Motives For Terrorism Essay

In the past weeks we have explored what makes up the mind of a terrorist by considering various psychological and behavioral factors of terrorism. Another factor we discussed was Osama Bin Laden: Terrorist CEO and the evolution of Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. I will summarize categorizing the means of communication and influence they have upon advancing terrorist narratives, the psychological and behavioral factors within Al-Qaeda leadership and affiliate groups, compare and contrast his ability to communicate and exert influence upon these various audiences from the years preceding 9/11 until his death. All these factors play a part with one another in order to understand the big picture.

Peer pressure could come from a series of people. In many cases adults pressure children to act, dress, and submit to different situations in life. Salvation by Langston Hughes brings forth a very relatable topic to the reader’s eyes.The author’s purpose of Salvation is strictly to bring light to the role adults play in children's decision making. In other words the author expressed a time he was pressured to believe and do as adults say and he also dicuss the negative affect being pressured had on his

Terrorism is a difficult issue to understand and grasp for many people. What is even more difficult to understand is what drives an individual to become radicalized to the point of joining a terrorist organization and committing terrorist acts. While there is not specific criteria or a “cookie cutter” approach to understanding what motivates and radicalizes an individual to participate in such atrocities, there are however, several psychological and behavioral factors that have been common among these individuals. The following paper will outline some of the psychological and behavioral factors that attribute to an individual’s radicalization and eventual willingness and even perhaps

This excerpt from Silke’s Becoming a Terrorist aims to determine what causes someone to become a terrorist. Silke argues that simply labeling terrorists as mentally unbalanced or psychotic prevents us from achieving a fuller understanding of the phenomenon. As it turns out, there is no one factor that determines whether a person will become a terrorist. Instead, it is a combination of any number of factors from economic circumstance to vengeance and these factors vary widely depending on the culture, social context, terror group, and individual involved.

"The FBI defines three types of terrorists: (1) a leader with a strong commitment to their groups belief system; (2) an "activist operator" who often has a criminal background and implements their groups agenda; and (3) an idealist who finds a sense of purpose in his commitment to their group." (Kressel, 82) In the field of psychology, it is the psychologists duty to try to come up with theories or correlations, which help people group and identify terrorist or terroristic behavior, quickly and consistantly. There are many common assumptions about the common terrorist, but there are no true or definite catagories to place them in. A terrorist is formed by his environment either through ways of

Terrorism has been an important part of social behavior for over 2,000 years. Between the years of 1980 and 1995, terroristic groups motivated by religious beliefs had increased by 43% (Hoffman). Religious beliefs and culture are a main reason groups and individuals resort to terrorism. Groups resort to terrorism as a consequence of seeing their culture demolished, as well as religious motives. Terrorist groups have many intentions when it comes to acts of terrorism. They main ones are they want to create fear globally, weaken the government, and obtain universal recognition for what they have done. Religiously motivated terrorist groups usually have high authority targets. These targets include government offices, banks, and national airlines. From the group’s perspective, terrorism is the only practical option. Groups are formed centered on certain factors like culture and religion. Many terrorists will receive support from their followers

Finally, the usage of the professional knowledgebase has strengths to utilizing during my field placement. According to Reamer (2005), “Documentation in social work—whether it concerns clinical, supervisory, management, or administrative duties—now serves six primary functions”. (Reamer, 2005, p. 326) Supervision provided feedback on the effectiveness of my professional knowledgebase. I was shown how to present myself professional as well as how to complete daily activities. I become familiar with documenting appropriately when necessarily. It took me some time to pick up on the language and terminology that was used at my field placement. Assessments and planning guides the treatment. There are strengths and limitations of the approaches at

Over the years there has been many different terrorist leaders that have been able to communicate effectively and gain a large amount of committed supporters all over the world. These terrorist leaders have used a wide range of different tools and techniques to modify the psychological and

There are many things can be seen in the psychology of terrorism. Unfortunately there is not good science on psychological factors of terrorism; there are theories and educated opinions (DeAngelis, 2009). The one overarching factor is the fear with which terrorism is based. By definition, terrorism is acts that cause terror by one group on to another, usually for political goals (“Terrorism”, n.d.). Why people suffer from these fears is related to their psychological behavior. Terrorist activity can be described as “fostering a sense of helplessness and hopelessness, in demonstrating the incompetence of the authorities, destroying a sense of security and safety, and in provoking inappropriate reactions from individuals and authorities.” (Alexander & Klein, 2005). Terrorists themselves are affected by psychological behavior; their own and that of others around them. They may even be affected by the behavior of victims and potential victims. Osama Bin Laden has even been known to admit that in the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, his

It’s impossible to know how relatively ordinary, rational individuals are able to justify their involvement in terrorist organizations. The radicalization process is extremely personal and as a result varies from one individual to the next. This makes it difficult to know who is susceptible to radicalization and who is not. In an attempt to understand this, I’ve tried to reduce the process down to three key elements. Dubbed the three C’s of radicalization; The Catalyst, The Course and The Cause, these describe the environmental, facilitators and triggers that inform an individual’s decision to resort to terrorism.

The Holocaust was one of the most horrific events in history. It involved the systematic mass slaughter of European Jews and certain groups of people that were unable to meet the standards of the Aryans. The Holocaust involved the slaughter of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators under Adolf Hitler. The three main causes of the Holocaust were, Anti-semitism, Propaganda, and Hitler.

Violence is a motivating factor, and within terrorism, this is the modus operandi. Fear is the main objective of terrorism when used, the idea is to either motivate a group of people to comply with demands. Acts of martyrdom have been around for about 3500 years, and these ancient stories have carried out to modern day.

Since the darkest day, September 11, 2001, the citizens of The United States of America are on alert and are weary of acts of terrorism. One can turn on the television and can easily find an act of terrorism. Most recent acts are the Boston bombings or the bombings in Volgograd, and most recently the two bombings in Sochi. What drives someone to complete the devastating acts of terrorism? How can on predict, based off of antisocial behaviors, who is more likely to become a terrorist? Regardless of ethnicity, nationality, or racial background, experts agree terrorists share one common link: their childhood. One tends to be more susceptible to becoming a terrorist because of a traumatic event in their childhood to cause antisocial behavior.

Although there is no one single fingerprint that defines the psychological makeup of a terrorist, there are several broad characteristics that indicate a person’s vulnerability toward radicalization. Terrorists willing to carrying out a suicide operation, as a subset of the larger radicalized group, are certainly no exception. Indeed, dedication to the point of self-extermination requires a deeper degree of radicalization than to merely fight for one’s chosen cause.

Through the reading, several psychological theories have been identified in order to understand violence. These theories have been used to explain the relationship between violence that leads to terrorist acts. One of these theories is the instinct theory, which uses the psychoanalytic model to address the roots of all forms of violence. This model suggests that the idea of terrorism is rooted in childhood abuse (pg. 18). Lloyd De Mause observes that “The roots of terrorism lie not in this or that American foreign policy error, but in the extremely abusive families of the terrorists” (pg. 19). In addition to psychological theories, there are key factors that come into play, such as the motives and vulnerabilities of an individual. According to Randy Borum, a “motive is an emotion, desire, physiological need, or similar impulse that acts as an encouragement to action, and vulnerability refers to weakness or liability to yield, as to persuasion or temptation” which results in “one’s motivation for engaging in terrorism because of the “cause” or ideology of the group” (pg., 24). Individuals who want to be a part of something in which others who are involved share similarities lead to the feeling of being a