Citation

Merzagora I, Travaini G, Caruso P. Rassegna Italiana di Criminologia 2016; 10(3): 177-186.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Religious terrorism represents a literal war, even if it looks different from the conventional ones. What happened in Bruxelles and Paris, just to keep in mind some episodes, it's a tangible proof of the existence of a war fought with weapons and strategies that are different from the ones we used to know, including suicide attacks. People adhere to these forms of violence because of many different reasons, not only for psychological ones, but also for reasons that relate to individual psychology. This is the only way to explain why not all of the Islamics choose terrorism, or desire to become a "support circle" for it, even if they are in the same social, cultural and political conditions. And the same psychological reasons can also explain why there are people -the so-called foreign fighters -who support terrorism even if they don't come from countries with an Islamic culture. Explanations in light of personality and identity characteristics, date back to the years following the Second World War, with Adorno and his authority personality theory, moving later on to the analysis of psychological vulnerabilities, the mind-set, radicalization process, potential psychopathological causes.

Language: it

Keywords

Terrorism; Islam; War; Identity; Social psychology