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Social Determinants of Health, Violent Radicalization, and Terrorism: A Public Health Perspective

Date: August 19 2022

Summary: A review on how terrorism intersects with the social determinants of health

Keywords: ##bibliography #terrorism #social #determinants #health #cohesion #social #isolation #archive

Bibliography

H. E. Alcalá, M. Z. Sharif, and G. Samari, "Social Determinants of Health, Violent Radicalization, and Terrorism: A Public Health Perspective," Health Equity, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 87–95, Aug. 2017, doi: 10.1089/heq.2016.0016.

Table of Contents

    1. Public Health Approach to Terrorism
    2. Shortcomings of Addressing Terrorism from a Public Health Perspective
    3. Factors Leading to Extremism
    4. Studying Gang Violence as a Proxy for Terrorist Groups
    5. Positive Approaches to Mitigate Radicalization
    6. Problems with Whiteness and Terrorism Classifications
  1. How To Cite
  2. References:
  3. Discussion:

This paper was probably the best paper I have read on the subject of terrorism research and how it intersects with public health and the social determinants of health. It provided a comprehensive background on what terrorism and radicalism are as well as some very useful public health terminology introducing the concept of social cohesion and social capital. Furthermore, it got at the concept of how examining terrorism and gang violence from a public health perspective is very understudied and underutilized when exploring this space.

Public Health Approach to Terrorism

2.6% of terrorism deaths happen in the West. 72% belong to:

Terrorism associated with negative mental health outcomes in:

Amongst others - Rousseau C, Jamil U, Bhui K, et al. Consequences of 9/11 and the war on terror on children’s and young adult’s mental health: a systematic review of the past 10 years. Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2015;20:173–193.

Shortcomings of Addressing Terrorism from a Public Health Perspective

Historically public health has focused on:

What has been missing in this space is examining:

Factors Leading to Extremism

A case study from the United Kingdom shows that violent radicalization is an outcome of a complex interaction among social, political, cultural, historical, and interpersonal factors.7

Discrimination can be thought of as a "comorbidity" of social isolation and exclusionary behavior. One form of systematic discrimination is immigration policy as it directly contributes to social segregation.9 Feelings of marginalization have been shown to lead to decreased self-worth and, in turn, increase radicalization.57 Those discriminated against could then fall easily to extremist influence and ideology as a result of weakening social cohesion.52

Studying Gang Violence as a Proxy for Terrorist Groups

A proxy to study terrorism is to study gang violence

At the individual level, gangs and terrorist organizations appeal to individuals who are psychologically deviant, have limited access to socioeconomic opportunities, or are marginalized members of society.39–44 In fact, terrorist groups attract a range of unstable individuals.45

NOTE: This seems to contradict the paper Why Do People Become Terrorists as it notes that instead, it was observed how many of these people who are not fully psychologically deviant but rather of clear mind. Furthermore, in my attempt to reconcile such different observations, I would posit that rather, both explanations and comments are valid but that "unstable individuals" seem to conflate a kind of negative aspect to a person whereas the linked paper avoids the notion of unstable persons and instead explains how most of these people are of clear opinion.

Goals generally exclusive to gangs:

  1. Symbolic ends

  2. Looser structure

  3. Less temporary collaborations

  4. Shorter memberships

  5. Gang occupies physical space.46

The main difference between gangs and terrorist groups is that gangs are often not politically motivated.47

Positive Approaches to Mitigate Radicalization

Dutch police actively sought to integrate individuals from Syria by connecting them with a psychiatrist or mentor. Then, they provided assistance to find housing or means to return to school. To round out this reintegration process, they went even further to provide "whatever they needed to fully integrate back into society."67

This approach, believes that to fight terrorism through policing and/or "profiling" will create real or perceived discrimination, humiliation, and/or marginalization. Other papers have shown this to be an accurate assessment.

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Problems with Whiteness and Terrorism Classifications

Muslim Americans who come from the Middle East are often classified as "White" by categories set forth by the Office of Management and Budget. However, this is in complete opposition to the fact that a large proportion of Muslim Americans do not identify as "White". 15 An implicit assumption and implicit problem is that people labeled "White" are assumed to be "racially neutral."15

How To Cite

Zelko, Jacob. Social Determinants of Health, Violent Radicalization, and Terrorism: A Public Health Perspective. https://jacobzelko.com/08192022115354-health-terrorism-factors. August 19 2022.

References:

Discussion:

CC BY-SA 4.0 Jacob Zelko. Last modified: May 19, 2024. Website built with Franklin.jl and the Julia programming language.