Profiling of terrorist personality as a predictor of terrorist behavior: a comprehensive study

Abstract

Terrorist are generally people who feel alienated from society and have a grievance or regard themselves as victims of an injustice. They are devoted to their political or religious cause and do not regard their violent actions as criminal. They are loyal to each other but will deal with an unfaithful member more harshly than with the enemy.  They are people with cunning, skill and initiative, as well as ruthlessness. Some studies suggest that there are many essential characteristics of a terrorist like dedication, personal bravery, a lack of feelings of pity or remorse, a fairly high standard intelligence etc. With a number of exceptions, most researchers agree that although latent personality trails can certainly contribute to the decision to turn to violence, there is no single set of psychic attributes that explains terrorist behavior. Some systematic differences may be distinguished between those who engage in terrorism and those who do no: yet most of the researches lead to the conclusion that the active terrorist is not there are any special qualities that characterize the terrorist.