Towards a better psychological understanding of terrorism: Recruitment, ideology and violence

This work aims at analyzing the grounds and the ways in which terrorist behavior develops and settler. The contents are structured according to a global model which proves useful at helping to explain and predict violent actions by terrorists. More specifically, this paper aims to answer the following questions: What is terrorist violence?, how does ideology affect violent behavior., what distinguishes extremists who act violently front those who do not?, and how do terrorist organizations font and function? role of ideology is reviewed by studying the psychological processes which take part in the development and settlement of terrorists' violent behavior. Together with all this, we deal with the question of whether socialization, in combination with certain arguments which tend to justify and legitimate aggression, actually favors the perpetration of violent terrorist action. Recruitment and leadership are analyzed as basic processes, respectively, to the formation and functional maintenance of terrorist groups.