Identification of terrorism in criminal law

Both current and past events can give people a clear idea of terrorism. This perceptual cognition promotes the development of criminal law and intensifies punishments for terrorist crimes, thus creating a risk of legal instrumentalism. To contain this risk, it is necessary to examine the concept of terrorism on a rational level. Terrorism is essentially a specific kind of thinking formed in the specific historical and cultural context of a country. In China, it is a thinking system that combines separatism and religious extremism. Therefore, when the will of a perpetrator of a terroristic act affects his or her actions, his or her behaviour reflects the characteristics of performative violence. This reality is the key to revealing the thinking behind terrorist acts, so it needs to be expressed using the constitutive elements of the crime. Because the purpose is determined by the mind, only by revealing the purpose of the constituent elements of a crime can the perpetrator’s criminal thinking be represented. Only through the legislative model of verkuemmert zweiaktige delikte can the rational identification of terrorism be realized in judicial practice.