Lecture 7: Understanding involvement in terrorism Flashcards
What are enabling factors for doing terrorism? Crenshaw 1981
Enabling factors for terrorism may be:
1. Modernisation
a. produces an interrelated set of factors that is a significant permissive cause of terrorism, as increased complexity on all levels of society and economy creates opportunities and vulnerabilities.
2. Urbanisation
a. is part of the modern trend toward aggregation and complexity, which increases the number and accessibility of targets and method.
3. Social Facilitation
a. This concept refers to social habits and historical traditions that sanction the use of violence against the government, making it morally and politically justifiable.
4. Government inaction or incapability
a. government’s inability or unwillingness to prevent terrorism is the most salient political factor in the category of permissive causes.
What can be direct causes of terrorism according to crenshaw 1981?
Direct causes of terrorism:
1. Grievancces
2. Inaccessibility to politics
3. Societal context
a. Terrorism is essentially the result of elite disaffection; it represents the strategy of a minority, who may act on behalf of a wider popular constituency who have not been consulted about, and do not necessarily approve of, the terrorists’ aims or methods.
4. Precipitating events
When does someone do terrorrism according to crenshaw?
When the terrorist group reasons that there is no alternative. Terrorism is the result of a gradual growth of commitment and opposition, a group development that furthermore depends on government action. The psychological relationships within the terrorist group, the interplay of commitment, risk, solidarity, loyalty, guilt, revenge, and isolation, discourage terrorists from changing the direction they have taken.
What are the levels of analyses of terrorism according to LaFree and Ackerman (2009)?
There are two kinds of individual-level analyses of terrorism:
1. Psychological
2. Demographic
Psychological approaches started with psychopathology, but it is not a convincing explanation.
The search for a terrorist personality is destined to fail; however there may be traits that terrorists share
What may be traits that terrorists share?
- Perception of unjustice and/or consequential search for vengeance
- Search for meaning and belonging
- Trauma
- Seeking excitement
- Empowerment through violence
- Boost in personal status
Explain why terrorists dehumanise their victims using LaFree and Ackerman 2009?
- Men are more likely to engage in terrorism
- Young people are more likely to become terrorists
- People who, compared to their surroundings, are better educated and well-off tend to have terrorist tendicies
- In the context of jihadi violence, married people are more likely to be terrorists
On demographic-level, what approaches do you take into account when analysing terrorism (Lafree Ackerman)
- Shared grievance
- Ideology
- Mobilisation
Groups often use personal relations for recruitment purposes. Furthermore, often recruitment happens because the community supports terrorist action.
What are reasons to engage in violence on group level according to Ackerman and LaFree 2009?
Reasons to engage in violence:
1. Rational choice
2. Socialisation
3. Group dynamics
4. Group structure
What are the 4 categories of macro radicalisation?
- Legitimate authority
a. The best way to respond to terrorist violence may be to provide effective, legitimate alternatives for political expression, such as viable social movements or political parties. - Democratisation (direction is unclear)
a. Democratization may be related to terrorism most directly through its role in increasing political opportunities, as governments deny any kind of political protest, including terrorism - Failed states
- Religion
According to Schuurman & Carthy 2020 what are the problems with Radicalization research?
Radicalisation has emerged as the most popular narrative to explain involvement in terrorism. However, most radicals never took part in violence and never will.
An issue in the research on radicalisation is the lack of a non-violent control group, as only violent individuals are studied. The issue is that, for potential cause of terrorism, there will always be more people with the same feature, but that never turned to violence.
What are the main challenges of Radicalization research according to Schuurman and Carthy 2020?
Three main challenges:
1. Conceptualisation of radicalisation and terrorism
2. Lack of comparative research
3. Various combinations of risk and protective factors
What are the methodological issues of radicalization research according to Schuurman and Carthy 2020
Methodological issues:
1. Lack of detailed biographical information
2. Uncertainty in roles in groups
3. Preemptive arrests leads to uncertainty
4. No visible explanation of terrorism
5. Need for longitudinal designs
Is Radicalization a Help or Hindrance in terrorist research?
- Dominant Concept Since 2004
o Subjective
o Uncertain Reliability
o Differing interpretations
Behavioral: process towards engaging in terrorism
Cognitive: internalization progressively more extremist views - Above all:
o Most radicals do not become terrorists.
o Not all terrorists (primarily) ideologically motivated
What is the Root Causes problem?
Implicit / explicit link between circumstances / experiences à behavior
It can be a factor, but most of the times its not a single factor.’
* ‘Frustration-aggression’ hypothesis very common
* Mono-theoretical accounts have limited explanatory potential
* Correlation rather than causation
Correlation rather than causation
What is the radicalization puzzle?
What are Risk and Protective factors of terrorism?
Radicalization onset and outcome governed by risk as well as promotive / protective factors
Promotive factors/Risk factors
- Lower the likelihood of future involvement in delinquency (overtreding)
Protective factors
- Mitigate the influence of risk factors
o * E.g., employment, education, family (LaFree et al., 2018)
What is the best way to explain participation in terrorism?
Participation in terrorism as result of a process in which mmultitude of risk and protective factors, divided over several levels of analysis play a role.
