Global comparison of warring groups in 2002-2007: fatalities from targeting civilians vs. fighting battles.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Warring groups that compete to dominate a civilian population confront contending behavioral options: target civilians or battle the enemy. We aimed to describe degrees to which combatant groups concentrated lethal behavior into intentionally targeting civilians as opposed to engaging in battle with opponents in contemporary armed conflict.

Methodology/principal findings

We identified all 226 formally organized state and non-state groups (i.e. actors) that engaged in lethal armed conflict during 2002-2007: 43 state and 183 non-state. We summed civilians killed by an actor's intentional targeting with civilians and combatants killed in battles in which the actor was involved for total fatalities associated with each actor, indicating overall scale of armed conflict

SUBMITTER: Hicks MH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3167835 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature