Department of Criminal Justice

1

• Department of Criminal Justice
• California State University - Bakersfield
• CRJU 477
• Terrorism
• Dr. Abu-Lughod, Reem Ali
• The Causes of Terrorism

2

• Causes of Terrorism
• The case of Ramirez Sanchez Carlos the Jackal
• Venezuelan born T
• Palestinian cause
• Marxist ideologies
• In Moscow Popular Front of the Liberation of
  Palestine (PFLP)

3

• WHY VIOLENCE
• Logical choice and political strategy
• Collective rationality
• lack of opportunity for political participation
• Dissatisfaction of an elite
• INDIVIDUAL V. GROUP LEVEL
• Rational, psychological, cultural V. political
  activism and social movementsdramatic events,
  e.g. Intifadeh
• NATIONAL LEVEL Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
• ETHNO-NATIONAL LEVEL massacres, forced
  migrations

4

• Extreme Convictions Motives and Terrorists
• 1. Moral convictions of T
• Certainty of righteousness of their cause (please
  read examples provided by author)
• 2. Simplified definitions of Good Evil
• Cause is just
• Mini-manual of Urban Guerilla by Brazilian
  revolutionary Carlos Marighella

5

• 3. Seeking Utopia
• Sir Thomas More 16th C
• Ideal political and social system
• T destruction of order in status
• Nihilist dissident Terrorism
• What type of UTOPIA is desirable end justifies
  the means
• 4. Codes of Self Sacrifice
• Russian anarchist Sergei Nechayev..living a
  revolution
• Racial soldiers at war
• The New Samurai Japans Code of Bushido
• PLEASE READ TABLE 3.2 PAGE 87

6

• Extreme Circumstances
• Explanations of T 3 categories
• Acts of political will
• Forcing change
• Rationality
• E.g. evolution of Marxist revolutionary strategy
  act of political will
• Strategy of peoples war Chinese revolution, Mao
  Zedong1 indoctrinate the army, 2 win over the
  people, 3 hit, run, and fight forever

7

• The Fruit of Injustice 2) sociological
  explanations of T
• Intergroup conflict collective violence
• STRUCTURAL THEORY identifying structure that
  affect groups in terms of their freedom, civil
  rights, access to services, etc
• HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO TERRORISM
• RELATIVE DEPRIVATION THEORY
• ? Anomie
• Deprivation in an unfair manner
• Shortcomings of theory

8

• International Cases in Point (please be prepared
  to volunteer discussing the following cases in
  class).
• Basques in Spain
• Irish Catholic Nationalism
• Palestinian Nationalism
• French Canadian Nationalism

9

• Rationality and Terrorist Violence
• 3) Psychological Explanations of Terrorism
• Internal psychological violence
• Insanity or mental illness? Or lunatic fringe?
• Individual-level explanations
• Researchers no pattern of psychopathology among
  terrorists. But psychosocial commonalities???,
  fragmented families???
• Group-level explanations
• Acceptance within a group, the need to belong
  particularly within the context of political
  violence

10

• Generalized Psychological Explanations
• Terrorism as a choice
• Terrorism as a technique
• Terrorism a way to build esteem
• Terrorism as a path to the truth
• Terrorism as means of justification
• CASE
• THE STOCKHOLM SYNDROME (please be prepared to
  discuss this in class)

11

• Lighting the Fuse
• Adversaries in the War on Terrorism
• Perception of the West in other regions across
  the world
• Example of September 11th 2001 and attacks on
  civilizations
• Muslim perspective on the attacks
• How many Muslims have adopted western culture but
  remained loyal to their own
• How can perceptions be reconciled??? E.g. the
  troops n Iraq and the war

12

• CONCLUSION
• Significance of theory in explaining behavior
• Individual behavior v. group dynamics
• Idealistic approach and achieving utopia
• Justification of violence
• Sociological, psychological, etc explanations in
  T activity
• The importance of perception