Should Results Apply to Nonvictims?

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter asks whether the findings about Beslan victims apply to nonvictims—that is, individuals who were not surviving adult hostages, parents or guardians of underage hostages, or next of kin of deceased hostages. The chapter relies heavily on data from the surveys of nonvictims in Beslan and Vladikavkaz and compares with data from the victim survey. Support for retaliation among nonvictims, like victims, is uncorrelated with anger but strongly correlated with excusing government while blaming ethnic rivals for the actions of terrorists. Otherwise, the results show that models of victim behavior do not transfer well to nonvictims. The findings suggest the need for caution when generalizing from victim behavior to nonvictim behavior and the inappropriateness of drawing inferences about post-violence behavior from population samples.