PSY-Psychology of Terrorism class
Carvajal.02
ProfilingTerrorists.pdf
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a. Profiling Terrorists b. Terrorist Ideology
PSY 344: PSYCHOLOGY OF
TERRORISM
• “The idea of terrorism as only the product of mental disorder or psychopathy has been discredited” (Crenshaw, 1992).
CAN YOU “PROFILE” A TERRORIST?
General risk factors for violence do not work for Terrorists
The earliest study (Russell and Miller 1977) found that the following people tend to join terrorist organizations:
22-25 years of age 80% male, with women in support roles 75-80% single 66% middle or upper class background 66% some college or graduate work 42% previous participation in working class advocacy
groups 17% unemployed 18% strong religious beliefs
CAN YOU “PROFILE” A TERRORIST?
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Israel Bombers
– 17-22 yrs old – Male, single, young – Uneducated – Unemployed – Unmarried – Dispirited youth – Bleak future – Recruited hours before – “Brainwashed” for honor and family status – Not left alone until act complete Novosolov (2008)
New Terrorists
– 28-35 yrs old
– Male, married, older
– Had higher education
– Financially comfortable
– From middle class families
– Lived in West (sometimes for years) exposed to opportunity
– Blended in with society
– Ignored the dress, customs and grooming of traditional Muslims
– Left alone, far away, for years.
Not “brainwashed,” but rather “true believers” Novosolov (2008)
Victoroff, 2005
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1910
They need to
have a high
degree of
physical
courage
1910
They must
possess
ability to act
effectively as
loners
1910 They must possess a
“killer” instinct 1910
They must believe
passionately in the justness of
their cause
Terrorist Qualities
Terrorist tend to view things as right and wrong (black & white without shades of gray) them and “us”
Terrorists tend to view their opponents as evil, inhumane (dehumanized) not like “us”
Terrorist Qualities
• Three factors – feelings of injustice, need for identity, and need for belonging –
What little actual data collected --found these factors often to co-occur in terrorists and to strongly influence decisions to enter terrorist organizations and to engage in terrorist activity. (Borum, 2004)
Narcissistic? Jailed experience “Terrorized as Terrorist”
Factors Associated w/Terrorists
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Terrorist Leaders
• Charisma
• Strong hierarchy
• Organization skills
• Develop group cohesion and loyalty
Lone Wolf Terrorists
• Majority of U.S. terrorist attacks
• Difficult to track and predict
• Explosives and firearms are weapons of choice
• Principally target civilians
• Premeditated and self-financed attacks
• Usually do not plan to die during their attacks
Lone Wolf Terrorists
Characteristics
• Operate individually
• Do not belong to organized terrorist group,
network, or organization
• Act without the direct influence of a leader or hierarchy
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Lone Wolf Terrorists
Characteristics
• May claim to be acting on behalf of an interest group
• Premeditated and planned attacks
• More likely to be emotionally disturbed
• Poor interpersonal and social skills
• Borum (2004) Rather than profiling terrorist perhaps psychology could better serve the preventative efforts by answering the following questions:
• How and why do people enter, stay in, and leave terrorist organizations?
• To what extent is psychopathology relevant for understanding or preventing terrorism?
• To what extent is individual personality relevant for understanding or preventing terrorism?
CAN YOU “PROFILE” A TERRORIST?
Psychology has tried to profile terrorists with limited success, as they constantly change over time. But some past scholarly work on Terrorism typologies :
POSTS MODEL
HACKERS TYPOLOGY
HAMDEN’S FOUR TYPES “MALIGNANT DESTRUCTIVENESS”
THE DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH
Psychology of Terrorism
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• Former CIA psychiatrist, Jerrold Post.
• Post (1984) built on the earlier models that sought to explain terrorism a form of psychopathology or personality defect, arguing that two different forms of dysfunction produced two different patterns of terrorist behavior:
• ANARCHIC-IDEOLOGUE
• NATIONALIST-SECESSIONIST
POSTS MODEL
• The first type was the Anarchic-ideologue. These individuals were hypothesized to come from severely dysfunctional families where they likely had suffered severe abuse or maltreatment, leading them to have hostile feelings toward their parents. Their extremist ideology was a displacement of their rebellion and hostility onto the “state” authority. That is, they acted out hostility by rebelling against the “state” of their parents.
