Volume 4, Issue 2, October 2013, Pages 274–285
Farhan Hyder Sahito1, Wolfgang Slany2, Safdar Zaman3, Irfan Hyder Sahito4, and Rana Shahzad Qaiser5
1 Institute for Software Technology, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
2 Institute for Software Technology, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
3 Institute for Software Technology, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
4 Institute of Information & Communication Technology, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan
5 Department of Psychology, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan
Original language: English
Copyright © 2013 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The nature of terrorism is fundamentally psychological. Similarly, psychological profiling is widely accepted in detecting crimes in both law enforcement operations and the study of criminology. However, there is a need to transfer its appearance from old traditional criminal environment to the context of counterterrorism. This research argues that most prevalent method of interrogating suspects to achieve distinction between guilty and innocent is to establish a set of psychological attributes and factors. This paper proposes that terrorist's profiling is value-added intelligence that may add a new dimension in counterterrorism to identify the individual behind a terrorist act. It is important to constructs a terrorist profile before designing a paradigm that should determine the probability of terroristic trends within the individual as well as certain perceptible qualities with which an observed suspect can be likened to. This article proposes a personality-guided model of interrogation with different categories to steer clear of oversimplified thinking about individual terrorist or groups. The objective is to adapt the style and content of questioning to obtain a clear overall picture of the suspect's knowledge with appropriate interviewing and interrogation methods. This profiling will provide thorough understanding of the ideology that drives terrorism and more awareness of the likely means and likely targets used by terrorists. This paper is a shift in direction
Author Keywords: Psychological profiling, Interrogation, Terrorism, Interviewing, Law enforcement.
Farhan Hyder Sahito1, Wolfgang Slany2, Safdar Zaman3, Irfan Hyder Sahito4, and Rana Shahzad Qaiser5
1 Institute for Software Technology, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
2 Institute for Software Technology, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
3 Institute for Software Technology, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
4 Institute of Information & Communication Technology, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan
5 Department of Psychology, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan
Original language: English
Copyright © 2013 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The nature of terrorism is fundamentally psychological. Similarly, psychological profiling is widely accepted in detecting crimes in both law enforcement operations and the study of criminology. However, there is a need to transfer its appearance from old traditional criminal environment to the context of counterterrorism. This research argues that most prevalent method of interrogating suspects to achieve distinction between guilty and innocent is to establish a set of psychological attributes and factors. This paper proposes that terrorist's profiling is value-added intelligence that may add a new dimension in counterterrorism to identify the individual behind a terrorist act. It is important to constructs a terrorist profile before designing a paradigm that should determine the probability of terroristic trends within the individual as well as certain perceptible qualities with which an observed suspect can be likened to. This article proposes a personality-guided model of interrogation with different categories to steer clear of oversimplified thinking about individual terrorist or groups. The objective is to adapt the style and content of questioning to obtain a clear overall picture of the suspect's knowledge with appropriate interviewing and interrogation methods. This profiling will provide thorough understanding of the ideology that drives terrorism and more awareness of the likely means and likely targets used by terrorists. This paper is a shift in direction
Author Keywords: Psychological profiling, Interrogation, Terrorism, Interviewing, Law enforcement.
How to Cite this Article
Farhan Hyder Sahito, Wolfgang Slany, Safdar Zaman, Irfan Hyder Sahito, and Rana Shahzad Qaiser, “Terrorist profiling as a Counterinsurgency Strategy: Applying the Concept to Law Enforcement,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 274–285, October 2013.