Marieke Liem discusses risk perception regarding terrorist threats in the Netherlands on Dutch NPO Radio 1.
On Wednesday 11 December 2019, Marieke Liem, Associate Professor, appeared as a guest on the NPO Radio 1 podcast. The central topic of the podcast was risk perception among the Dutch population.
During the podcast the research project by Marieke Liem, Sanneke Kuipers and Jessica Sciarone was briefly discussed. They conducted research into risk perception among the Dutch population during the period 2012-2017. The project was commissioned by the Dutch Research and Documentation Centre (WODC). The perceived risk perception among inhabitants rose steadily during that period. Spikes occurred during 2013-2014 as a result of the unrest in Ukraine and the declaration of the Islamic State. During this period the number of inhabitants that worried about likely threats rose to 67% of the inhabitants that were questioned. Over the last few years the percentage has dropped and during spring of 2019 approximately 62% of the persons questioned were worried.
Similar to Europe
The official threat level in the Netherlands has been scaled down but are people less afraid as a result? Liem states that the risk perception has been reduced but that people still believe that possible attacks are a realistic threat. We are still at two thirds of the Dutch population. It also seems that the risk perception of Dutch inhabitants is similar to the risk perception of inhabitants of other European countries.