[Vision2020] What Drives Suicidal Mass Killers

[Art Deco]

 [image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/>

------------------------------
December 17, 2012
What Drives Suicidal Mass Killers By ADAM LANKFORD

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

WHAT do Mir Aimal
Kansi<http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/k/mir_amal_kansi/index.html>,
Ali Abu Kamal<http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/k/ali_abu_kamal/index.html>,
Hesham Mohamed Hadayet and Nidal Malik
Hasan<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/nidal_malik_hasan/index.html>have
in common with Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, Seung-Hui
Cho<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/cho_seunghui/index.html>and
Adam
Lanza<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/school_shootings/index.html>?
The first four claimed to be fighting the American government’s unholy
oppression of Muslims; they struck the C.I.A.
headquarters<http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/26/us/gunman-kills-2-near-cia-entrance.html>,
the Empire State
Building<http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/24/nyregion/shots-send-empire-state-crowd-fleeing.html>,
Los Angeles International
Airport<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/05/us/los-angeles-airport-gunman-slays-2-and-is-killed-by-guard.html>and
the Army
base at Fort Hood, Tex.<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/us/06forthood.html>,
respectively. The last four seemed to be driven by personal motives; they
shot up a high school<http://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/21/us/terror-littleton-overview-2-students-colorado-school-said-gun-down-many-23-kill.html?ref=columbinehighschool>,
a university<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/v/virginia_polytechnic_institute_and_state_university/index.html>and
an elementary
school<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/nyregion/shooting-reported-at-connecticut-elementary-school.html>.


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 others 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 “martyrs”
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
we’re 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<http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/m/john_allen_muhammad/index.html>and
Lee
Boyd Malvo<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/john_lee_malvo/index.html>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 organizations’ hateful propaganda, would they have strapped bombs
around their waists and blown themselves up? I’m afraid the answer is yes.

Adam Lankford <http://adamlankford.com/bio.htm>, an assistant
professor<http://cj.ua.edu/faculty_and_staff/faculty/lankford/index.php>of
criminal justice at the University of Alabama, is the
author <http://adamlankford.com/mythofmartyrdom.htm> of the forthcoming
book “The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage
Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers.”


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20121218/b61313da/attachment-0001.html>