damage, we thus aimed to determine how sequelae of a terrorist act directly and indirectly affect victims. Quantitative synthesis findings were concluded on the basis of 200 records that met the inclusion criteria out of a total of 650. We grouped the patients according to their level of exposure to the WTC terrorist attack on 11 September 2001. The Level I group included individuals who had experienced the traumatic event and/or those who had observed the attack. The Level II group consisted of rescuers and/or persons who cleaned up debris in the area after the attack. The Level III group comprised the victims' families. Our research enabled us to create a profile for those who were most vulnerable to mental disorders after the WTC terrorist attack. Patients who had survived the terrorist attack and/or those who had observed the incident exhibited fewer traumatic symptoms and a lower percentage of suicidal thoughts in comparison to individuals who had worked as rescuers or cleaning staff in the area after the attack. The number of symptoms rose along with increased contact time with the stressor. The dominant symptom was the triad of intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal. The findings may confirm the positive effect of protracted court cases in legal proceedings for compensation on the maintenance and development of psychopathology. Our research may contribute to a better understanding of the consequences of terrorism outcomes on the human psyche and be used in the development of standards for dealing with victims of terrorism's impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers what the effects of a terrorist attack on the scale of 9/11 would have been if it had taken place on September 11th, 2021 instead of 2001. It examines the most important phenomena from the point of view of media and communication science, respectively, and presents four perspectives. Here, the authors make use, in a modified form, of the structure of the drama triangle from transactional analysis: victim, perpetrator, authorities/politics/media, rescuers to a certain extent, and the witnesses. They conclude that with approximately the same physical damage and somewhat smaller number of victims compared to 2001, the immediate media impact would probably be many times greater. This would also manifest itself in a broader portrayal of victimsʼ personal dramas, especially via social media, and the massive use of dronebased cameras. The perspective of the perpetrators would also probably be conveyed differently in the media today - both as the subject of reporting and also directly by the actors. Moreover, they would probably have to reckon with more rapid and targeted counterattacks on their personal and political environment. Authorities and rescue organizations would be called upon to communicate much more intensively, and witnesses/media consumers today would be - more than 20 years ago - not only recipients but part of the event, which leads to partly different consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, and particularly since September 11 attacks, media framing of Muslims as terrorists was persistent. Considerable studies showed that Western media framed Islam and Muslims as the major terrorism posing threat to Western society. Islam is depicted as a monolithic and homogenized religion whereas Muslims are uncivilized and inhuman religious maniacs. News coverage on terrorism, which involved Muslims as the perpetrator, heightened the fear culture for Muslims and Islam, eventuate the rise of "Islamophobia". The media portrayed perpetrators of Muslims as terrorists who clashed the Western civilization and threatened public security as a whole. However, the recent Christchurch mosque attack that happened on 15 March 2019 in New Zealand, killed more than 50 Muslims by a local extremist, turned Muslims into terrorism victims. Despite abundant studies criticising Islamophobic representations of Muslims in Western media, there is scant literature examining the coverage of terrorism act where perpetrators are non-Muslims and victims are Muslims. Therefore, it is interesting to scrutinize how Islam and Muslims were framed in two influential online news sites, The Press and New York Times, where Muslims appeared to be the victims of the attack. By using framing analysis as the theoretical framework, this study examined the news themes covered in portraying Muslim victims and Islam for the incident. The finding determined how media framing of Muslim victims and Islam in the Christchurch mosque attack transformed the media event into international mourning in a climate of counter-Islamophobia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. and the American response to them, with particular focus given to their philosophical implications. The concept of the terrorist victim as subject with which Americans can identify in victimhood is explored, and the idea that the attacks irrevocably changed the world is examined. The author's critique of American military intervention in other countries and what he describes as the sanitized subject presented by the media following the attacks is also offered.

