Psychological Distress, Terrorist Involvement and Disengagement from Terrorism: A Sequence Analysis Approach

Abstract

Objectives This paper utilizes probability-based modelling to unpack the complex and multifaceted individual, sociological, and psychological processes present within terrorist groups which may affect an individual's psychological wellbeing. We outline the predictors of the onset of psychological distress across three phases of terrorist involvement (engagement, disengagement, and post-disengagement). Methods Utilizing a dataset of over 90 terrorist autobiographies, we conduct sequence analyses to pinpoint the onset of psychological problems and the experiences that preceded and proceeded this onset. Results The results demonstrate the complexity in the relationship between mental disorders and terrorist engagement and the heterogeneity of the lived experience of 'being' a terrorist. The experience of psychological distress is mediated by numerous factors and the combination of these factors. Conclusions The results helped highlight the complexity of 'being' a terrorist; multiple factors at individual, social, and group levels impact on an individual as they pass through life. Individuals engaged within terrorism encounter a number of risk factors, which if an individual has lower baseline levels of individual resilience and is not fully committed to the group identity, may impact them psychologically. The results highlighted that it is not the presence of risk factors which impact on an individual, but how they perceive these risk factors.

Cognitive‐affective drivers of fixation in threat assessment

“…Such comorbidities worsen the prognosis and behavioral events in EDs (Braun, Sunday, & Halmi, 1994). There have been similar findings of mental disorders in lone actor terrorism database studies (Corner & Gill, 2015). Therefore, individuals presenting with extreme overvalued beliefs in threat management should be screened and treated for similar comorbidities (Wilson & Shafran, 2005).…”

“…Such research, however, should not be read as supporting the belief that such sacred values per se are a risk factor for targeted violence. The neurobiology of human behavior is always mediated by social and psychological factors, clearly evident in time‐sequencing studies of lone actor terrorists (Corner, Bouhana, & Gill, 2019; Corner & Gill, 2019).…”

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Understanding How British and Indonesian Extremists Disengage and Why They Don't

“…In searching for the psychological factors and processes that drive disengagement, they have studied white supremacists (Bjørgo, 2011; Bubolz & Simi, 2015), revolutionary Marxists (Kassimeris, 2011; Moghadam, 2012), ethnonational separatists (Reinares, 2011; Ross & Gurr, 1989), paramilitary republicans and loyalists (Clubb, 2014; Ferguson, Burgess, & Hollywood, 2015), and Salafi‐jihadis and Islamists (Amghar & Khadiyatoulah, 2017; Speckhard & Yayla, 2015) in different regions and countries. Other researchers have examined a range of ideologically motivated extremists and terrorists within a single country (Barrelle, 2015) and across different countries and time periods (Altier, Boyle, Shortland, & Horgan, 2017; Bjørgo & Horgan, 2009; Corner & Gill, 2020). Once a neglected area of research, disengagement studies are now thriving.…”

Waypoint sequencing: simplifying behaviour sequence analysis for criminal cases

“…A handful of publications were made throughout most of the 20th century, with only a few notable scholars providing input into the field (Bakeman et al, 1987;Bales and Strodtbeck, 1951;Clarke and Crossland, 1985). In recent years, however, there has been a sudden uptake and notable surge in timeline analyses in a range of criminological areas, including terrorism (Corner and Gill, 2019), violence (Taylor et al, 2017), rape and sexual assault (Ellis et al, 2017;Lawrence et al, 2010) and homicide (Keatley et al, 2018a(Keatley et al, , 2018bKeatley et al, 2018d).…”