Figuring out what makes a terrorist tick is not easy, and law enforcement and counterterrorism officials have been turning more and more to psychologists to try to do just that.

In this episode, we talk with a psychologist who has spoken face-to-face with former members of

violent extremist organizations in an effort to understand how and why people become involved in terrorism,

as well as why some choose to walk away.

Thank you. terrorism, as well as why some choose to walk away. John Horgan is Professor of Security Studies at the School of Criminology and Justice

Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he's also the

director of the Center for Terrorism and Security Studies. His research focuses on terrorist

behavior. He has more than 70 publications on terrorism and political violence. He's interviewed

hundreds of terrorists around the world. Welcome, Dr. Hogan. Thank you for having me.

I guess the most common question is,

are there certain characteristics or a profile of the type of person who is most likely to become

a terrorist? No, is the short answer. It hasn't stopped us from looking for such a profile,

but four decades of psychological research on who becomes a terrorist and why hasn't yet

produced any profile. If there is no simple way to profile who might be a terrorist, how do you

begin to understand and study terrorist behavior? Very slowly and with a great deal of patience.

We've discovered in recent years that it is possible for us to reach out to and identify

individuals who have disengaged from terrorism.

So we can actually ask questions to people who were once involved in high-profile terrorist activity.

So we can conduct research. We can conduct research

systematically and we can try to answer questions about who becomes involved in terrorism and why.

I think it's fair to say that we are at the very, very early stages in terms of developing a

science of terrorist behavior. Psychology as a discipline hasn't yet

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