Mental disorder

The presence of a mental disorder or psychopathology may be one of many risk factors that push and pull an individual into terrorist engagement, and it may also be a by-product of terrorist activity and/or later disengagement from a terrorist group (Gill & Corner, 2017; LaFree, Jensen, James, & Safer-Lichtenstein, 2018)

MD1 Personality disorder: Vulnerabilities and dispositional factors, as well as personality traits with a certain mindset, can be a determining factor for terrorist actions; these need not take the form of mental disorders (Borum, 2014; Duits et al, 2021).

MD2 Depressive disorder and/or suicide attempts

MD3 Psychotic and schizophrenic disorder

MD4 Autism spectrum disorder

MD5 Post-traumatic stress disorder

MD6 Substance use disorder

Scientific evidence suggests that past non-violent juvenile criminal activity, problematic personal histories, and mental disorders may contribute to to future engagement in violent extremism activities when in combination with the presence of ideological, contextual, and motivational indicators identified in the VERA-2R (Huesmann, 2010; Gill, 2015; Borum, 2015; Meloy & Gill, 2016; Gill & Corner, 2017).

The criminal and personal history factors are particularly relevant to youth.

As a result, information pertinent to these ‘Additional Indicators’ should be noted whenever possible by assessors. These indicators are rated as ‘present’ or ‘not present’. When no information is available for the indicator, it is not rated and left open.