Short Briefing: Psychology of Suicide Bombings (original) (raw)

2004

This article explains why suicide bombing has been effective in some conflicts while in others it has been rejected or abandoned. What motivates organizations to employ violence, and how does suicide terrorism inflame or respond to public opinion?

The Phenomenon of Suicide Bombing

Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, 2006

This article reviews the literature on the phenomenon of suicide bombing. It addresses the question of just how much a psychological understanding of the individuals involved can aid in prevention. The article looks at historical, epidemiological, and cultural perspectives and compares the nonpsychological and psychological approaches to suicide bombing. On the basis of the material available it seems that social processes such as group-dynamic indoctrination and political factors are decisive in analyzing this problem. Cultural, nationalistic, and religious factors are important. The conclusion is that in suicidal bombing, suicide is instrumental in the context of war, not in the context of psychopathology. Suicide bombing is instrumental in realizing fatalities, and it is only one of many weapons. The act of killing in warfare is more important to understanding suicidal terrorism than the act of suicide. This explains why psychological profiling of suicidal terrorists has to date not been successful.

The phenomenon of suicide bombing: A review of psychological and nonpsychological factors

… of Crisis Intervention and Suicide …, 2006

Suicide Terrorism: Exploring Motivations.

hy do certain individuals sit, plan, organise, and despatch other individuals to kill themselves in the hope of killing others "in such a horrific way at the bus stop or in a crowded market," i in air planes as well as cafes, mosques and churches when regular commando action, shooting sprees and regular bombs should suffice? This study focuses on the deployment of suicide attacks by certain organisation, and attempts to answer the question 'why?'' Extant studies tend to focus on the grievances of terrorist organisations and the suicide bombers. The deliberate appropriation of the suicide attack tactic by the leadership of these organisations in spite of 'grievance' is often ignored.

A Sociological Perspective To Suicide Bombing

2011

Orta Dogu’da Islam ile digerkâm intihar eylemleri arasindaki iliskileri anlamaya yonelik olan bu makalede ilk olarak Durkheim’in intihar eylemleri hakkindaki gorusleri ele alinacak. Ikinci olarak Islam’in intihar girisimleri hakkindaki ortodoks yorumlari incelenecek. Ucuncu olarak, ayni dinin bazi yerlerde intihar eylemlerini engellerken neden bazi bolgelerde bu eylerimi tesvik ettigini anlamak icin Geertz’in din hakkindaki dusuncelerine bakilacak. Dorduncu olarak, Orta Dogu’nun toplumsal ve siyasi ortaminin intihar eylemlerindeki katkisi tartisilacak. Son olarak Islam mi yok Orta Dogunun politik ve ictimai ortaminin bu eylemleri tesvik edip etmedigi munazarasi yapilacak.

Suicide terrorism -Physical and mental destruction

International Journal of Advance Research Ideas and Innovations in Technology

Suicide terrorism is a troublesome phenomenon for all of us, the masses, to conceptualize and to entirely understand. Its very presence appears to straightforwardly negate quite a bit of what we think about fundamental human survival impulses, which obviously has consequences for the mannerisms by which we look to gauge such elusive factors as radicalization and ideological duty. Our comprehension of suicide psychological warfare can likewise shift contingent upon whether it depends on the subjective examination of specific contextual investigations, some other experimental strategy, or assaults executed by explicit gatherings or sorts of gatherings, groups, mental institutions. Terrorist activities and government responses to them portray a strong and dynamic transaction, with the moves of one side affecting those of the other. As one model, if any terrorist organization attacks and a state sends in their arms and army as the power to send a rebuffing message back, the terrorists may utilize that activity to negatively persuade the commoners or the mob, resulting in turning the mob against the state. This is seen happening on the grounds of communal bias, power trip, inhumane methods of segregation from the nation which would only conclude in angering the civilians as well. Therefore, the findings would only address the terrorist activities and neglect the other end as that is something subject to the less important part of humanity and our community. Terrorism isn't legitimately characterized in all locales; the rules that do exist, in any case, by and large offer some normal components. Terrorism or lethal acts, to be psychological or physical violence include the utilization or danger of viciousness and looks to make fear, inside the immediate exploited people as well as among a wide gathering of people. How much it depends on dread recognizes fear based oppression from both traditional and guerrilla fighting. No doubt, customary military powers perpetually participate in fighting against the foe, their key methods for triumph is quality of arms. With the end goal to draw in and keep up the exposure important to produce across the board fear, terrorists must participate in progressively emotional, vicious, and prominent assaults. These have included hijackings, hostage takings, kidnappings, vehicle bombings, and, habitually, suicide bombings. Albeit, clearly arbitrary, the people in question and areas of fear-based terrorist groups or organizations assaults frequently are precisely chosen for their stun esteem. Schools, malls, transport and train stations, and eateries and dance club have been focused on both on the grounds that they pull in substantial groups and in light of the fact that they are places with which individuals from the non-military personnel populace are commonplace and in which they feel calm. The objective of terrorism, by and large, is to obliterate general society's feeling that all is well with the world in the spots most commonplace to them. Real targets some of the time additionally incorporate structures or different areas that are vital monetary or political images, for example, government offices or army bases.

The reasons of suicide bombings and the counter strategies that can be applied

Suicide attacks, also known as ‘human bombs’, ‘suicide bombings’ and ‘suicide terrorism’ interchangeably, have become an international endemic, especially within the Middle East with terrorist groups such as the PKK and ISIL using it as a means to try fulfill their political goals being to setup an autonomous state. Suicide bombing attacks first coming to the forefront in the early 1980’s with Hezbollah and then reaching a ‘professional level’ with the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) has been on the increase recently. One country being a part of this painful process is Turkey. Within the last five months, three suicide attacks had taken place, one in Ankara and two in Istanbul with the latest attack being in Taksim (Milliyet Newspaper, 19 Mar. 2016). This paper hypothesizes that in order to pacify suicide terrorism attacks, root causes need to be analyzed first rather than applying a general concept of security, especially with means of ‘entrusting the streets to police officers’ (Haberturk Newspaper, 09 Mar. 2016). A long term strategy is needed internationally, rather than just tweaking and changing security procedures.

Divergent paths to martyrdom and significance among suicide attackers

Terrorism and Political Violence, 2015

This research used open source information to investigate the motivational backgrounds of 219 suicide attackers from various regions of the world. We inquired as to whether the attackers exhibited evidence for significance quest as a motive for their actions, and whether the eradication of significance loss and/or the aspiration for significance gain systematically differed according to attackers' demographics. It was found that the specific nature of the significance quest motive varied in accordance with attackers' gender, age, and education. Whereas Arab-Palestinians, males, younger attackers, and more educated attackers seem to have been motivated primarily by the possibility of significance gain, women, older attackers, those with little education, and those hailing from other regions seem to have been motivated primarily by the eradication of significance loss. Analyses also suggested that the stronger an attacker's significance quest motive, the greater the effectiveness of their attack, as measured by the number of casualties. Methodological limitations of the present study were discussed, and the possible directions for further research were indicated.

Short Briefing: Psychology of Suicide Bombings (original) (raw)

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