Extreme Far-Right Murder-Suicide Attacks in the U.S. and Germany: A Comparative Storyline Analysis (original) (raw)
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Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression , 2020
In recent years, extreme right-wing militancy and terrorism have increasingly become the major source of violent attacks, killings, and threats in many Western countries. Yet, the characteristics and logic of right-wing terrorism remain poorly understood. One aspect virtually unexplored is the apparent lack of suicide terror tactics within far-right terrorism. Suicide terrorism has been attributed mainly to religious and ethno-separatist terrorist organizations. This article explores the contemporary extreme right’s stance toward suicide, self-sacrifice, and martyrdom at the ideological, strategic, and subcultural levels through historic references to martyrdom in Nazi Germany and post WWII far-right movements, as well as extreme right strategic manuals and ideological manifestos. In sum, this article argues that the extreme right is unlikely to use suicide attack tactics in the narrow sense since its own distinct sacrificial martyrdom mythology based on ideological steadfastness and a hypermasculine warrior identity of fighting until defeat incentivizes different types of attacks involving suicide, such as murder-suicides or mass shootings.
Crime & Delinquency, 2018
This study compares suicide and non-suicide incidents in the United States by analyzing data from the U.S. Extremist Crime Database (ECDB) on terrorist incidents committed by extreme far-right (FR) and radical Islamic terrorists between 1990 and 2014. Drawing from Situational Crime Prevention (SCP), we investigate whether suicide incidents are more likely than non-suicide incidents to be directed at secure targets and to utilize firearms. Findings reveal that suicide terrorism is significantly more likely to be committed against secure targets and similarly likely to involve the use of firearms in comparison with non-suicide terrorism. In addition, suicide terrorism is more likely to be committed by lone actors, radical Islamic terrorists, and result in fatalities. Implications for terrorism prevention are discussed.
Comparing Extremist Perpetrators of Suicide and Non-Suicide Attacks in the United States
Terrorism and Political Violence, 2017
This study explores differences in perpetrators of suicide attacks and non-suicide attacks in the United States. The study uses data on farright and Al Qaeda and affiliated/inspired terrorists between 1990 and 2013 from the United States Extremist Crime Database. Our analysis estimates logistic regression models to test whether suicide attackers were more likely to have exhibited specific risk factors for suicidality, while examining other prominent claims regarding patterns of suicide terrorism. Suicide attackers were no more likely than non-suicide attackers to have previously attempted suicide or to have been diagnosed as mentally ill. Suicide attackers were more likely, though, to have a history of substance abuse, to be loners, have served in the military, participated in paramilitary training, and be more ideologically committed to the cause. We found that Al Qaeda affiliated/ inspired attackers were more likely than far-right attackers to have engaged in a suicide mission. With the current focus on Americans traveling to Syria and Iraq to receive training and fight for jihadist movements (e.g., the Islamic State), our findings appear relevant. Observers have expressed concern that these fighters may return and then commit attacks in their homeland. Law enforcement could make use of this study's findings.
The Frankfurt airport attack: A case study on the radicalization of a lone-actor terrorist
Journal of threat assessment and management, 2015
The case of the Frankfurt Airport attack in 2011 in which a 21-year-old man shot several U.S. soldiers, murdering 2 U.S. airmen and severely wounding 2 others, is assessed with the Terrorist Radicalization Assessment Protocol (TRAP-18). The study is based on an extensive qualitative analysis of investigation and court files focusing on the complex interconnection among offender personality, specific opportunity structures, and social contexts. The role of distal psychological factors and proximal warning behaviors in the run up to the deed are discussed. Although in this case the proximal behaviors of fixation on a cause and identification as a "soldier" for the cause developed over years, we observed only a very brief and accelerated pathway toward the violent act. This represents an important change in the demands placed upon threat assessors.
Understanding suicide terrorism: Insights from psychology, lessons from history
Investigating Terrorism, 2015
History and psychology give us some powerful tools for understanding suicide terrorism. History quickly teaches that this tactic is not the reserve of any one religion and there are many examples from the past of individuals with very different motivations who are willing to sacrifice their life in an effort to kill others. Thus it is a mistake to see modern suicide terrorism as inherently an ‘Islamic problem’. Similarly, history also teaches us that perspective is important. The more you sympathise with the perpetrators’ cause, then the more you tend to explain the perpetrators’ decisions and motivations in very different (and usually much more positive) ways. If we disagree with the aims, then explanations begin to cluster around issues such as brainwashing, indoctrination, grooming, and radicalisation of vulnerable personalities. The truth almost certainly lies somewhere in between. The lesson from psychology is that there is no obvious suicide terrorist personality. Individuals reach the point of carrying out a suicide attack through a process which generally has more to do with social psychology then with the tenets of clinical or abnormal psychology. Used effectively, these insights can be tremendously helpful in stripping away many of the myths and assumptions which surround debates on suicide terrorism and leave us with a more realistic assessment of the perpetrators, who they are, how they see themselves and what forces motivate and drive them. A realistic understanding here is a vital first step in developing more effective approaches for both countering and preventing suicide terrorism.
Suicide Terrorism as a Multidimensional Process : a Complex Relational Approach
2013
Although suicide terrorism is a complex and multidimensional concept, the extant literature examines the phenomenon from limited aspects and on an individual basis. This paper argues that the complex relational processes approach developed by Stacey (2001) can be a useful framework for understanding suicide terrorism. The complex relational processes approach asserts that certain behavior patterns emerge through iterative relationships people develop at different ontological levels, i.e., within, between and among human bodies, simultaneously. If suicide terrorism is examined within this framework, the entire process constructing terrorist behaviour at different ontological levels can be better understood and more precise reaction strategies can be developed.
International Journal of Conflict and Violence, 2020
The question as to why individuals join extremist groups, radicalize or even go on to commit acts of terror have been a focus of research for many decades and a multitude of researchers from different disciplines have advanced theories and hypotheses in an attempt to provide an answer. The German literature on the topic has also offered a number of promising contributions worth discussing in the context of general international literature. We begin by examining factors pertaining to the individual as such (personality features, cognitions and emotions) and then move on to address theories that focus on the interaction between individuals and their social environment and long-term socialization processes.
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.