Thesis (M.S.)--Missouri State University, 2009. / "May 2009." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-109). Also available online.

Terrorism has been claimed to be a major problem by hundreds of thousands of people in the international arena for years. Either it has been very difficult to determine and understand the reasons for terrorism, or those reasons have never been studied because of the immediate threat of terrorism. This research analyzed the recruitment process of terrorists by studying the DHKP/C terrorist organization and by answering the following questions. The first is "What factors are correlated with joining a terrorist organization?" And the second is "What is the recruitment process of the DHKP/C?" IN the course of this research, I used specific reports written by DHKP/C members and personal experience to come to better understanding of the motivation behind terrorism and the process by which people are recruited in the terrorist organizations.

The late 20th and early 21st centuries have seen a phenomenal growth in society's use of information technology. Criminals, including terrorists and terrorist organizations, have also adopted information technologies. Information technologies are used to enhance the efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness of terrorist activities and offenses. Investigating terrorist use of information technologies creates a number of challenges for law enforcement officials. While some of the challenges are encountered during conventional criminal investigations, terrorist investigations also present unique challenges. Through content and typological analysis, this study examined open source information to identify, categorize and propose a model of these challenges. Four primary categories were identified: technology, methodology, legal, and administration and human resources challenges.

Terrorism has become a focus of much political thought over the past few years, and with good reason, yet most quantitative studies of terrorism investigate the likelihood of a terrorist incident while ignoring the precursors to terrorist group formation. I examine cases of new terrorist group formations between the years 1968 and 1999 as a function of domestic demographic, geographic, governmental and societal factors. This is done by Poisson regression analysis, which determines the significance of the independent variables on a count of new international terrorist group formations per country year. The results indicate that higher levels of material government capability, high levels of political freedom, the availability of low-cost refuge, and a cultural tradition of terrorism all have a positive impact on the number of new terrorist group formations, while a higher degree of governmental durability has a negative impact.

One key to reducing terrorism may be to understand why individuals join terror groups, and to find ways to meet their needs through alternatives to discourage membership in terrorist organizations. The study introduces the hierarchy of needs framework to capture all previous pieces of explanations on why individuals join terror groups under one big umbrella, in order to see the big picture. It does not do a meta-analysis, but rather tests the framework. This study is designed to find out what perceived needs commonly motivate individuals to join terror groups in general and specific terror groups in particular. The research uses Turkey's terrorism experience as a case study which is supported with data from real terrorist in Turkey. Findings of the descriptive analyses show that majority joined a terror group due to social and affiliative needs. The remaining analyses (bivariate, cross-tabulation and binary logistic regression) show that confitents who perceived esteem and recognition were more likely to become members of other/leftist terror groups, and that rightist terror group members in Turkey tend to have higher education. Education mainly affects a confitent's perception of two needs: social and affiliation and self-actualization. Other demographic variables (age group, region of birth, marital status) die not yield any significant relation with membership in terror groups.

This study attempts to explore the strains that terror organization members experience prior to the training process in the organization. The primary goal of this research is to understand the relationship between the earlier experienced strains of terrorists and their violent behaviors. In the study a Turkish Hezbollah terror organization sample (N = 144) was utilized in the frame of Agnew's (1992) general strain theory. Initially, quantitative methods, such as bivariate analysis and multivariate analysis, were utilized to identify the cumulative effect of strains on the violent behaviors of terrorists. Later, by utilizing case studies with a qualitative approach the mediating effect of negative emotions (anger, frustration, depression and fear) were identified. This study found that among Turkish Hezbollah members, prior to joining the terrorist organization, individuals who experience higher levels of strain are more likely to perform violent acts when compared to individuals who experience lower levels of strain. This study affirmed earlier studies on strain-crime relationship. Moreover, utilized case studies support that negative emotions -specifically anger- mediate between strains and violent actions. In sum, this research retests and builds on Agnew's theory and argues that general strain theory can help terrorism studies to understand the sources of strains of terrorists and the effect of strains on their violent behavior.

Terrorist organizations have always been predominantly dominated by male members in numbers of participants, supporters, and leaders. Despite men having the majority of the roles, oftentimes the world witnesses attack executed by female terrorists which deal a substantial amount of damage to the infrastructure and the peaceful civilians surrounding them. Furthermore, the sense of unpredictability and unpreparedness from the counterterrorist forces and the general public adds up to the overall advantage women possess in the field of terrorism over men. Considering these observations, one can argue that women have grown to be far more dangerous and successful in the field of terrorism than men, who still hold the absolute majority in terrorist organizations. This thesis will investigate the phenomenon of women as nontraditional terrorists through answering the question of who deals more damage per terrorist attacks between males and females by looking at four major distinct terrorist organizations and their individual cases of attacks reported in the Global Terrorism Database. The unit of measurement for this study will be the average of death and wounded tolls, while the variables investigated will be individual male/female attacks and mixed-group/male group/female group attack to evaluate the impact of female member’s presence in group-attack settings. The goal of this thesis is to raise awareness on female lethality in terrorist organizations to the counterterrorist forces and the general public which is extremely important for domestic and foreign policy/security measures.

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In the current fight against Islamic extremism, the United States is challenged in its ability to isolate and target specific individuals and groups in select regional environments - efforts that are arguably symptomatic of broader shortfalls in US global influence and strategic reach. These particularly troublesome environments are characterized by a lack of State control and are populated with fiercely independent, largely Muslim, and decidedly anti-western communities. Unable to consistently penetrate and influence these "ungoverned" regions, operational intelligence remains sporadic and opportunities limited. No broader, structural change has yet been made that would weaken or sever the links among Islamic extremists and their regional hosts over a sustained period or enable greater cooperation between the US or its allies with indigenous tribal populations. Accordingly, these regions continue to provide ideal locations for terrorist sanctuary, bases of support and operation, and freedom of movement. A supplemental US policy option is required. The challenge thus becomes one of how to create more effective opportunities to gain influence and control over these select tribal regions while countering the influence of competitors over a sustained period. A policy of manipulating tribal fractures and rivalries in order to induce or heighten internal conflict could provide these opportunities.