Geifman researches and writes on 20th- and 21st-century fundamentalist terrorism, emphasizing psychological patterns of political violence through comparative analysis.

As a psychohistorian, she focuses on incentives for extremist behavior and the impact of organized brutality on the daily lives and emotional conditions of civilians in areas that are affected by terrorism.

Geifman has introduced the comparison between the pre-revolutionary Russian terrorist groups and the contemporary perpetrators of Islamist violence into the conversation on terrorism.

[3] Geifman downplays the importance of revolutionary ideologies, focusing not on the intellectual but on the psychological aspects of terrorism, which she relates to the perpetrators' difficulties in dealing with identity crises of modernity and post-modernity.

She points to the parallel between Hamas’ commitment to building up its “security forces,” and the Bolshevik establishment and funding of the Cheka (first Soviet secret police, precursor to the KGB) as its first priority upon gaining power.