Background: Most of the existing research on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11) has narrowly focused on posttraumatic stress disorder, limiting the potential to learn about other important consequences of this disaster. This qualitative study examined survivors' views of justice regarding the 9/11 attacks on New York City's World Trade Center. Method: A volunteer sample of 196 employees with varied 9/11 disaster-trauma exposures from 8 affected agencies in the New York City area was recruited approximately 35 months after the incident. The participants completed structured interviews about their disaster experiences and wrote brief essays describing what justice meant to them in relation to their experience of the 9/11 attacks. The qualitative analysis first identified 4 themes regarding justice and revenge in the text of the essays, and the content of the essays was then coded into these 4 themes, yielding final definitions of the content in them. Results: The accountability-for-perpetrators theme was coded in more essays than any other themes. The essays had little discussion of revenge relative to the amount of discussion on justice. PTS was not mentioned in any of the essays. Conclusion: These findings suggest the importance of broadening the focus of future studies examining justice in relation to disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National September 11 Memorial Museum was created to be not only a space of memory and history but also moral transformation and the promotion of democracy and nonviolence. The museum is thus a performative space, in which exhibits are not only meant to tell the story of 9/11 but to spur action and transformation in visitors. One of the ways in which the 9/11 Museum attempts to do this is through the use of experiential, affective exhibitionary strategies intended to theatrically and affectively recreate the events of 9/11 for visitors to experience and witness. In this article, I analyze the 9/11 Museum as a 21st century memorial museum that engages new technologies and modes of remembrance that emphasize affect and emotion, reflecting today's "performative society" (Kershaw 2001). Through a close reading of the museum's historical exhibition, I demonstrate how the museum functions as a performance of the past that invites visitors to become part of the performance as witnesses to the attacks of 9/11, a role imbued with ethical meaning. However, the museum's narrow temporal focus on the minutes and hours of September 11, 2001, though meant to be apolitical, constructs a memory and historical narrative of 9/11 that is in fact deeply political and problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The World Trade Center attack of September 11, 2001 in New York City (9/11) exposed thousands of people to intense concentrations of hazardous materials that have resulted in reports of increased levels of asthma, heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases along with psychological illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Few studies have discriminated between health consequences of immediate (short-term or acute) intense exposures versus chronic residential or workplace exposures. Methods: We used proportional hazards methods to determine adjusted hazard ratios (AHRs) for associations between several components of acute exposures (e.g., injury, immersion in the dust cloud) and four chronic disease outcomes: asthma, other non-neoplastic lung diseases, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, in 8701 persons free of those conditions prior to exposure and who were physically present during or immediately after the World Trade Center attacks. Participants were followed prospectively up to 11 years post-9/11. Results: Heart disease exhibited a dose-response association with sustaining injury (1 injury type: AHR =2.0, 95% CI (Confidence Interval) 1.1-3.6; 2 injury types: AHR = 3.1, 95% CI 1.2-7.9; 3 or more injury types: AHR = 6.8, 95% CI 2.0-22.6), while asthma and other lung diseases were both significantly associated with dust cloud exposure (AHR = 1.3, 95% CI 1.0-1.6). Diabetes was not associated with any of the predictors assessed in this study. Conclusion: In this study we demonstrated that the acute exposures of injury and dust cloud that were sustained on 9/11/2001 had significant associations with later heart and respiratory diseases. Continued monitoring of 9/11 exposed persons' health by medical providers is warranted for the foreseeable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the role of peer support groups for victims of terrorism and the implications for including this provision in disaster psychosocial planning and response. Peer support here is defined as mutual support by people who have been through the same or similar experience and can help each other through giving emotional and practical support and advocacy. Building on the evidence that social connectedness and peer support are important for trauma relief and recovery, different types of peer support groups are described and are illustrated through two case studies. This paper reviews the creation, facilitation and contribution of two United Kingdom (UK) peer support groups initiated after the 11 September attacks in 2001 and the Paris attacks in 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article empirically analyzes how victims’ remains were recovered, identified, repatriated, and retained after the World Trade Center (WTC) terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It does so by asking the question whose body is it. This question brings to the fore issues related to personhood and ownership: how are anonymous and unrecognizable bodily remains given back an identity; and who has ownership of or custody