A Conceptual Framework for Addressing Psychological Process in the Development of the Terrorist

Bibliographic Data

ID4086602
AuthorsMax Taylor (University of St Andrews, corresponding author), John Horgan (0000-0002-6948-3907, University of St Andrews)
Year2006
Volume18
Issue4
Pages585-601
Publication date2006-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTerrorism and Political Violence (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0954-6553 • E-ISSN: 1556-1836
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09546550600897413
OpenAlexW1996385508
LanguageEN
Citations received77
References cited8

A conceptual framework is presented for addressing psychological issues in the development of the terrorist. In particular, the authors suggest that viewing terrorism as a process may lead not only to better conceptual development in analyses of the terrorist, but may also lead to the development of more practical and efficient counterterrorism initiatives. Additionally, viewing terrorism in this way may finally lead to the formation of a clear and unambiguous position for psychology within an interdisciplinary approach to analyses of both terrorism and the terrorist. Keywords: cognitive behaviorconceptual frameworkdevelopmentengagementpathwaysprocesspsychology of terrorism This paper arises from research undertaken whilst the first author held an Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences Senior Research Fellowship. Notes For example, D. Rothe and S. L. Muzzatti, "Enemies Everywhere: Terrorism, Moral Panic and US Civil Society," Critical Criminology 12 (2004): 327–350; also see J. Stern, "Fearing Evil," Social Research 71 (2004): 1111–1126. See, for example, John Horgan, The Psychology of Terrorism (London: Routledge, 2005); Andrew Silke, ed., Terrorists, Victims and Society: Psychological Perspectives on Terrorism and its Consequences (Chichester, England: John Wiley, 2003); Max Taylor, The Terrorist (London: Brassey's, 1988). See, for example, Ethel Quayle and Max Taylor, "A Cognitive Behavioural Model of Problematic Internet Use in People with a Sexual Interest in Children," CyberPsychology and Behaviour 6 (2003): 93–106; Max Taylor and Ethel Quayle, "The Internet and Abuse Images of Children: Search, Precriminal Situations and Opportunity," in Richard Wortley and Stephen Smallbone, eds., Situational prevention of Child Sexual Abuse: Crime Prevention Studies, Vol. 19 (jointly published by Criminal Justice Press, Monsey, NY, and Willan Publishing, Cullompton, Devon, 2005). These papers address kinds of problematic behaviour that differs from terrorism, but illustrate commonalities in terms of process explanations. See, for example, J. Horgan (see note 2 above), 86–94. James Jerome Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979); M. Taylor and E. Quayle (see note 3 above). H. H. A. Cooper, "Voices from Troy: What Are We Hearing?" in Outthinking the Terrorist—An International Challenge: Proceedings of the 10th Annual Symposium on the Role of Behavioural Science in Physical Security (Washington, D.C.: Defence Nuclear Agency, 1985), 95. Walter Reich, "Understanding Terrorist Behavior: The Limits and Opportunities of Psychological Enquiry," in Walter Reich, ed., Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of Mind (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 261–279. Max Taylor, "Rational Choice, Behaviour Analysis and Political Violence," in Ronald V. Clarke and Marcus Felson, eds., Routine Activity and Rational Choice: Advances in Criminological Theory, Vol. 5 (Piseataway, NJ: Transaction Press, 1992), 159–178. For example, see A. Testas, "Determinants of Terrorism in the Muslim World: An Empirical Cross-Sectional Analysis," Terrorism and Political Violence 16 (2004): 252–273; A. B. Krueger and J. Maleckova, "Education, Poverty, Political Violence and Terrorism: Is There a Causal Connection?," NBER Working Paper No. 9074 (July 2002); T. R. Gurr and T. Björgo, "Economic Factors that Contribute to Terrorism in Social and Political Context: Final Report May 1, 2005," International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security, Club de Madrid, March 8–11, 2005. See J. Horgan (see note 2 above), especially Chapter 4, "Becoming a Terrorist." Max Taylor and Ethel