Psychology of Terrorism - National Criminal Justice Reference Service

effects that help facilitate violence. First, aggression becomes more justifiable when aimed against“bad”people, particularly those who intentionally cause harm to others. Second, extremists describe theresponsible party as “evil”; dehumanizing a target in this regard further facilitates aggression. Third,those suffering adverse conditions at the hands of others do not see themselves as “bad” or “evil”;this furtheridentifies the responsible person or group as different from those affected and, thus, makes justifyingaggression even easier.- Also, it is important to understand that analyzing counterterrorist intelligence requires anunderstanding of behavior, not just ideology. Investigators and analysts who attempt to understandand anticipate how a person will act in a given situation should seek to understand that individual’s“map,” or perception, of the situation. Ideology may be a part of that, but other important dynamicsand behavioral factors may contribute as well.24. Bourne, L. E., Healy, A. F., & Beer, F. A. (2003). Military conflict and terrorism: General psychologyinforms international relations. Review of General Psychology, 7(2), 189-202.Call Number: Editor's Annotation: Empirical study of college student’s hypothetical responses toaggression from another nation state. Examined personality styles in addition to experimentalcondition-Persons higher in dominance almost always advocated for more aggressive retaliation than thosewho were more submissive. A similar but less robust or reliable trend was found for greateraggression in more conservative students than those that were more liberal-Anticipated reactions were similar for military and terrorist attacks.-Men and women showed similar levels of conflict in their reactions, unless a peace treaty was inplace, in which women were more forgiving and men more aggressive.-Responses escalated in level of conflict after repeated attacks.-Very little discussion of methods.-Very little generalizability, given college student sample.-Does not contribute to understanding terrorist behaviour.-Strength of personality variables in predictory response is interesting.25. Bowyer-Bell, J. (1998). The dynamics of the armed struggle. London: Frank Cass and Co.Call Number: Editor's Annotation: The Dynamics of the Armed Struggle is an authoritative andprovocative analysis of the nature of one of the time's most prevalent forms of political violence.-Dr Bowyer Bell has attended wars, not seminars, in pursuit of data, insight and explanation, and hasbeen shot at, kidnapped, expelled and questioned from Central America to Northern Ireland: ascholar amid terror. The text arises from his access to the underground, from time spent in therevolutionary ecosystem and among those who kill to make a dream real. The result is a uniqueanalysis that transcends traditional studies of insurgency or terrorism, depicting a strange worldwhere the will is trusted, not tangible assets, where a galaxy of the faithful seeks to alter history.Sometimes the will prevails over the assets of the state: the weak win because their will endures untilthe centre fails.-The structure that the faithful create, everywhere different yet everywhere the same, has not beenexamined before from the inside out. The Dynamics of the Armed Struggle is both a special and ageneral study of the hidden world of the gunman not as a mirror image of everyday reality amenableto academic tools, but as perceived by a scholar with a visa into violence. The reader will no longerfind the armed struggles of our time inexplicable, merely horrible, yet emerging as cohesive meansto act on events. This book offers a compelling insight into an elusive phenomenon, a process that attimes allows the few to change the course of history.26. Brackett, D. W. (1996). Holy terror: Armageddon in Tokyo. New York: Weatherhill.Call Number: Editor's Annotation: This book provides a fairly detailed account of the evolution ofthe Aum Shinri Kyo from Buddhist sect to cult and ultimately to apocalyptic terrorist group. Itcovers the plan and execution of the now famous Sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway, butalso details other atrocities committed by Aum members both within the group (e.g., purification