Forensic Psychology

by Graham M Davies

  What this chapter has sought to achieve from the perspective of forensic psychology is a broader and more grounded understanding of terrorism as a process. L’homme armé referred to at the beginning of this chapter is unlikely to go away or be controlled; we can, however, perhaps through sound psychological enquiry, at least reach a better understanding of terrorism.

  NOTES

  Information on a country’s specific counterterrorist strategy is usually available on the country’s governmental website or in published reports. Britain’s counter- terrorist strategy can be found at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/counter-terrorism/uk-counter-terrorism-strat/, and US counter-terrorist strategy at https://homeland.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/A-National-Strategy-to-Win-the-War.pdf

  ESSAY/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  Critically describe and assess the significance of the methodological and practical constraints that limit forensic psychology research into terrorism and the terrorist.

  Discuss how useful it is to distinguish between terrorists and terrorism.

  What is the “ARC” of terrorist involvement? Is this a useful way to think about terrorism?

  One of the great challenges in understanding terrorism is why so few people actually engage in terrorism, given the extensive pool of political dissident activity (Taylor, 2010). Why do you think this might be the case?

  ANNOTATED READING LIST

  Alonso, R. (2003). The IRA and armed struggle. London: Routledge. Based on extensive fieldwork, Alonso describes the key dynamics that occur in relation to recruitment to the Provisional IRA, and how its members justify their violent activity. It places the analysis within the broader framework of terrorist activity in Ireland.

  Cronin, A. K. (2009). How terrorism ends: Understanding the decline and demise of terrorist campaigns. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Taking primarily a group focus, Cronin explores how terrorist organisations cease terrorist activity. She explores the role of decapitation and leadership removal, negotiation, success, clear failure, repression and reorientation across a wide range of terrorist organisations, from Irish organisations to Al Qaeda.

  McCauley, C., & Moskalenko, S. (2011) Friction. How radicalization happens to them and us. Oxford: Oxford University Press. This book explores the ways in which people are radicalised. It draws from a wide range of case material from Russia in the late nineteenth century, the US in the 1970s, and Afghanistan after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. It outlines the effects of government action on radicalisation and offers new perspectives on radicalisation occurring on a large scale, not simply at the individual or group level.

  Leuprecht, C., Hataley, T., Moskalenko, S., & McCauley, C. (2010, January). Narratives and counter-narratives for global jihad: opinion versus action. In Countering violent extremist narratives. National Coordinator for Counterterrorism (NCTb), Netherlands. Retrieved from: http://english.nctb.nl This paper suggests that the “global jihad” narrative means different things to different audiences. Whilst many people may accept and agree with that narrative, few will engage in violent radical action or terrorism. Counter-terrorism initiatives targeting that narrative therefore may not necessarily be targeting potential terrorists. Their analysis identifies likely targets for intervention, and suggests that different counter-narratives are required to combat each part of the “global jihad” narrative and the subset of Muslims who believe it.

  Merari, A. (2010). Driven to death: Psychological and social aspects of suicide terrorism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Merari explores the socio-demographic and psychological qualities of failed Islamic suicide bombers, their recruiters, and a control group of non-suicide terrorists. He describes differences between them, and also suggests there is evidence for mental health differences between failed suicide bombers and the others.

  Monahan, J. (2012) The individual risk assessment of terrorism. Psychology, Public Policy and Law, 18, 167–205. This paper provides a very comprehensive review of issues associated with risk analysis of terrorism. It is particularly useful in identifying the central conceptual and methodological issues that complicate and limit risk assessment, and it makes useful comparisons between what we know about risk assessment for violent behaviour and risk assessment for terrorism.

  Sageman, M. (2004). Understanding terror networks. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Sageman illustrates, using social network analysis and case studies, how membership of jihadi terrorist groups originates through friendship and kinship networks. He argues that factors such as poverty and religious devotion are not the principal causes of membership.

  Taylor Francis Online: Terrorism and political violence (multimedia content). http://www.tandfonline. com/page/ftpv-multimedia Gives access to a series of podcast interviews and interview transcripts with authors talking about their work. Topics include Rethinking radicalisation (Clark McCauley), The intersection of criminology and terrorism studies (Joshua Freilich), The weaknesses of terrorism research (Marc Sageman), Dissident Irish Republicanism (John Morrison) and Foreign fighters (Ces Moore).

  Taylor, M. & Horgan, J. (2006). A conceptual model for addressing psychological process in the development of the terrorist. Terrorism and Political Violence, 18, 585–660. Describes how a process model might inform our understanding of engagement with terrorism, and its subsequent development. It takes a behavioural perspective, using examples from both Irish and Islamic terrorism.

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