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Chapter 2: Not Senseless Violence: The Social Underpinnings of Terrorism

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Title: Chapter 2: Not Senseless Violence: The Social Underpinnings of Terrorism


1
Chapter 2Not Senseless Violence The Social
Underpinnings of Terrorism
2
Terrorism as a Social Process Two Frameworks
  • Approaches to the study of social explanations of
    group behavior tend to focus on
  • Meaning of activity
  • Structure of actions
  • Social scientists
  • Use to examine terrorism from meaning and
    structural frameworks
  • Meaning framework
  • The way we interpret the world motivates the
    action we take.
  • Structural framework
  • A groups structure and purpose cause it to act
    and groups are created for specific functions.

3
Meaning framework
  • Meaning Framework
  • Subjective interpretations that people give to
    events, physical objects or actions of others as
    well as themselves.
  • Meanings are developed by individuals and groups.
  • Huntington
  • Future conflicts will take place between worlds
    major civilizations .
  • World is divided into 3 economic groupings and
    conflicts will be based on the distribution of
    wealth.
  • Social action is based on social meaning.
    Terrorist organizations are the result of
    subjective meanings that need to be aggressively
    confronted if the alternative meaning should be
    introduced.

4
Meaning Framework
  • Juergensmeyer
  • The clash between modern values and traditional
    culture as one of the reasons for terrorism.
  • Lewis
  • Trouble between Islam and Western modernity can
    be attributed to the reasons for terrorism.
  • Nance
  • Terrorists take action based on an ideological
    desire for social change.
  • Terrorism results from the meanings applied to
    the modern world by terrorists.
  • Counterterrorism involves specific steps to
    prevent violence and deconstruct terrorist groups.

5
Structural Framework
  • Attempts to understand terrorist behavior by
    looking at the way terrorists organizations
    function is called a structural framework.
  • Black
  • Terrorist organization take an action because
    they belong to a structure that operates for a
    special purpose.
  • The structure and movement of groups can explain
    terrorism.
  • Terrorism develops when an inferior group moves
    against a superior group, inducing mass
    casualties.

6
Structural Framework
  • Latora and Marchiori
  • Terrorist organizations
  • Are structured in the same manner as
    communication and transportation systems.
  • Are composed of networks moving in patterns.
  • Criminal, terrorist, or revolutionary groups
    organize themselves in a network of smaller
    logistical structures.
  • Any point where information, weapons, or
    personnel are gathered is called a node.
  • The node being the critical target for
    counterterrorist operations.
  • If the node is destroyed, the network is
    disrupted.

7
Terrorism as a Religious Process
  • Ellingsen reports two primary reasons for
    continued influence of religion
  • Religion has always been an important factor in
    the history of humanity.
  • Modernization tends to breakdown communities,
    families, and social orientation people seek a
    deeper meaning to their lives.
  • The impact of religion on terrorism, according to
    Ellingsen, is more important than political and
    economic factors.

8
Terrorism as a Religious Process
  • Stern
  • People around the world are returning to their
    religious roots as a means to escape the
    complexity of modern life.
  • When mythological truths compete, violence often
    results.
  • Stories change the nature of terrorist
    organizations and aid in producing a number of
    different group organizations and styles.
  • Individuals join a group because they believe
    they are joining a holy cause, they are usually
    motivated by the organizations sacred story.
  • To maintain the power formally given by the
    sacred story, leaders develop internal
    enforcement mechanisms rewards system.
  • Religion may also produce the lone wolf
    avenger.
  • A person striking out with an ideology but no
    group.

9
Terrorism as a Religious Process
  • Juergensmeyer
  • Violence is a call to purify the world from the
    nonbeliever and the incorrect interpretations in
    a holy war.
  • Believers are participating in a struggle (a
    cosmic struggle) to change history.
  • The holy terrorist is victorious either by
    killing the enemy or by dying in the struggle.

10
Terrorism as a Religious Process
  • Berman
  • Economic factors influence religious terrorism.
  • Religious terrorism is deadlier than any other
    form of terrorism.
  • Statistic there are 20 active religious
    terrorist organizations 18 based on Islam.
  • Rather than attempting to counter a religious
    ideology, counterterrorism must be aimed at
    studying the internal ability of the group to
    operate effectively.

11
Clash of Civilization
  • Huntington
  • Cultural conflicts among worlds dominant
    civilizations constitute a clash of civilization.
  • Regions in which more than one civilization exist
    threaten international peace, and the USA should
    avoid intervening in such areas.
  • Esposito
  • Culture is defined by more than religion and
    there is no monolithic Islamic civilization.
  • Pipes
  • The major conflicts will occur within Islam
    religion.
  • Chomsky
  • The world is too complicated to be explained by
    one big idea.

12
Terrorism as Practical Criminology
  • Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) created
    localized terrorism task forces around the
    country.
  • Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF)
  • Allows the FBI to coordinate law enforcement
    resources in the face of domestic terrorism and
    to expand investigations.
  • The FBI also provides investigative resources
    when Americans are victimized by terrorism in
    other countries.

13
Terrorists v Criminals
Bodrero
  • Terrorists
  • Find strength in a cause and the ideology behind
    the cause
  • Focused
  • Dedicated to a particular cause
  • Disciplined, trained, targets have symbolic value
  • Criminals
  • Usually uncommitted, crime is a method for
    obtaining goods
  • Opportunistic
  • Undedicated to a cause
  • Undisciplined, untrained, self-centered

14
Group Reinforcement and Moral Justification
  • Terrorists must feel they are justified in their
    behavior.
  • Terrorists must look outside normative social
    channels to gain approval.
  • Terrorist group becomes primary source of social
    reality.
  • Terrorist group provides social recognition and
    reinforcement.
  • Terrorist group reshapes identities and provides
    a ticket to social acceptance.
  • Terrorist group must be isolated from mainstream
    society.