over identified and unidentified human remains? It is in this respect that the article engages with technoscientific and legal, or “technolegal,” trajectories of human remains in the wake of the WTC tragedy. By using the metaphor of “materialization,” it becomes possible to trace how remains are forensically identified and implicated in legal regimes. “Technolegal materialization” as a concept and methodological sensitivity contributes to the current “actor-network theory” (ANT)-inspired legal scholarship, which tends to focus on legal practices in courtrooms but not those beyond them. In this article, 9/11 victims’ remains are followed from “Ground Zero” to the forensic laboratory and beyond and articulates five instances of technolegal materialization of bodily remains and their past and contemporary existences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Dirasat: Human & Social Sciences is the property of University of Jordan and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Few longitudinal studies of disaster cohorts have assessed both non-response bias in prevalence estimates of health outcomes and in the estimates of associations between health outcomes and disaster exposures. We examined the factors associated with non-response and the possible non-response bias in prevalence estimates and association estimates in a longitudinal study of World Trade Center (WTC) terrorist attack survivors. Methods: In 2003-0 4, 71,434 enrollees completed the WTC Health Registry wave 1 health survey. This study is limited to 67,670 adults who were eligible for both wave 2 and wave 3 surveys in 2006-07 and 2011-12. We first compared the characteristics between wave 3 participants (wave 3 drop-ins and three-wave participants) and non-participants (wave 3 drop-outs and wave 1 only participants). We then examined potential non-response bias in prevalence estimates and in exposure-outcome association estimates by comparing one-time non-participants (wave 3 drop-ins and drop-outs) at the two follow-up surveys with three-wave participants. Results: Compared to wave 3 participants, non-participants were younger, more likely to be male, non-White, non-self enrolled, non-rescue or recovery worker, have lower household income, and less than post-graduate education. Enrollees' wave 1 health status had little association with their wave 3 participation. None of the disaster exposure measures measured at wave 1 was associated with wave 3 non-participation. Wave 3 drop-outs and drop-ins (those who participated in only one of the two follow-up surveys) reported somewhat poorer health outcomes than the three-wave participants. For example, compared to three-wave participants, wave 3 drop-outs had a 1.4 times higher odds of reporting poor or fair health at wave 2 (95% CI 1.3-1.4). However, the associations between disaster exposures and health outcomes were not different significantly among wave 3 drop-outs/drop-ins as compared to three-wave participants. Conclusion: Our results show that, despite a downward bias in prevalence estimates of health outcomes, attrition from the WTC Health Registry follow-up studies does not lead to serious bias in associations between 9/11 disaster exposures and key health outcomes. These findings provide insight into the impact of non-response on associations between disaster exposures and health outcomes reported in longitudinal studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decade after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, all three sites of violent impact have seen the dedication of national memorials to the victims. Hundreds of memorials have appeared in less likely places in the United States and around the world. This article offers an analysis of international 9/11 memorials along the lines of Michael Rothberg, as "a complementary centrifugal mapping that charts the outward movement of American power." It traces well-established memorial aesthetics, such as walls and statues, in a selection of 9/11 memorials located in the United States, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Israel. Richard Gray's hypothesis, that no fundamental change occurred in American prose writing, the works rather "assimilate the unfamiliar into familiar structures," lends itself to examine 9/11 memorial aesthetics. In fact, despite the proclaimed sense of historical rupture, we do not witness great innovations of memorial design but a continuation of known patterns: modernist minimalism augmented by figural representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of 9/11 there has been a marked increase in depictions of terrorism in Hollywood film. This shift has been particularly significant in superhero films. This genre of films has not historically relied upon terrorist narratives, but this article highlights contemporary ideological overlaps between terrorist and superhero narratives that explain why they have been more frequently presented together in contemporary film. In particular, both rely upon what Giorgio Agamben and other scholars refer to as a “state of exceptionality” and they feature ideological categories, such as those delineated in the work of Teun Van Dijk. This article analyses these themes using the methods of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis. The article finds the growing number of depictions of terrorists in superhero films problematic because they deny terrorists rationality or political consciousness. The article analyses the binarism that this creates, finding that the proliferation of terrorist narratives in superhero films ultimately is detrimental because it proliferates a shallow and misleading understanding of terrorism which can undermine popular understanding of terrorism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]