The Psychology of Foreign Fighters

The recent influx of foreign fighters into Syria, particularly those aligning with the Islamic State, has brought renewed attention to the security threat posed by people who cross borders to participate in armed conflict. Although foreign fighters have rarely, if ever, constituted the majority of combatants in a war or insurgency, understanding their role is critical for conflict analysis and prevention. This review focuses on behavioral aspects of the foreign fighter phenomenon. Although other books and articles have focused wholly, or in part, on historical dimensions, the behavioral and social science literature on foreign fighters is much more limited. This review first explores the definitions of “foreign fighter” terminology, then analyzes what is known about their motivations and their pathways toward engaging in armed conflict on foreign soil. It examines recruitment strategies and the role of “radicalization” in feeding the transnational insurgent supply, and finally describes more specifically, the nature of foreign fighter involvement in more recent armed conflicts (e.g., Syria, Chechnya, Iraq, and Afghanistan), and speculates about the prospects for their future involvement.     

Violent Behavior Preceding Hospitalization Among Persons with Severe Mental Illness

The need to better understand and manage risk of violent behavior among persons with severe mental illness (SMI) in community care is increasingly being recognized. Of particular concern is a subset of the SMI population characterized by a revolving door pattern of institutional recidivism and poor adherence to outpatient treatment. Little empirical research exists which examines the specific dimensions of violent incidents and their surrounding context in this population. The present paper describes characteristics of violent behavioral events in a sample of 331 people with psychotic or major mood disorders who were placed on involuntary outpatient commitment in North Carolina. By pooling baseline data from respondents' self-report, collateral informant interviews, and hospital records, the study found violent behavior to be a problem affecting over half the sample in a 4-month period preceding hospitalization. The study also found considerable variability in the frequency of violent events, severity, weapon use, subjective state when incidents occurred, initiation of fights, settings, relationship to others involved, and associated threat of victimization. Multivariable analyses showed that cooccurring substance abuse problems, history of criminal victimization, and age (being younger) were significantly associated with violent behavior when all sources of data were taken into account. Clinical diagnosis and symptom variables were not related to violence in this sample. Implications of these findings for service delivery priorities and future research are discussed.     

Call for Papers: Advances in Assessment and Treatment of Forensic Populations

Law and Human Behavior -     

Detection of deception in law enforcement applicants

Using the MMPI and the IPI, the present study examined the differences in psychometric defensiveness between two groups of law enforcement applicants: applicants identified as being deceptive and a comparison group of candidates for whom no deception was indicated. Significant differences were found on the traditional validity (minimization) scales for both instruments as well as several supplemental scales and indexes from the MMPI. A new index (Es-K) from the MMPI showed a highly significant difference between groups and good classification accuracy. The results suggest that deceptive applicants show more defensiveness on psychometric testing and that test results may assist in raising the index of suspicion for detecting deception in law enforcement applicants.     

Advances in Forensic Assessment and Treatment: An Overview and Introduction to the Special Issue

Law and Human Behavior -