ABSTRACT
Terrorists interests in criminal enterprises have grown, which creates the potential for a nexus between prison gangs and terrorist organisations. Terrorists are uniquely different from criminals. Traditional criminals are generally unable to continue their illicit activities while incarcerated. Extremist criminals, however, are quite the opposite. Violent criminals, on the other hand, tend to suffer from mental disorders and can be unstable which can yield a potentially explosive situation. Also, when politically or religiously motivated extremists interact with ordinary criminals, they create opportunities for terrorist's ideological fervour to be combined with traditional offender's criminal tendencies. Conventional terrorists are committed to jihad and have acted outside socially accepted norms, often through criminal behaviour. But criminals who have been recruited to participate in terrorist efforts become jihadists who know how to access and handle weapons. Prisoners are especially susceptible to radicalisation efforts because they have often been abandoned by their family or friends and are thus separated from their typical social networks.