ANARCHIC-IDEOLOGUE
• In contrast, the second type, the Nationalist- secessionist was not hostile, but loyal to his parents, and his extremism was motivated to retaliate or avenge the wrongs done to his parents by the state. In essence, they rebelled against external society out of loyalty to their parents (Post ,1984 ).
NATIONALIST-SECESSIONIST
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Includes terrorist typology of :
CRUSADERS (idealistically inspired and acting in service of a higher cause)
CRIMINALS (who simply use terrorism for personal gain) CRAZIES (often motivated by false beliefs and perceptions
arising from their mental illness). Hacker notes immediately (and correctly) “of course, the pure type is rarely
encountered.”
HACKERS TYPOLOGY
• 1. The Psychopathic Terrorist
• The Ethnogeographic Terrorist:
2. religious or 3. political
• 4. The Retributional Terrorist
HAMDEN’S FOUR TYPES
• Religious and Spiritual traditions across cultures and epochs have traditionally focused on the transpersonal accepts of living, but as psychological science evolves, there may be a recognition and the need to study this transpersonal level of self. (Appel & Kim-Appel, 2010)
• The Transpersonal domain represents the need for an “expansive” identity beyond the personal ego and the desire to experience “transrational” stages of consciousness (see Walsh & Vaughan , 1993)
TRANSPERSONAL ROOTS OF “MALIGNANT DESTRUCTIVENESS” AND TERRORISM
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• It is at the transpersonal sphere of influence one can be driven towards aggressive acts. It is from this level one can express what Grof [1985] calls “malignant destructiveness”. Grof indicates the need to distinguish “defensive” or “benign aggression” which is in service of the (perceived) survival of the individual to the larger platform of “Malignant destructiveness.”
“MALIGNANT DESTRUCTIVENESS”.
• “Malignant destructiveness” is a form of aggression that can be done with even without any biological or economic reasons. “Malignant destructiveness” can be born out a lack of a integrated transpersonal perspective (e.g. experiencing a discontinuity among living organisms) as well as in a striving for transcendence in the context of desiring death-rebirth.
“MALIGNANT DESTRUCTIVENESS”.
• A transpersonal search can be worked through in a constructive moral and ethical system or it can be abandoned in despair and/or existential crisis …
• Or this innate desire for purpose,
meaning, and transcendence beyond a finite material life can also be perverted or hijacked by extreme or pathological spiritual /religious and other value systems that advocate self or other destruction .
“MALIGNANT DESTRUCTIVENESS”.
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Ideology
• Radicalization
• Individual’s indoctrination to fully embrace ideology, mission and level of violence
• Terrorists believe their way of life and fundamental cultural values are superior to those they attack
Ideological Terrorism
• Ideological terrorism vs. single-issue terrorism
– Ideological terrorism refers to small groups who terrorize for the purpose of imposing their political ideals on others
– Single-issue terrorists embrace a single cause such as antiglobalism, animal rights, ecology, abortion, or anarchism
– Ideological terrorism developed from theories of revolution and was closely tied to models of guerilla warfare
• The effect of religious violence on ideological terrorism
– Most of the groups lost sponsors when the Soviet Union collapsed
– Right-wing groups modified their politics with tailored- made religions, especially in the United States
– As death and violence increased with the advent of religious terrorism, many ideologues renounced violence
– The nations that continued to support terrorism did so under the new rules of the game
» They either endorsed religion or let the issue driving violence become a surrogate religion expressed in absolutist terms
Ideological Terrorism
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• Surrogate religion
– The group replaces religious behavior with an ideology that has the power of religion
– When violence is internalized, that is, focused on its own members, the group can become a religious cult
– If the group targets victims in the outside world, it frequently behaves like a religious terrorist organization
Ideological Terrorism
• State-sponsored terrorism
– State-sponsored terrorism is terrorism supported by a nation-state
– Ideology is related to state-sponsored terrorism, but ideological terrorism has been transformed since the fall of the Soviet Union
– The ideology that supports terrorism tends to come from the passion surrounding an issue, not state sponsorship
– State sponsorship may occur on the fringes, but a single ideology drives the violence
Ideological Terrorism
Religious Fundamentalism
• Religious fundamentalism is characterized by authoritarian and dogmatic religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 2005). Psychologists interested in religion have gone to define fundamentalism as a type or dimension of religiosity as opposed to content (outside of any particular belief system). When measured in this way, fundamentalism has proved to be linked with various forms of prejudice, discrimination, and even aggression (Hunsberger, 1995; Altemeyer ,1988, 2003).
