Moghaddam's Staircase To Terrorism: A Comparative Analysis

The concept of terrorism and how it is applied with psychological and behavioral patterns is not easily identified. Peter Olsson’s concept of the “in-betweener” identifies it as those in a state of transition, seeking social cohesion and a route to overcome frustration with status in their life (2013). This theory is conducive with many studies on terrorist transformations and historical narratives of terrorists. As I mentioned in a previous forum post, personal grievance’s and perceived inequalities can drive most people to extreme acts in order to preserve their norms. And smart individuals such as Bin Laden are able to take advantage of that mindset and leave an impression that creates the transformation into radicalization and then acts of terrorism. People have different coping mechanisms so of course that doesn’t always work, however, on the few who are submissive in nature or fear isolation it is an easy motivator for radicalization. So in part, one could say that
In each of the models there consistencies with the “in-betweener” concept as defined by Olsson, in that they each start with a perception of inequality or mistreatment, new purpose and empathic/sympathetic cohesion. In Borums pathway and Moghaddam’s Staircase to Terrorism the main theme is subjective interpretation focusing blame to others for perceived injustices, Wiktorowicz’s Theory and The NYPD’s Radicalization Process both identify religious purpose seeking as the key motivator for terrorism and Sageman’s Four Prongs key aspect is a biased perception of a situation (King and Taylor, 2011). The common the first four have is that all start with a feeling of unjust duress in their lives, and all five models are looking for cohesion of like-minded individuals as coping mechanism to solidify purpose in their lives against the injustices