NCJ Number
99344
Date Published
1985
Length
7 pages
Annotation
An examination of some of the common psychological characteristics of terrorists accompanies suggestions for possible means for rehabilitating terrorists.
Abstract
All terrorists feel themselves to be outside of society due to their ethnic or religious affiliations, their inability to find satisfactory employment, their political views, or their perceptions of themselves as idealists in an unjust world. Becoming a terrorist is a logical, but extreme, progression from early, legal protest. The membership in a tightly knit, secret brotherhood meets the prospective terrorist's overwhelming need to belong. Unlike ordinary criminals, terrorists believe themselves to be serving good causes rather their own selfish needs and direct their efforts against what they believe to be the source of their alienation. Rehabilitation of terrorists along strict ideological or political lines may be ineffective, and rehabilitation efforts should aim to reduce or neutralize terrorists' sense of alienation. Imprisonment does not serve as a deterrent to terrorists who feel a sense of camaraderie with other inmates.