Terrorists, Victims and Society: Psychological Perspectives on Terrorism and Its Consequences (Wiley Series in Psychology of Crime, Policing and Law) [Paperback]

Among the plethora of materials published since 9/11, many of which are individual commentaries or personal reactions to the attacks on the U.S. that occurred that day, Andrew Silke's edited book, "Terrorists, Victims and Society: Psychological Perspectives on Terrorism and its Consequences" (Wiley Series in the Psychology of Crime, Policing and the Law), stands out as exemplary for its science-based inquiry into terrorists, victims of terrorists, and worldwide and historical responses to terrorism.

As pointed out by the editor, Andrew Silke - whose expertise reflects both his background as a forensic psychologist and law enforcement experience with terrorism in Northern Ireland, the Middle East and Latin America - terrorism as a strategy, and terrorists and individuals and networks of individuals, have been part of our world for decades (some would say, centuries). However, terrorism and terrorists are remarkably difficult to study from a psychological point of view: terrorism is a political strategy that requires political (and economic, historical and geographical) analyses. Despite this, it remains common for many people - most of whom have never been a direct victim of a terrorist attack - to look to psychologists for helping in understanding "why someone becomes a terrorist." We want to know about the forces that shape an individual life towards a lifestyle that appears so foreign to most of us.

"Terrorists, Victims and Society" explains that to know why an individual adopts a terrorist strategy and/or joins a terrorist group we must ask the same questions that we might ask if we want to know why an individual decides to be a farmer or studies to be a librarian: we must know the geographical, political, economic and cultural forces that shape an individual life. The authors explain that we must seek to understand how disruptions in a life might provide someone with too few options to effect change or fail to find a legitimate voice in a legitimate political process. And, because most people are not terrorists, we should ask what special and unique forces acted on a particular person - in the same way that we should ask what was special about the family and background of Mother Teresa that made her act so selflessly. As both Silke and contributing author John Horgan point out in Part 1 ("The Terrorists"), there is no psychology of the terrorist; there is the psychology of the human that plays out in a multitude of ways.

For some aspects of terrorism, especially those related to responses of children and other target groups, social science has good data to offer: the authors in Part II ("Victims of Terrorism"), Ginny Sprang, Orla Muldoon, and Betty Pfefferbaum show how the impact of terrorist incidents on its victims - including the young and elderly - depend in large part on how the world around them (siblings, parents, school, television) interprets the events for them; how the impact of terrorist incidents are enhanced (and perhaps, dependent on) coverage of the attack by the media; how some groups tolerate continued exposure to terrorist attacks or threats by becoming desensitized and by creating a political/cultural ideology or story that helps them make sense of their world. These authors suggest that we can look to the hardships and lessons learned in communities in the United Kingdom and in Israel and Palestine for how to cope with terrorist attacks and for what kinds of population changes are likely to result.

The authors provide insights into questions too rarely asked: John Horgan ("Leaving Terrorism Behind: An Individual Perspective") offers insight into what makes a terrorist quit. Margaret Wilson ("The Psychology of Hostage-Taking") asks whether there are positive outcomes of being a victim of terrorism - and if so, what are they? Silke asks ("Retaliating Against Terrorism") considers the supporting role the targeted state plays, simply by the nature of its reaction to the attack. He then ponders the best long-term, as opposed to short-term, military and political responses to a terrorist attack, and claims that to begin to address this, we must ask when the "current cycle" of terrorism involving the Islamic and Western worlds began.

We in the west, perhaps most especially we Americans, have a short memory and a short attention span: Americans think that since "nothing has happened" for two years, that the world is getting safer. But much has happened since 9/11, although not on American domestic soil. Much is likely to happen for many years, because the conflicts generating the terrorist threats that the western world faces are continuing and show no abatement. What can an individual do? We might arm ourselves with knowledge and understanding; I recommend this book be purchased [along with the bottled water we buy for the event of an attack]. The decisions we make in our own political world will help to shape the threats that we face, and those decisions will be wiser for the information offered in "Terrorists, Victims and Society."