15
Group Reinforcement and Moral Justification
  • Group reinforcement and isolation
  • Wilkinson
  • Terrorist groups reinforce individual loyalty
    through justification process.
  • Constant reinforcement of antisocial behavior in
    terrorist groups produces conforming behavior
    inside the organization.
  • Post
  • Terrorists group becomes the only source of
    social reward because of its members isolation.
  • Terrorists reinforce one another.
  • The rejection of external authority results in
    the acceptance of internal authority because
    behavior must be reinforced somewhere.

16
Group Reinforcement and Moral Justification
  • Borum
  • Researchers have come to the conclusion that
    there is no standard rational for justifying
    behavior.
  • Three different phases of self-justification
  • Reasons for joining
  • Reasons for remaining
  • Reasons for leaving

17
Group Reinforcement and Moral Justification
  • Victoroff
  • There is a multiplicity of factors (social and
    psychological) used to justify violence.
  • Terrorists operate and justify violence because
    they emotionally attach themselves to an
    ideology.
  • They will not tolerate moral ambiguity, and have
    the capacity to suppress instinctive and learned
    moral limitations on behavior.
  • There is a need to study the impact of leadership
    on group behavior.
  • Cooper
  • Terrorist would justify more destruction because
    it is required for televised drama.

18
Group Reinforcement and Moral Justification
  • Blomberg, Hess, and Weerapana
  • Economic factors play a role in justifying
    terrorist violence.
  • Terrorist groups are not happy with the economic
    status quo.
  • Terrorist see denial of economic opportunity as a
    justification for their action.
  • Stern
  • Several factors must be in place for group
    cohesion
  • Group must identify an enemy.
  • Group must have a story.
  • Group needs its own language or symbolic words to
    demonize the enemy.

19
Can the Terrorist Personality be Profiled?
  • FBI Behavioral Science Unit has attempted to
    develop profiles of terrorists based on
    individual psychological characteristics.
  • Rejecting Terrorist Profiles
  • Laqueur no one can develop a composite picture
    of a terrorist
  • Terrorist behavior fluctuates with historical,
    political, and social circumstances.
  • Individual and group profiles are the result of
    political and social conditions.
  • Borum there is no single terrorist personality

20
Profiling Terrorist Behavior
  • Ross
  • It may be possible to conceptualize terrorism in
    a model combining social structure with group
    psychology.
  • There are five interconnected processes involved
    in terrorism
  • Joining the group
  • Forming the activity
  • Remaining in the campaign
  • Leading the organization
  • Engaging in acts of terrorism

21
Profiling Terrorist Behavior
  • Two factors are involved in the rise of terrorism
    at any point in history
  • Social structure
  • Structural conditions
  • Ross identified five psychological factors
    involved in the development of terrorism
  • Facilitating traits
  • Frustration/narcissism-aggression
  • Associated drives
  • Learning opportunities
  • Cost benefit calculations

22
Profiling Terrorist Behavior
  • Marc Segeman
  • Most people think that terrorism comes from
    poverty, broken families, ignorance, immaturity,
    lack of family or occupational responsibilities,
    weak minds susceptible to brainwashing the
    sociopath, the criminals, the religious fanatic,
    or, in this country, some believe theyre just
    plain evil.
  • Taking these perceived root causes in turn, three
    quarters of his sample came from the upper or
    middle class.
  • The vast majority 90 percent came from
    caring, intact families.
  • Sixty-three percent had gone to college, as
    compared with the 5-6 percent thats usual for
    the third world.
  • These are the best and brightest of their
    societies in many ways.

23
Profiling Terrorist Behavior
  • Marc Segeman
  • Al Qaedas members are not the Palestinian
    fourteen-year- olds we see on the news, but join
    the jihad at the average age of 26.
  • Three-quarters were professionals or
    semi-professionals.
  • They are engineers, architects, and civil
    engineers, mostly scientists. Very few humanities
    are represented.
  • Quite surprisingly, very few had any background
    in religion.
  • Bin Laden himself is a civil engineer, Zawahiri
    is a physician, Mohammed Atta was, of course, an
    architect and a few members are military, such
    as Mohammed Ibrahim Makawi, who is supposedly the
    head of the military committee. (Sageman, M.
    (November 1, 2004) Understanding Terror Networks.
    Retrieved from
  • http//www.fpri.org/enotes/20041101.middleeast.sag
    eman.understandingterrornetworks)

24
Routes to Terrorism and Paths to Radicalization
  • Psychological and social factors motivate people
    to join and remain in terrorist groups.
  • Segeman
  • Process of among man
  • Alienated man find one another
  • Discover religion
  • Terrorism enters the equation if the newfound
    religious orientation turns toward violence

25
Groups in Prison and Radicalization
  • Internal and external process
  • Internal charismatic prison leader gathers an
    entourage
  • External through visiting chaplains
  • Patterns of conversion
  • Crisis
  • Protection seekers
  • Religious searcher
  • Manipulation for personal gain
  • Free world recruitment throughout outsiders

26
Radicalization
  • Individual radicalization
  • When a relatively weak group feels that its
    existence is threatened by superior group
  • This may be enhanced when the superior group is
    seen to be morally depraved
  • Commonalities in radicalization
  • Literalist interpretations of religion
  • Trust only to selected sources
  • No toleration for deviation
  • Acceptation of the idea of the clash of
    civilization
  • Selective interpretation of government policy
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