Psychopathology of Young Terrorist Offenders, and the Interaction With Ideology and Grievances.

Nils Duits,Daphne L Alberda,Maaike Kempes

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.801751

Abstract

Psychopathology might be a risk factor for terrorist offending as it is for violent offending. Therefore, we examined the prevalence of psychopathology in young and adult Jihadist terrorist offenders on the basis of primary source judicial information and forensic mental health reports with the European Database of convicted Terrorist offenders (EDT). We hypothesised that psychopathology might be associated with ideological risk factors, and that these associations might be different for young and adult terrorist offenders. Therefore, we examined whether and to what extent psychopathology is related to a violent ideology, to grievances and anger about perceived injustice. We investigated whether this differs among 120 adult and 46 juvenile terrorist offenders. We found that most adult and young Jihadist terrorist offenders with a forensic mental health report had psychopathological problems. Most frequently found were symptoms and traits of intellectual disability disorders, depressive disorders, psychotic/schizophrenic disorders, substance use disorders, and personality disorders. Most frequently found clinically relevant personality traits were problems with relationships, poor regulation of aggression, feelings of anger, and paranoid feelings. We found some first indications for a positive association between psychopathology and grievances and anger about perceived injustice. In the young terrorist offenders with depressive symptoms, grievances about perceived injustice were more often present than in young terrorist offenders without these symptoms. In adult terrorist offenders it was found that grievances about perceived injustice and the anger were related to cluster B personality traits. In addition, in both young and adult terrorist offenders expressed grievances about perceived injustice were related to problems with relationships. Further research into psychopathology in terrorist offenders seems necessary with larger groups of adolescents and adults in relation to ideological, personal and contextual risk factors and how these factors relate to different terrorist acts. This may lead to more knowledge about engagement into terrorism and possible disengagement from terrorism. It may also lead to the inclusion of psychopathology into violent extremism risk assessment tools.

Highlights

Countering terrorism is a global security challenge [1]
In this paper we examine to what extent terrorist offenders show psychopathology, how this is related to ideological beliefs and grievances, and whether this differs between adult and juvenile terrorist offenders
We examined the extent to which psychopathology is present in young terrorist offenders and hypothesised that psychopathology might be associated with ideological risk factors

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Countering terrorism is a global security challenge [1]. many definitions and types of terrorism exist, one can define terrorism in a more general way as the threat, preparation, or perpetration of serious violence based on ideological motives against people, or deeds aimed at causing socially disruptive material damage with the goal to cause social change, to instil fear among the population or to influence political decision-making [2–4]. A developmentally informed understanding of how adolescents and young adults become involved in violent extremism and terrorism is considered critical, in combination with the exploration of the possible relationship with mental health symptoms [8]. Juveniles may be more likely to be convinced of a belief system and, without fully evaluating it or exploring alternatives, jumping to conclusions [46] This combination of psychological, behavioural health and cognitive problems and jumping to conclusions in relation to a belief system may be relevant for young terrorist offenders. It would be interesting to discern what behavioural health problems or symptoms are common among juvenile and adult terrorist offenders and what relationship—if any—exists between psychopathology with the commitment to a violent extremist ideology and perceived grievances [8, 40]. We examine whether psychopathology is related to violent extremist ideology, grievances, and the anger about perceived injustice, and whether this differs between adult and young terrorist offenders

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Coding Procedure

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT