Adam Lankford

A Comparative Analysis of Suicide Terrorists and Rampage, Workplace, and School Shooters in the United States From 1990 to 2010:

This study presents results from the first combined quantitative assessment and comparative analysis of suicide terrorists and rampage, workplace, and school shooters who attempt suicide. Findings suggest that in the United States from 1990 to 2010, the differences between these offenders (N = 81) were largely superficial. Prior to their attacks, they struggled with many of the same personal problems, including social marginalization, family problems, work or school problems, and precipitating crisis events. Ultimately, patterns among all four types of offenders can assist those developing security policy, conducting threat assessments, and attempting to intervene in the lives of at-risk individuals.

Could Suicide Terrorists Actually Be Suicidal

For years, it has been widely agreed on that suicide terrorists are not suicidal individuals, and that behaviorally, they are more similar to noble soldiers who are willing to sacrifice themselves for a cause. However, upon closer examination, it appears that the foundation of this conventional wisdom is extraordinarily shaky. There are many reasons to think that both event-based and psychological risk factors for suicide may drive the behavior of suicide terrorists. Furthermore, there is growing evidence that more than 75 individual suicide terrorists have exhibited these classic suicidal traits. Given the power that the stigma of suicide may have to deter future suicide terrorists, it is critical that governments, scholars, and practitioners examine this issue once again.

Are America’s public mass shooters unique? A comparative analysis of offenders in the United States and other countries

ABSTRACT Public mass shooters are often assumed to be an exceptionally American problem, but little is known about what proportion of global offenders attack in the United States, or how America’s offenders compare to those in other countries. The present study offers the first quantitative analysis of all known offenders from 1966 to 2012 who attacked anywhere on the globe and killed a minimum of four victims. The results suggest that public mass shooters in the United States are significantly more likely to arm themselves with multiple weapons and attack at school and workplace settings, while offenders from other countries are more likely to strike at military sites. These differences may be partially attributable to America’s national gun culture and its particular set of social strains.

Mass murderers in the United States: predictors of offender deaths

Objective: many mass murderers appear to care more about harming others than they do about protecting themselves, and they often commit suicide or refuse to surrender and are killed by police. The present study offers the first in-depth investigation of differences between mass murderers who live and die as a direct result of their offenses. Method: data on 308 offenders in the United States from January 2006 to May 2014 are subjected to quantitative analysis, including logistic regression. Results: findings suggest that those who die are older, less likely to have co-offenders, and more likely to commit public mass killings or family killings, which corresponds with Durkheim’s theories of suicide in numerous ways. Conclusion: ultimately, several specific improvements in suicide prevention strategies could potentially help to reduce the prevalence of these high-fatality crimes.

Rehabilitating Terrorists Through Counter-Indoctrination: Lessons Learned From The Saudi Arabian Program

For years, experts have agreed that Saudi Arabia runs the best terrorist rehabilitation program around the world. However, recent events, including Al Qaeda’s December 25, 2009, attempt to blow up Northwest Flight 253, which put 289 innocent lives in danger and was apparently planned by a program graduate, have raised serious doubts. This study reexamines the leading social—psychological explanations for terrorist indoctrination to determine whether Saudi Arabia’s rehabilitation program seems properly designed to reverse the indoctrination process. By identifying both the elements of indoctrination that the Saudi Arabian program appears to counter and the elements which it fails to address, this study provides new recommendations for how terrorist rehabilitation programs can be significantly improved around the world.

Suicide terrorism as a socially approved form of suicide

For years, the conventional wisdom among most scholars has been that suicide terrorists are not truly suicidal, and that much like ordinary soldiers they are motivated by a selfless commitment to their organization’s cause, rather than a desire to end their lives. However, evidence increasingly indicates that some suicide terrorists do exhibit classic suicidal traits (Lankford, 2010; Merari et al., 2010). It is difficult to quantify the overall percentage of suicide terrorists who appear suicidal, because the requisite biographical and motivational data on individual attackers are often missing. However, the list of suicide terrorists who appear to have displayed risk factors for conventional suicide is steadily growing. One of the remaining issues that has not received sufficient scholarly attention is the interaction between social approval and suicide, with regard to how that affects our understanding of suicide terrorism. A major reason why previous scholars have largely dismissed the possibility that suicide terrorists could be suicidal is because they have failed to control for the effects of social approval.

Race and mass murder in the United States: A social and behavioral analysis:

In the popular discourse, it is commonly assumed that mass murderers and mass shooters are different from most criminals in the United States, because they are almost always white. The present study uses data on 308 mass murderers who attacked from 2006 to 2014 to evaluate this assumption, test for racial differences between mass murderers and all other murderers, and identify characteristics of mass murderers’ behavior by race and ethnic group. Findings suggest that, overall, the racial composition of mass murderers is similar to that of other murderers, and thus may be largely explained by similar social forces, such as structural disadvantages and social inequalities. However, there are significant differences across racial and ethnic groups in attack subtype, victims killed, and attack resolution. In particular, the structural advantages and aggrieved entitlement experienced by whites may help explain their involvement in public mass shootings. Further research in both the United States and other countries may shed additional light on the behavior of mass murderers and the broader social forces that shape them.

Is suicide terrorism really the product of an evolved sacrificial tendency? A review of mammalian research and application of evolutionary theory1

Abstract Academic debates persist about the psychology of suicide terrorists, with one view being that they are psychologically healthy individuals who primarily engage in altruistic self-sacrifice to serve their family, organization, or cause. Some proponents of this view now argue that suicide attackers are actually responding to their evolved sacrificial tendencies. However, the present review questions this hypothesis. For one thing, it appears inconsistent with the evidence on which individuals become suicide bombers and why. More broadly, research from the animal kingdom suggests that there is an important limit to “selfless” or “altruistic” behavior among non-human mammals, which appear to have been naturally selected to save themselves rather than deliberately give up their lives to protect offspring from predation, infanticide, or starvation. Furthermore, kin selection theory suggests that intentional self-sacrifice would be maladaptive for virtually all mammals, including human beings, and that ...

A Psychological Re-Examination of Mental Health Problems among the 9/11 Terrorists

ABSTRACT More than 15 years have passed since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, and a comprehensive re-examination of the 9/11 attackers is now warranted. Research on the psychology of terrorists has evolved dramatically, and there is also new information on some offenders. The present study provides the available psychological and psychiatric evidence on each of the 9/11 pilots, muscle hijackers, and thwarted hijackers who intended to participate in the “planes operation.” Overall, findings suggest that the 9/11 terrorists may have had significantly more mental health problems than previously assumed, and the leaders who planned 9/11 personally approved suicide attackers with prior histories of mental illness. By widely publicizing this information, security officials may be able to more effectively delegitimize suicide terrorism and reduce the number of individuals who would consider funding, supporting, or committing these deadly attacks.

Do Past U.S. Acts Constitute Terrorism? Implications for Counterterrorism Policy

Internationally, there are more than 100 different definitions of terrorism, and even within the U.S. government, there are multiple standards. This lack of consistency has helped fuel a heated debate between the West and Islamic extremists about who is truly terrorizing whom. This article evaluates charges that several past U.S. acts constitute terrorism and makes specific recommendations for how the current administration should address this problematic issue in order to increase U.S. legitimacy worldwide and help it win the war of ideas. It appears that the best approach may be for leaders to admit that the United States has engaged in terrorist-like behavior in the past, but condemn such actions as unfortunate and vow that they will not be repeated. This strategy would be similar to the President’s public statements regarding past acts of U.S. torture, and would still allow for significant differences between the United States and terrorist organizations in their respect for international humanitarian law.