[acb-hsp] What Drives Suicide Mass Killers?

[peter altschul]

December 17, 2012
  What Drives Suicidal Mass Killers
  By ADAM LANKFORD
  Tuscaloosa, Ala.  WHAT do Mir Aimal Kansi, Ali Abu Kamal, 
Hesham Mohamed Hadayet and Nidal Malik Hasan have in common with 
Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, Seung-Hui Cho and Adam Lanza?
  The first four claimed to be fighting the American government's 
unholy oppression of Muslims; they struck the C.I.A.  
headquarters, the Empire State Building, Los Angeles 
International Airport and the Army base at Fort Hood, Tex., 
respectively.  The last four seemed to be driven by personal 
motives; they shot up a high school, a university and an 
elementary school.
  For years, the conventional wisdom has been that suicide 
terrorists are rational political actors, while suicidal rampage 
shooters are mentally disturbed loners.  But the two groups have 
far more in common than has been recognized.
  Over the last three years, I have examined interviews, case 
studies, suicide notes, martyrdom videos and witness statements 
and found that suicide terrorists are indeed suicidal in the 
clinical sense -- which contradicts what many psychologists and 
political scientists have long asserted.  Although suicide 
terrorists may share the same beliefs as the organizations whose 
propaganda they spout, they are primarily motivated by the desire 
to kill and be killed -- just like most rampage shooters.
  In fact, we should think of many rampage shooters as 
nonideological suicide terrorists.  In some cases, they claim to 
be fighting for a cause -- neo-Nazism, eugenics, masculine 
supremacy or an antigovernment revolution -- but, as with suicide 
terrorists, their actions usually stem from something much deeper 
and more personal.
  There appears to be a triad of factors that sets these killers 
apart.  The first is that they are generally struggling with 
mental health problems that have produced their desire to die.  
The specific psychiatric diagnoses vary widely, and include 
everything from clinical depression and post-traumatic stress 
disorder to schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis.  The 
suicide rate was 12.4 per 100,000 people in the United States in 
2010 (the highest in 15 years).
  Suicide is relatively rare, but it is rarer still in most 
Muslim countries.  This is a very limited pool from which most 
suicide terrorists and rampage shooters come.
  The second factor is a deep sense of victimization and belief 
that the killer's life has been ruined by someone else, who has 
bullied, oppressed or persecuted him.  Not surprisingly, the 
presence of mental illness can inflame these beliefs, leading 
perpetrators to have irrational and exaggerated perceptions of 
their own victimization.  It makes little difference whether the 
perceived victimizer is an enemy government (in the case of 
suicide terrorists) or their boss, co-workers, fellow students or 
family members (in the case of rampage shooters).
  The key is that the aggrieved individual feels that he has been 
terribly mistreated and that violent vengeance is justified.  In 
many cases, the target for revenge becomes broader and more 
symbolic than a single person, so that an entire type or category 
of people is deemed responsible for the attacker's pain and 
suffering.  Then, the urge to commit suicide becomes a desire for 
murder-suicide, which is even rarer; a recent meta-analysis of 16 
studies suggests that only two to three of every one million 
Americans commit murder-suicide each year.
  The third factor is the desire to acquire fame and glory 
through killing.  More than 70 percent of murder-suicides are 
between spouses or romantic or sexual partners, and these crimes 
usually take place at home.  Attackers who commit murder-suicide 
in public are far more brazen and unusual.  Most suicide 
terrorists believe they will be honored and celebrated as 
bmartyrsb after their deaths and, sure enough, terrorist 
organizations produce martyrdom videos and memorabilia so that 
other desperate souls will volunteer to blow themselves up.
  Similarly, rampage shooters have often been captivated by the 
idea that they will become posthumously famous.  "Isn't it fun to 
get the respect that webre going to deserve?" the Columbine 
shooter Eric Harris remarked.  He had fantasized with his fellow 
attacker, Dylan Klebold, that the filmmakers Steven Spielberg and 
Quentin Tarantino would fight over the rights to their life 
story.
  Although we can only speculate, Adam Lanza's decision to target 
elementary school children in Newtown, Conn., may have been a 
calculated attempt to get as much attention as possible.  Despite 
misconceptions to the contrary, many mentally ill people are 
quite capable of staging their attacks for symbolic effect.  In 
2002, the Washington-area snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee 
Boyd Malvo shot a middle schooler, then taunted the police with a 
note that said "Your children are not safe anywhere at any time." 
Mr.  Lanza may have realized that the only thing that generates 
more attention than killing random innocent adults is killing 
random innocent children.
  It is tempting to look back at recent history and wonder what's 
wrong with America -- our culture and our policies.  But 
underneath the pain, the rage and the desire to die, rampage 
shooters like Mr.  Lanza are remarkably similar to aberrant mass 
killers -- including suicide terrorists -- in other countries.  
The difference rests in how they are shaped by cultural forces 
and which destructive behaviors they seek to copy.  The United 
States has had more than its share of rampage shootings, but only 
a few suicide attacks.  Other countries are regularly plagued by 
suicidal explosions, but rarely experience a school shooting.
  I can't help but wonder about Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, 
Seung-Hui Cho and Adam Lanza.  If they had been born in Gaza or 
the West Bank, shaped by terrorist organizationsb hateful 
propaganda, would they have strapped bombs around their waists 
and blown themselves up? I'm afraid the answer is yes.
  Adam Lankford, an assistant professor of criminal justice at 
the University of Alabama, is the author of the forthcoming book 
bThe Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, 
Rampage Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers."