Suspect Community: A Product of the Prevention of Terrorism Acts or a Product of Conflict Dynamics?

The ‘suspect community’ theory, first introduced by Paddy Hillyard, claims that the British Prevention of Terrorism Act 1974 in its operation was responsible for producing discrimination against the communities of Northern Ireland during ‘The Troubles”. This theory has subsequently been applied to Muslim communities in the UK in the wake of the attacks of 9/11 (New York and Washington) and 7/7 (London Transport System) by Islamist terrorists. This article presents an alternative theory on the emergence of suspect communities, arguing that a suspect community is formed at the initiation of conflict and not in response to legislation dealing with conflict. In this alternative framework, the initiation of conflict and the reactions of opposing factions, combined with public outgroup perceptions of threat, create the suspect community. This alternative theory draws on psychosocial theories, including group perception of threat, social and group identity theory and out-group paranoia. The article suggests an altered starting point and offers a process to potentially reduce public bias and therefore radicalisation and recruitment at the community level.