Quayle, Terrorist Lives (London: Brassey's, 1994). Alex P. Schmid, "The Links between Transnational Organized Crime and Terrorist Crimes," Transnational Organized Crime 2 (1996): 40–82. We tend to distinguish between terrorist violence and other forms of violence not only conceptually, but also in terms of how we treat convicted terrorists compared to other violent offenders; it would be interesting to know, for example, if the release of terrorist prisoners resulting from the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland was preceded by programmes of violence reduction and control, as might be expected when other violent offenders are released, and if not, why not? W. Güth, "Bounded Rational Decision Emergence—A General Perspective and Some Selective Illustrations," Journal of Economic Psychology, 21 (2000): 433–458. See, for example, J. A. Bouffard, "The Influence of Emotion on Rational Decision Making in Sexual Aggression," Journal of Criminal Justice 30 (2002): 121–124. See, for example, D. P. Farrington and R. Loeber, "Risk Factors for Delinquency Over Time and Place," Youth Update 17 (1999): 4–5. Karsten Hundeide, "Becoming a Committed Insider," Culture and Psychology 9 (2003): 107–127. E. Wenger, "Communities of Practice: Learning as a Social System," Systems Thinker (1988). Retrieved 14 September 2005 from http://www.co-i-l.com/coil/knowle-dgegarden/cop/lss.shtml. A useful resource for the concepts of Community of Practice can be found at http://www.co-I-l.com/coil/index.shtml See, for example, http://www.sfu.ca/cscd/cli/default.htm for how notions of community of practice can be applied to collaborative learning. S. Hall, "Signification, Representation, Ideology: Althusser and the Post-Structuralist Debates," Critical Studies in Mass Communication 2 (1985): 91–114. See, for example, A. R. Beech and Y. Ward, "The Integration of Etiology and Risk in Sexual Offenders: A Theoretical Framework," Aggression and Violent Behavior 10 (2004): 31–63 and N. Henry, T. Ward and M. Hirshberg, "A Multifactorial Model of Wartime Rape," Aggression and Violent Behavior 9 (2004): 535–562. These variables are drawn from the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) literature. See Aaron T. Beck, Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders (New York: International University Press: 1976) and L. Y. Abramson, G. I. Metalsky and L. B. Alloy, "Hopelessness Depression: A Theory-Based Subtype of Depression," Psychological Review 96 (1989): 358–372 for a broad introduction to this area and to the conceptual thinking underlying these variables. J. Horgan (see note 2 above) discusses these factors as they might relate to some individuals having a greater "openness to socialisation into terrorism" than others, but as with the discussion presented here, argues that they are not only too broad to hold predictive validity, but are frequently a source of significant bias in recalled accounts of initial involvement in terrorism. The relevance of their identification, therefore, ought to be interpreted with caution. Ronald V. Clarke and Marcus Felson, "Introduction: Criminology, Routine Activity, and Rational Choice," in Ronald V. Clarke and Marcus Felson, eds., Routine Activity and Rational Choice: Advances in Criminological Theory, Volume 5 (New Piscataway, NJ: Transaction, 1993), 1–14. Ibid., 6. Ibid. M. Taylor (see note 2 above); M. Taylor (see note 8 above); also see Chapter 5 ("Being a Terrorist") of J. Horgan (see note 2 above). S. Hall (see note 20 above), 99. Aaron T. Beck, "Prisoners of Hate," Behaviour Research and Therapy 40 (2002): 209–216, 210. M. Taylor (see note 8 above). M. Taylor and J. Horgan, "The Psychological and Behavioural Bases of Islamic Fundamentalism," Terrorism and Political Violence 13 (2001): 37–71. Ronald V. Clarke and Marcus Felson, (See Note 24 above). Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004). Biographies and autobiographies of terrorists seem to suggest this to be the case in examples ranging from Baader-Meinhof members, such as that of Michael Baumann (in M. Baumann, Terror or Love? Bommi Baumann's Own Story of His Life as a West German Urban Guerrilla (New York: Grove Press, 1977)) to more contemporary examples such as Abimael Guzmán (in Simon Strong, Shining Path: Terror and Revolution in Peru (New York: Times Books, 1992)) and Timothy McVeigh (by Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck, American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing (New York: Regan Books, 2001)). Examples might be "psychological traps" (see J. Z. Rubin, "Psychological Traps," in Roy J. Lewicki, David M. Saunders, John W. Minton, eds., Negotiation: Readings, Exercises, and Cases (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1999), 399–407) and "Groupthink" (Irving L. Janis, Victims of Groupthink (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972); Irving L. Janis, Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes, 2nd Ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982)). For a specific discussion of suicide bombings, see Ariel Merari, "Social, Organisational and Psychological Factors in Suicide Terrorism," in Tore Björgo, ed., Root Causes of Terrorism: Myths, Realities, Ways Forward (London: Routledge, 2005). Merari identifies three elements of suicide terrorism: indoctrination (ideology), group commitment, and personal commitment—elements that correspond broadly to the processes identified in this paper. Temporal factors also seem to be important—he notes that 93% of all attacks occur within one month of initial contact and consent, with 33% occurring within ten days. Group forces and the influence of ideology through what Merari describes as "indoctrination" rather than psychopathology seem to characterise the processes the suicide bomber is exposed to. M. Sageman (see note 32 above) describes the significance of this in the context of initial involvement in Al Qaeda. See J. Horgan, "Leaving Terrorism Behind: An Individual Perspective," in A. Silke, ed., Terrorists, Victims and Society: Psychological Perspectives on Terrorism and Its Consequences (Chichester, England: Wiley, 2003), 109–130. J. Horgan and M. Taylor, "The Provisional Irish Republican Army: Command and Functional Structure," Terrorism and Political Violence 9 (1997): 1–32. See the discussion in B. McAllister, "Al Qaeda and the Innovative Firm: Demythologising the Network," Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 27 (2004): 297–319. Alexander L. George and Andrew Bennett, Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005). See, for example, M. Taylor (see note 8 above); J. Horgan (see note 2 above); M. Harrison, "The Logic of Suicide Terrorism" (August 2003), retrieved 21 September 2005 from http://www.securitymanagement.com/library/Suicide_Harrison0803.pdf; M. Harrison, "An Economist Looks at Suicide Terrorism," retrieved 21 September 2005 from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/faculty/harrison/papers/terrorism.pdf. M. Taylor (see note 8 above). The following discuss approaches to rule governance and terrorism: M. Taylor and J. Horgan (see note 27 above); M. R. Dixon, S. Dymond, R. A. Rehfeldt, B. Roche and K. R. Zlomke, "Terrorism and Relational Frame Theory," Behavior and Social Issues 12 (2003): 129–147; for a technical introduction see Stephen C. Hayes, ed., Rule-Governed Behavior: Cognition, Contingencies and Instructional Control (New York: Plenum, 1989), 153–190. See also Steven C. Hayes, Reville Niccolls, Akihiko Masuda, and Alyssa K. Rye, Prejudice, Terrorism, and Behavior Therapy. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice 9, 296–301, 2002. Additional informationNotes on contributorsMax Taylor Max Taylor is Professor in International Relations at the CSTPV, Universtiy of St. Andrews. He is a forensic psychologist with particular interests in ideology and behavioral approaches to understanding terrorism. Dr. John Horgan is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St. Andrews where he also lectures in International Relations. His work on terrorism is widely published, and his books include The Future of Terrorism (with Max Taylor) and The Psychology of Terrorism. He is currently writing a book on the terrorism radicalization process, and in July 2006, he was awarded an Airey Neave Fellowship to conduct research on individual disengagement from terrorist movements (2006–2008). John Horgan John Horgan, Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9AL. E-mail: [email protected]

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