The Terrorist-Criminal Nexus

​CRC Press; crcpress.com; 351 pages; $69.95.

In The Terrorist-Criminal Nexus, Dr. Jennifer L. Hesterman presents the reader with a well-written catalog of the various terrorist factions presently active in the world. A colonel who has retired from the U.S. Air Force, the author has studied these groups in depth. Her scholarly approach to this subject matter is unambiguously manifested in the comprehensive and detailed treatment of the entities that comprise the current threat to international security.

The author provides examples of the collaboration that exists between criminal and terroristic assemblages. The union between these two types of nefarious groups is convincingly established with stories of collusion, such as the cooperative efforts between the drug cartels and terrorists. However, the emphasis of this tome inclines towards terrorism in general to a greater extent than towards the nexus between terrorism and criminal activity. Nevertheless, the reader’s awareness of this alarming alliance of politically or religiously motivated terrorists and materialistic criminals will undoubtedly be heightened by this work.

Among the topics explored in the book are transnational organized crime, domestic terrorism, criminal and terrorist financing, social media’s role in crime and terrorism, and e-commerce. An appendix lists the designated foreign terrorist groups and explains what official designation as a terrorist group means. This book is a valuable contribution to the literature pertaining to the study of terrorism and crime. 

Reviewer: Hugh J. Martin is a retired police chief from Wisconsin. He holds graduate degrees from Loyola University in Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and a member of ASIS International.