Economic Conditions
Socioeconomic factors like poverty, illiteracy, and limitation of opportunity also play a crucial role in the development of radical behaviour. However, this cannot be intimated that every economically deprived person is going to be a terrorist. On the other hand, the harsh reality reflects that even though it has been established that poverty and social exclusion can only lead to desperation and frustration as well as hopelessness and resentment resulting in radicalization. Disenfranchisement from education or economic opportunities is often a precursor to disillusionment with the status quo political order, so it makes sense that extremist ideologies that promise a changed situation will be attractive.
The RAND Corporation study established that individuals living in areas characterized by high levels of unemployment, education avoidance, and political disenfranchisement are prone to recruitment into terrorist groups. These groups often present a sense of belonging and ideology that promises change economically and socially, which can be very appealing to these marginalized groups in society. It is during these areas of socioeconomic despair and within conflict zones that people may be recruited by terrorist organizations that exploit local economic despair when it comes to recruiting members.1
Political and Social Unrest
Another important influencing factor is exposure to political oppression, social injustice, or violent conflict. The political environment is crucial in shaping and boosting perceptions of injustice and willingness to resort to violence. In most cases, people who commit terrorist acts perceive their actions as responses to perceived political oppression or social marginalization. For example, to citizens of the authoritarian regimes and in war zones where state violence seems to outweigh the rule of law, extremist ideologies can appeal, promising a change in status quo.
What Sageman says on this score is that political socialization is highly influential in the radicalization process. A person who undergoes political repression or military occupation tends towards extreme ideologies, which encourage violent resistance. Such causes are often used by terrorists, who brand their cause a just struggle against oppression. The ability to craft targeted propaganda with these organizations allows them to create an atmosphere in which violence is spoken of as an act of self-defense or vengeance, when this already offended group of people demands more relief in their social or political injustice.2
Access to Ideology and Radicalization
This background factor most possibly defines the path to terrorism: exposure to radical ideology. Radicalization is fraught with interaction between personal vulnerability and ideological indoctrination, where extremist ideologies may serve a framework to understand personal grievance and justify violent actions. While extreme ideas can be adopted for any number of reasons ranging from motives of vengeance towards political ambitions, they share one thing: they provide and offer a cause and ideological legitimation for violence.
The role of the internet arenas in disseminating extremist ideologies should not be underestimated. The research stipulates that the internet plays a major triggering role in this process, especially in isolated or more vulnerable young people. For instance, young people start to open themselves to extreme content shared on social networks and other forums online, which legitimizes their grievances and gives them a sense of belonging in a large ideological movement. Anonymity makes it possible for fast diffusion, whereby radical ideas are entrenched by echo chambers that reassert extremist beliefs and legitimize radical views.3
Ideological indoctrination into extremist beliefs either within a community or through an online group has been the process that many people have gone through that end up embracing terrorism. Radicalization, on the contrary, is normally a long process that causes individuals to gradually drift away from their original social interactions and continue to become more deeply invested in the extremist cause. These groups offer networks of support, community, and group identity that contribute to the individual's commitment to violent action.
Thus, the motivation background factors leading to terrorist behaviour vary and are sophisticated in nature, covering personal family life cycles, social and economic conditions, political conditions, and exposure to extreme ideologies. No singular factor can explain why a certain group or individual would resort to terrorism; however, their interaction produces the context wherein there is a higher likelihood of developing such behaviour. Understanding these background factors is critical to the development of effective prevention strategies in that they provide key insights into the conditions that foster terrorism. To begin to address these underlying conditions-improve social integration, create economic opportunities, and counter political oppression-opens the possibility for societies to reduce the appeal of extremist ideologies and to limit the factors contributing to violent radicalization.4
PREDICTIVE FACTORS OF VIOLENT BEHAVIOUR
Predicting violent behaviour, particularly in the context of terrorism, is a very complex task. While no single factor can be counted upon to predict violent action, there are several key predictive factors that have been identified and have contributed to the likelihood of an individual's likely performance of extremist violence. These include a combination of psychological traits, personal experiences, social influences, and external triggers. Analyzing these predictive factors will enable law enforcement and counterterrorism agencies to identify with better accuracy people at risk of becoming radicalized and intervene before the act of violence takes place.
1. Personal and Psychological Vulnerability
The psycho-vulnerability in the case of an individual has emerged as a critical predicting factor for behavioural violence. It is often a precarious manifestation of deep-seated feelings of alienation, identity crises, or unresolved psychological trauma. Given the psychological theories based on frustration-aggression hypothesis or cognitive dissonance, the feeling of powerlessness or marginalization is subject to be converted into violence as a means for recapturing power or for expressing dissatisfaction. Violent behaviour may be the answer for those who feel they have lost control in most aspects of life.5
Personal trauma - a huge role it plays. Generally, people who have experienced great stress in their lives, such as childhood abuse or the loss of loved ones, or live in harsh conditions of socioeconomic hardship, fall into these vulnerable categories. Research seems to suggest that persons with experience in psychological trauma are more prone to radicalization as extremist ideologies might give them a sense of purpose or justification for violent action. Many terrorists have been identified as having received some sort of personal or family trauma that may later prove to be a catalyst for future violent conduct.6
Footnotes
1 RAND Corporation, Social and Economic Drivers of Terrorism, 51-56 (2008).
2 Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks, 112-116 (2004).
3 Ruth W. K. Van De Weijer, Terrorism and Political Violence: The Social Origins of Radicalization 212(2011).
4 Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks, 78-82 (2004).
5 Andrew Silke, Cheshire-Cat Logic: The Recurring Theme of Terrorist Abnormality in Psychological Research, 4 Psychol. Crime & L. 51, 55 (1998).
6 Jerrold M. Post, Terrorist Psycho−Logic: Terrorist Behavior as a Product of Psychological Forces, 37 Terrorism 241, 244 (2005).
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