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Fundamentalism unlikely to be a single cause of terrorism
• It is also noteworthy to point out that while widely associated with religious fundamentalism, suicide bombers are not exclusively religious; only 43% are identifiably religious (Brym, 2007) Most suicide bombings are motivated by strategic, political, and territorial reasons.
Fundamentalism unlikely to be a single cause of terrorism
• Religion can serve as a justification and can even help motivate the bombers, but not all terrorism is inspired by religion and religious fundamentalists. Fundamentalism unlikely to be a single cause of terrorism, but it may reflect other aspects of group and personal dynamics.
• While many terrorists are extremists (with and without religious motivation), --yet most extremists are not terrorists
Radical Fundamentalists
• Radical Islamic Fundamentalists willing to use terrorism to achieve their goals represent a very small portion of the Muslim population
– Muslims ≈ 1.6 billion worldwide
– Conservative Muslims ≈ 70%
– Islamic Fundamentalists ≈ 1/3 or < 25%
– Radical Islamic Fundamentalists ≈ 1/3 or < 10%
– Radical Islamic Fundamentalist Terrorists ≈ 1/3 or < 3%
• That’s still 48 million possible Muslim terrorists! But that leaves 1,552,000,000 non-terrorist Muslims!!!
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Radical Fundamentalists
• It is important to maintain the distinction between the religion of Islam and the relatively few whose radical interpretation of their religion leads to terrorist activities
• Obvious parallels exists with various “Christian” groups – KKK “defending the Christian way of life” – violent antiabortionists “saving the souls of the unborn” – these terrorist groups represent a very small proportion of
those claiming to be “Christian” – the vast majority view their actions as non-Christian
Inappropriate generalizations
• Words have very powerful symbolic meaning – not only cognitive meaning
– but also emotional meaning and impact
• Conditioning effects can lead to inappropriate generalization at an emotional level even when the cognitive level maintains the appropriate distinction
• Muslim Terrorists = Terrorists = Muslims
Simple Associative Conditioning
• Muslim terrorist – boom!
• Muslim terrorist – boom!
• Muslim terrorist – boom!
• Terrorist = boom!
• Muslim = boom!
media reports
private discussions
nightmares
Conditioned
Emotional
Response (CER)
CERs change reactivity, e.g., increase tendency to overreact
CERs change reactions, e.g., increase tendency to react aversely
CERs generate motivation, e.g., act to terminate or reduce the anxiety
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Simple Associative Conditioning
• The terrorists would like to blur the distinction between Muslims and extremists – it helps alienate Muslims from the West
• But many Muslims resent this prejudice – and it is counterproductive in fighting terrorism
• it reinforces the notion of a Western anti-Muslim bias thereby ‘recruiting’ more terrorists and terrorist sympathizers
• it dilutes the impact of counter-terrorism efforts
New Frames Needed
• To help maintain this distinction requires a new way of describing the problem
• We also need to ask new questions
• To what extent are an individuals life experiences relevant for understanding or preventing terrorism?
• What is the role of ideology in terrorist behavior?
• What distinguishes extremists who act violently from those who do not?
• What are the vulnerabilities of terrorist groups?
• How do terrorist organizations form, function, and fail?
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• Horgan and Taylor (2001) have noted: “What we know of actual terrorists suggests that there is rarely a conscious decision made to become a terrorist. Most involvement in terrorism results from gradual exposure and socialization towards extreme behavior.”
THE DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH
The “Developmental” approach , which “has been advanced, in various forms, by a wide range of commentators.
Terrorism, in this view, is not the product of a single decision but the end result of a dialectical process that gradually pushes an individual toward a commitment to violence over time (radicalization). The process takes place within a larger political environment involving the state, the terrorist group, and the group’s self-designated political constituency. The interaction of these variables in a group setting is used to explain why individuals turn to violence and can eventually justify terrorist actions.
THE DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH
From Borum, 2004
