Empirical evidence of manipulation and psychological abuse in the indoctrination and induced radicalization of jihadists

Abstract

In the past decade, the psychology of terrorism has paid a special attention to individual-group interaction in an attempt to better understand how processes of violent radicalization occur. The objective of this research is to determine whether the members of a group of Jihadi terrorists were psychologically manipulated and abused during the process which indoctrinated and radicalized them. Towards that end, we have used the trustworthy documentation of the testimonies about “Operation NOVA I, II and III”, found in a judicial ruling by the Spanish National Court, since it offers a solid base of empirical material which allows for an analysis of the indicators of the coercive and psychological abuse used against the members of the terrorist cell. The results may be regarded as evidence for the practice of thought reform and psychological abuse in a Jihadist terrorist group. We conclude that these results should be taken into account in efforts to proactively prevent these techniques of recruitment in general and of radicalization in particular, and thus of the consequent terrorist actions.