Psychology and sociology

/1. The psychology of terrorism

К.g.n. Plyushch I.V.

The Siberian state space university of M. F. Reshetnyov,

the Siberian federal university, Russia

UNDERVALUATION OF SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF TERRORISM

Terrorism as a global problem performs relatively recently – with the last decades of the twentieth century. In the twentieth century we see the spread and strengthening of terrorism, especially the social conditions of life of modern society is deepening challenges – urbanization, migration, mass media, rapid transport, availability of Internet technologies, etc.

Terrorism as a method of social pressure has very ancient origins, in the historical documents known to describe the terrorist acts of sicarii groups that operated in Palestine in 66-73 years BC[1, p. 125]. Even then there was a sharp divergence of assessments of this activity when one idealizes terrorism, the other is demonized. Such a polarity assessments regarding terrorism and terrorists can be traced throughout the history of mankind up to our days, when, for example, the "Arab street" new York rejoiced at the tragic for the rest of the population the events of 11 September 2001, Perhaps this feature of perception reflect certain essential qualitative characteristic of the phenomenon that does not depend on external conditions of implementation.

The main purpose of terrorism is to impact on a wide range of people, not the killing of specific individuals. In other words, terrorism is primarily a means of psychological impact, in which murder is only an instrument of influence. Act of terror is aimed at intimidation and psychological oppression of others, its main object – not those who fell victim and those who survived. According to the American political science the concept of terrorism is "the threat or use of violence ... when such actions are intended to influence more people than the direct victim [2, c. 565]. Accordingly, terrorism is the strategy of action, based on the principle of the acceptability of violence, the physical destruction of people to achieve their own goals-or psychological characteristic of a person.

Terrorism as a modern social phenomenon develops outside the framework of a particular religion, ethnic group, country or region. Independence from specific social realities can be considered terrorism a cultural phenomenon, manifested as ethnic extremism.

Terrorism has emerged as a socio-psychological technology of political pressure several years ago and, in fact, not changing, was used until the beginning of the twentieth century. In the basis of the use of this technology will continue to drive socio-psychological characteristics: the use of youth as a tool of psychological pressure on large groups of people, reliance on emotion, not reason. Ignoring these characteristics reduces the efficiency of the fight against terrorism. As a consequence, counteraction to terrorism is carried out not preemptively but as a reaction to the accomplished facts. Such a strategy is inevitably doomed to lag behind. This contributes to the international character of terrorism.

The extent and peculiarities of implementation of modern terrorism lead to the impossibility of countering this phenomenon in the framework of the States. This is an area of modern society, which is implemented at the international level more actively than the state. Modern terrorism is growing faster than the international system of counteraction. Terrorism develops as a supranational, supra-state international phenomenon.

Terrorism always developed primarily as a form of group crime. But in the twenty-first century has marked a brand new trend within the terrorist approach is the formation of a unified holistic concept of strategic planning. For example, for years defined the following priorities – the full spread of the ideology of terrorism, creation of the system of ideological impact on children, the use of information and interactive technologies. Terrorists actively use the attraction of the most susceptible to psychological treatment of social groups – children and adolescents. Among the age psychological features of children, determining their vulnerability to such propaganda include: the lack of awareness of the value of life, the desire to be a hero, to attract attention, high emotionality, lack of sustained moral guidelines, etc. is added At teenagers need to Express themselves, a painful sense of underestimation of the self, the need to radically change the surrounding, etc.

That terrorist organizations are starting to implement projects against child bring them to their activities as martyrs. Within the same region (Palestine) actually designed a single, integrated educational system of children involved in terrorist activities. The permanent influence of schools, mosques, mass media, parent and community meetings calling for self-sacrifice, — tools for creating young martyrs. The effectiveness of the methods and technologies confirm the statistics. According to opinion polls over 70% of Palestinian children state that hope to become suicide bombers [3]. This confirms information from other sources - mark Sageman, after reviewing investigative materials to more than 500 known terrorists, shows that 60 % of these terrorists attended the same 12 mosques with aggressive servants [4]. We can state as a fact the validity of the ideological programme of terrorists. Of course, the necessary program of ideological resistance and the development of other ideological systems for children and adolescents. But whether for many children and their parents, for their victims too late by that time, the international community will agree on the areas of interest on the legislation?

Literature:

1. Belkov O. A. Terrorism - a challenge to national and international security // Security of Eurasia. 2001. No. 4. P.215.

2. Macionis J. Sociology. St. Petersburg, 2004. S. 565.

3. The website "Israel" // www.isralife.info/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5908

4. Website of Institute for public planning / http://www.inop.ru/reading/borba/ 25.01.2005.