Classification of the Socio-Psychological Aspects of Protecting Soft Targets: a Case Study for Evacuation of the Railway Terminals

Current crisis management approaches to protect soft targets make assumptions about average visitors/listeners/viewers or passengers. They do not give much consideration to impacts of diversity of potentially evacuated persons with regard to socio-psychological parameters/factors that may lead to practical problems and complications during the evacuation itself. At the same time, the soft target operators have various means of machine vision tools at their disposal, but do not use these records for more thorough analysis of evacuation planning needs. Based on this observation, the article identifies and analyzes the socio-psychological aspects that may significantly affect behavior and decisions of persons during the evacuation and thus total evacuation time.

Assessment of Prosperity Gospel among Charismatic Churches in Kenya.

The researcher sought to investigate the rise of prosperity gospel and its momentum in the midst of the learned society who can read the Bible and get its true meaning. The Equation Theory guided the study. The theory is anchored on the principle of reward and retribution, which states that the goodness of a person is confirmed by physical wellbeing and material prosperity while a sinful person is defined by the opposite. The study was carried out in Kawagware, Nairobi County that is habited by good number of people, becoming a soft target for the prosperity gospel. The study targeted congregants attending Christian charismatic churches in the area. Multi-stage sampling techniques comprising of cluster, purposive, convenient and simple random sampling procedures were used to select the churches and congregants. Data was gathered using drop and pick questionnaire for congregants. Data was analysed using SPSS (version 20) and results summarised using descriptive statistics comprising of frequencies, percentages presented using tables. Prosperity gospel was found to be appealing to congregants as it was considered to address their economic wellbeing, social wellbeing, spiritual wellbeing, guaranteeing them for holiness according, having the spiritual appeal as well as promissory prophesies. As a show of commitment, the congregants attend the churches unwaveringly, participate in the church services, and sacrifice their time, offerings, tithes, and gifts. The researcher recommends that different players, government, faith-based and private organisations should provide economic opportunities and create awareness to people living in poverty stricken areas like the Kawangware to enable them make informed decision and have economic independence.

Hostile media reporting and its effect on patient management behaviour of doctors who have not faced workplace violence

Media finds doctors as a soft target for all sorts of healthcare system failure. The hostile media reporting has demonized the medical profession and has forced doctors to adopt a more reserved attitude. The present study focuses on assessing the effect of media on patient management by the doctors who had not faced violence at the workplace. It was observed that as a consequence of unfavorable media reporting, prescribing of investigations, and referral and consultation liaison increased, whereas, handling of complicated cases by the doctors decreased. Therefore, even the doctors who have not faced any workplace violence are influenced by news of workplace violence against doctors and are adopting safer strategies in the management of patients.

Health Care Organizations: Soft Target during COVID-19 Pandemic

Health care organizations have been challenged by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic for some time, while in January 2020, it was not immediately suspected that it would take such a global expansion. In the past, other studies have already pointed out that health care systems, and more specifically hospitals, can be a so-called “soft target” for terrorist attacks. This report has now examined whether this is also the case in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.During the lockdown, hospitals turned out to be the only remaining soft targets for attacks, given that the other classic targets were closed during the lockdown. On the other hand, other important factors have limited the risk of such attacks in hospitals. The main delaying and relative risk-reducing factors were the access control on temperature and wearing a mask, no visits allowed, limited consultations, and investigations.But even then, health care systems and hospitals were prone to (cyber)terrorism, as shown by other COVID-19-related institutions, such as pharmaceuticals involved in developing vaccines and health care facilities involved in swab testing and contact tracing. Counter-terrorism medicine (CTM) and social behavioral science can reduce the likelihood and impact of terrorism, but cannot prevent (state-driven) cyberterrorism and actions of lone wolves and extremist factions.

Sousse Attacks: A New Perspective on Soft Target Defense and Modern-Day Terrorism Threat

The Sousse attacks embody the main characteristics of terrorism and insurgency as pursued by ISIS. They are presented here as overarching examples of the underlying themes examined in this paper. In the first section, we give an outline of the facts that occurred in Sousse, Tunisia, highlighting features that mark the importance of the events in themselves and in the broader context of terrorism studies. In the second section, we offer a qualitative analysis of the traits of modern-day terrorism threat in the post-ISIS era—in particular, a marked preference for soft targets, all-around enemification of nonconformers, loose ties with perpetrators, massive use of communication technologies and propaganda, dissemination of paramilitary and insurgency know-how, and training. In the third and final section, we discuss the lessons that can be drawn from the events of Sousse, with a specific focus on soft target defense, as relevant for future challenges emerging from the rise and fall of ISIS as a pseudo-state entity and the dissemination of its personnel, ideology, and knowledge outside the territories it once occupied. In particular, we propose a departure from the model of soft target protection to one of defense.