Matthew Tien

Matthew is pursuing his master of science as part of the Jill Dando’s Institute of Security and Crime Science Countering Organized Crime and Terrorism program at the University College London, England.

Matthew has recently moved to London after completing a BA in Criminology and an MBA from Canadian based universities (Saint Mary’s University and Sobey School of Business respectfully). His current interests seek to reduce crime opportunities in large cities through environmental design.

His research interest lies within the field of terrorist decision-making, with particular emphasis on how terrorist actors select “targets” for attacks. His current research looks to understand how individual factors influence perceived attractiveness in potential targets amongst a series of London based locations. Matthew intends to use a MaxDiff exercise to capture respondents’ perception of attractive locations in a manner that quantifies trade-offs and mimics a more natural method of selection. These results will be compared against both individual data relating to study specific constructs (i.e. familiarity or risk perception), and an existing “target” attractiveness framework.