Pregledni rad
PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACHES TO SUICIDE TERRORISM
Ksenija Butorac
orcid.org/0000-0002-4843-7936
; Visoka policijska škola Ministarstva unutarnjih poslova Republike Hrvatske
Sažetak
Since the beginning of modern suicide terrorism in the early 1980s (Lebanon), suicide terrorism has become the most deadly form of terrorism. Although suicide attacks amounted to just three percent of all terrorist incidents, these attacks were responsible for forty-eight percent of all fatalities. Single-factor explanations overlook the fact that terrorist behavior is an interaction between individual psychology and external environment. Psychological aspects of the terrorism phenomenon are an important area of research but it needs to be approached with caution (motivational process, psychopathology, identity issues, longing for religious purity, humiliation, despair, revenge etc). Terrorist acts are rarely carried out by individuals acting on their own but by individuals who are members of larger network. Hence, there is a need to distinguish among individual motives on the one hand and organizational reasons to engage in suicide attacks on the other hand. Second level of analysis focuses on organizations (groups, cells) which have distinct goals and motives – the need to maintain themselves choosing to adopt particular group dynamics and tactic. Tactical and political motives and goals affect the organization’s decision to embark on suicide attacks. Suicide terrorism is used mainly because it has proven to be an effective strategy, militarily and/or politically. The third approach is environmental covering the various historical, social, cultural, religious and economic factors and conditions that provide the context for the individual and the organizational level.
Ključne riječi
suicide terrorism; psychological profile; collective identity; organizational strategy; socio-cultural context; permissive and precipitant factors
Hrčak ID:
82925
URI
Datum izdavanja:
27.12.2011.
Posjeta: 4.387 *