The prosecution of “others”: presidential rhetoric and the interrelation of framing, legal prosecutions, and the Global War on Terror

ABSTRACT

In examining the Global War on Terror, the effects of presidential rhetoric on the framing of terrorism has been well documented. However, little previous work links terrorism and its status as an “othered” phenomenon to differential legal prosecution in a post-9/11 era. Using the Prosecution Project data set, we compared “othered” individuals, as defined by a Muslim, Arab/Middle Eastern, and/or foreign-born status, to “non-othered” individuals charged with terroristic felonies. Furthermore, we subdivided the dataset into three analytical time blocks: the George W. Bush administration immediately post-9/11, the latter half of the Bush administration, and the Obama administration. For the first and third time blocks, we found that “othered” individuals were prosecuted significantly more frequently than “non-othered” individuals. These findings call into question the effect of presidential rhetoric and the national framing of terrorism on the legal prosecution of “othered” individuals.

KEYWORDS:

• Global war on terror
• terrorism
• prosecution
• framing theory
• othering

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Based on the theory of othering (Lugo-Lugo and Bloodsworth-Lugo 2009; Said 1994, 1997).

2. Further information on the Prosecution Project can be found in Appendix 2, including inclusion/exclusion criteria, methodology, and data accessibility.

3. See Appendix 1 for a more in-depth discussion of the events included in each time block.

4. Notably, these “othered” prosecutions do not include any of the 9/11 attackers, as they were killed during their attacks.

5. During the second time block, the sentences were, on average, 17 years less for “othered” people (b = −17.26, F(1,151) = 0.7932, p = .375).

6. During the third time block, the average sentence length was 39 years longer for “non-othered” people (b = 39.40, F(1,150) = 1.346, p = .2479). The average for “non-othered” individual sentence length in the third time block was calculated including a number of statistical outliers; however, these outliers were not removed as they were decided to maintain evaluative value.

7. Thrall and Goepner’s graph maps what they refer to as “Islamist” and “Non-Islamist” attacks. While these two groups do not directly correspond to our research categories of “othered” and “non-othered”, respectively, the overall similarity in the trend of the graphs, as well as the operational definitions of “Islamist” and “Non-Islamist”, indicates that Thrall and Goepner are measuring approximately the same groups of people.

8. See Figure 1 for a complete timeline of speeches and events.

Figure 1. Timeline of significant events leading to the creation of the GWOT – first time block (Jaffe 2016; Graham, Keenan, and Dowd 2004; “A Timeline of the U.S. War in Afghanistan”, n.d.; Congress 2001; Obama, n.d.; Kiely 2012; CNN Library, n.d.; Trump 2017; Swift, n.d. (a&b); Politico Staff 2016; Bush 2001a; Nolen, n.d.; Hastert 2002; Sikh Coalition, n.d.; CIA 2002; Kapp 2005; Bush 2001b, 2005, n.d., 2001c; NBC News and Services 2006; Swift, n.d.; Obama 2013; BBC News 2013, 2018; Kean et al., n.d.; “The Iraq War”, n.d.; Department of Justice 2001; NPR 2011; “Timeline: The Rise, Spread and Fall of the Islamic State” 2016; Landler 2014; Newman 2004).

9. For more detailed information on the Prosecution Project, one can visit https://tpp.lib.miamioh.edu or contact researchers A. Chapekis ([email protected]) and S. M. Moore ([email protected]), respectively.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Athena Chapekis

Athena Chapekis is a seniorat Miami University of Ohio studying Sociology and Statistical Methods. Athena will attend the London School of Economics pursuing a Master's degree in Applied Social Data Science aftercompleting her Bachelor's degree.

Sarah M. Moore

Sarah M. Moore is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Sociology, and Comparative Religion with a double minor in German and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. Sarah has been with the Prosecution Project since Spring 2017, serving as a steering committee member and the leadadvisory board coordinator