Evolutionary Psychology And Terrorism

This book explores the evolutionary context of terrorism and political violence. While evolutionary thinking has come to permeate both biological and social-science theorising, it has not yet been applied systematically to the areas of terrorism and political violence. This volume seeks to do this for the first time. It presents a collection of essays on evolutionary psychology and terrorism, which encourage the reader to approach terrorism from a non-traditional perspective, by developing new approaches to understanding it and those who commit such acts of violence. The book identifies evolutionary thought as heuristically important in the understanding of terrorism, explores the key conceptual themes, and provides an evolutionary (and cross-species) understanding of the community-wide effects of terrorist attacks. The contributors bring forward innovative ideas and concepts to assist the practitioner, analyst and academic to better understand and respond to the threat of terrorism. In doing so this book challenges existing assumptions about terrorism and those who carry out such acts, in order to move the debate into new areas characterized by an emphasis on intellectual quality and rigour, an interdisciplinary approach, and a drawing together of theory and practice. The intention is to provide a sufficient discussion to enable the reader to both understand the relevance of evolutionary thinking to terrorism and political violence, and to appreciate the practical implications of conceptualising problems in this way. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, psychology, criminology and security studies.

Each chapter in this volume poses a public policy issue related to violence, describes aspects of evolutionary psychology that are relative, and then posits public policy recommendations based on this psychological model. Topics covered also include psychopathy, despotism, and suicide bombings. This volume is designed as an accessible way for policymakers outside of academia to learn about new theoretical developments. Evolutionary psychology—a relatively new theoretical model of psychology—provides valuable and exciting insights on human violence and public policy issues related to human violence, from war and terrorism to rape and criminality. To this end, each chapter in this volume poses a public policy issues related to violence, describes aspects of evolutionary psychology that are relative and then posits public policy recommendations based on this psychological model. Topics covered also include psycopathy, despotism, and suicide bombings. This volume, designed as an accessible way for policymakers outside of academia to learn about new theoretical developments, also explodes the myths about evolutionary psychology, such as the false claim that it justifies immoral behavior or focuses only on humans' ugly underbelly. While appealing to policymakers across foundations and agencies, this collection will also interest scholars and teachers focused on evolutionary psychology, public policy, criminal justice, security, public affairs, sociology, and anthropology.

This work firstly aims to provide balanced and objective insight into the psychology of terrorists; what their motivations are, what keeps them involved in terrorist groups, and what eventually forces most to end their active involvement in terrorism. Secondly, the contributors focus on the challenging issue of how to respond to terrorism. These chapters provide information for those concerned with short-term tactical problems (e.g. interviewing), as well as those looking towards the more long-term strategic questions of bringing an entire terrorist campaign to an end. Ultimately, the individuals involved in terrorism require a more complex response from society than simply a quest for their apprehension. Believing inaccurate and misleading characterizations leads inevitably to damaging policies and deficient outcomes, with campaigns of violence being needlessly prolonged. It is from this perspective that the concern arises with how researchers -and the policy makers guided by them - perceive the psychology of terrorists and of terrorism.

Responding directly to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, an outstanding interdisciplinary group of academics, clinicians, and activists from around the world united to produce this clear exploration of terrorism.

This four-volume set provides a mixture of opinions and perspectives from academics, thinkers, activists, and clinicians on factors related to terrorism. The four volumes focus respectively on a public understanding, clinical aspects and responses, theoretical understandings and perspectives, and programs and practices in response and prevention. Coverage includes historical contexts; group dynamics; social, behavioral, psychological, psychopathological and evolutionary issues; forensics; and global perspectives on topics such as understanding and empathy, hate, sexism, and bias, prejudice and racism. Topics also include state terrorism, countering international terrorism using perspectives from international psychology, and the role of resilience in the aftermath of terror.

In contrast to the widely held assumption that terrorists as crazed fanatics, Jerrold Post demonstrates they are psychologically "normal" and that "hatred has been bred in the bone". He reveals the powerful motivations that drive these ordinary people to such extraordinary evil by exploring the different types of terrorists, from national-separatists like the Irish Republican Army to social revolutionary terrorists like the Shining Path, as well as religious extremists like al-Qaeda and Aum Shinrikyo. In The Mind of the Terrorist, Post uses his expertise to explain how the terrorist mind works and how this information can help us to combat terrorism more effectively.

This volume synthesizes the theoretical and empirical work of leading scholars in the evolutionary sciences to produce an extensive and authoritative review of this literature.