NCJ Number
91782
Date Published
1982
Length
49 pages
Annotation
Case histories of five terrorists -- Michael Bauman, Hans-Joachim Klein, Zvonko Busic, Kozo Okamoto, and Horst Mahler -- provide the basis for an analysis of terrorists' personality characteristics and vulnerabilities.
Abstract
In-depth interviews with terrorists and their autobiographical works clearly show that there are not one but two decisions in becoming a terrorist: to break with bourgeois society and to join a terrorist group. Many individuals drop out of society, but the terrorist must want to fight that society with violence and have the chance to join a like-minded group. Reasons for staying with a group include satisfaction with the cause or the life itself, fulfilling a desire for action, and money. Strong xenophilia is common in terrorists, as is a total insensitivity to immediate suffering coupled with hypersensitivity to suffering and injustice in the world at large. Hierarchical structure appears less pronounced in a terrorist group than in organized crime, and both planning operations and target selection can be quite haphazard. The case histories indicate that these terrorists were disinclined to use nuclear extortion for fear of alienating their constituents and overkill. They also suggest that terrorists are not necessarily fanatics and are rational except for certain blind spots. Terrorists have many vulnerabilities, including anxiety when disillusionment sets in and the terrorist realizes escape from the group is impossible, lack of trust among members, severe tensions caused by long periods of inactivity between operations, substantial differences of opinion among members on many subjects, and lack of a response to governments' increasing unwillingness to be intimidated by certain terrorist acts.