Will it Ever be Possible to Profile the Terrorist?

Authors

  • Jonathan A Rae CSTPV, University of St Andrews

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15664/jtr.380

Keywords:

Profiling, terrorist attributes, race, gender, psychology, socioeconomic, physiology

Abstract

This paper critiques the claim that terrorists can be profiled – that is to say that terrorists possess distinguishable attributes that can be conceivably identified by an observer. In doing so, the most prominent profiling parameters - racial, gender, age, pathological, psychological and socioeconomic – are investigated. The above approaches are found to have little to no applied value in identifying terrorists from a societal population. The dominant criticisms of these methods emphasise their crude reductionism, an absence of internal and external validity, and their lack of practical application. Current evidence indicates that the profiling of terrorists is a futile venture.

Author Biography

Jonathan A Rae, CSTPV, University of St Andrews

Jonathan Rae is a Terrorism Studies Postgraduate at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St. Andrews. Prior to his postgraduate studies, he read Politics and Parliamentary Studies at the University of Leeds. Jonathan has spent time as a defence researcher for junior defence minister, Lord Astor of Hever, and as a foreign affairs researcher for ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Richard G. Lugar.

Downloads

Published

2012-09-22

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 2 (2012)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2012 The Author(s)

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  • Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).