Definition
Terrorists are criminals who commit or directly support acts of violence in order to achieve some type of sociopolitical objectives.
Introduction
This chapter examines the groups and individuals who commit or directly support acts of terrorism. The phenomenon of terrorism itself will be covered in other chapters of this volume, including “Terrorism: Domestic” and “Terrorism: International”.” Terrorists are widely considered a distinct type of criminals. They consciously choose to kill, maim and destroy, and also routinely engage in money laundering, theft, fraud, extortion, smuggling (including drugs, weapons, and humans), kidnapping, bank robbery, and many other kinds of criminal activity. But terrorists generally loathe being labeled as ordinary criminals, preferring to use labels like “freedom fighters” or in the case of some religious groups, “holy warriors.” And as described later in this chapter, terrorism is also viewed as a type of political violence.
Generally...
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References
Corner, E., & Gill, P. (2015). A false dichotomy? Mental illness and lone actor terrorism. Law and Human Behavior, 39(1), 23–34.
Crenshaw, M., & Lafree, G. (2017). Countering terrorism. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Forest, J. (2018). The terrorism lectures (3rd ed.). Santa Ana: Nortia Press.
Gurr, T. (2016). Why men rebel: 40th anniversary edition. New York: Routledge. [originally published in 1970].
Hoffman, B. (2017). Inside terrorism (3rd ed.). New York: Columbia University Press.
Horgan, J. (2005). The social and psychological characteristics of terrorism and terrorists. In T. Bjorgo (Ed.), Root causes of terrorism: Myths, realities and ways forward. London: Routledge.
Horgan, J. (2009). Walking away from terrorism: Accounts of disengagement from radical and extremist movements. New York: Routledge.
McCauley, C. (2007). Psychological issues in understanding terrorism and response to terrorism. In C. Stout (Ed.), Psychology of terrorism: Coping with the continuing threat. Westport: Praeger.
Silke, A. (2004). An introduction to terrorism research. In A. Silke (Ed.), Research on terrorism: Trends, achievements and failures. London: Frank Cass.
Further Reading
Abrahms, M. (2008). What terrorists really want: Terrorist motives and counterterrorism strategy. International Security, 32(4), 78–105.
Forest, J. (2018). The terrorism lectures (3rd ed.). Santa Ana: Nortia Press.
Hoffman, B. (2017). Inside terrorism (3rd ed.). New York: Columbia University Press.
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Duggan, J.M., Forest, J.J. (2019). Criminals: Terrorist. In: Shapiro, L., Maras, MH. (eds) Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_261-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_261-3
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Latest
Criminals: Terrorist- Published:
- 12 November 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_261-3
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Criminals: Terrorist
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- 25 September 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_261-2
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Original
Criminals- Published:
- 24 August 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_261-1