Radical Losers and Righteous Badasses: A Cultural Criminology of 'Home grown' Jihadi Violence

• In Event: Jock Young Memorial Panel on Cultural Criminology

Abstract

This paper explores Jock Young's intellectual legacy for thinking about 'home grown' jihadist violence in secular western societies. Drawing in particular on Young's 'The Vertigo of Late Modernity' and developments in cultural criminology more broadly, it examines the psychic and sensual attractions of jihadi subcultures, focusing on self-sacrifice and martyrdom. It also develops, using Jack Katz's seminal work on the 'seductions of crime', the idea of a 'jihadi badass self', suggesting that part of the allure and fascination surrounding jihadi subcultures lies in their channelling of 'the ways of the badass'. Jihadis exude badassness to a striking degree and in thinking about the attractions of jihadi subcultures it may be useful to explore this subterranean aspect of their appeal.

Author

• Simon Cottee, University of Kent, UK