Modern society represents the ideal of democracy and tolerance to different cultures, religions, and worldviews. However, there is no era in which there is no aggressive part of humanity that wants to introduce its ideas and concepts into alternative ethnic groups (Zalman, 2009). Such people should be called terrorists; in other words, criminals who use elements of physical and psychological violence against groups of the population to intimidate or demonstrate their ideology (Deflem, 2009). Looking at the term more broadly, it may well be argued that terrorism is an international security problem. The purpose of any terrorist act is to break the unity of the world community and to incite hatred among different nationalities against each other. It would seem that such misanthropic views need to be stopped at the root of law enforcement agencies, yet terrorism is extremely difficult to predict.
As already noted, the fight against terrorism lies within the competence of the police, military services, and special intelligence bureau, as they are responsible for ensuring national security. As terrorists seek to make a showcase protest through public health damage, as was the case in 9/11 or the Boston Marathon, it is critical to respond to such desires promptly and to ensure that the terrorist act cannot be carried out. For this reason, the methods used by law enforcement agencies to regulate terrorist activities should include monitoring of thematic information posted through communication channels. In particular, strategies may include tracking social networks and correspondence for plans for violent acts (Higgins & Wolfe, 2009). However, law enforcement agencies, in this case, are faced with the ethical challenge of crossing known boundaries of privacy, as office staff has to read hundreds and thousands of messages from responsible citizens to find a single reference to the bomb. Probably the loss of privacy on the Web is a necessary sacrifice if humanity wants to live in a safe world without terror.
References
Deflem, M. (2009). Terrorism. In J. M. Miller (Ed.), 21st century criminology: A reference handbook (pp. 533-540). SAGE
Higgins, G.E. & Wolfe, S.E. (2009). Cybercrime. In J. M. Miller (Ed.), 21st century criminology: A reference handbook (pp. 466-471). SAGE
Zalman, M. (2009). Wrongful Convictions. In J. M. Miller (Ed.), 21st century criminology: A reference handbook (pp. 842-850). SAGE