Suicide squad: Boko Haram’s use of the female suicide bomber

Boko Haram first began using the tactic of suicide bombings in 2011 and in 2014 started using female suicide bombers. This research focuses on gender differences in the use of suicide bombers. The data were collected using open sources from June 16, 2011 to June 15, 2018. Using this longitudinal data, trends are described over that 7-year period, focusing on the use of females. A majority of the suicide bombings target civilians in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. More than half of the bombers were women and girls, some as young as 7?years old, and there were more than 60 incidents where the bomber was below the age of 15. More female bombers were used to targets civilians, whereas men were used more often to target government, police, and military targets. Female suicide bombers were used in Cameroon, whereas males were used more often in Nigeria. Additionally, females used suicide belts or vests, whereas men carried out the overwhelming majority of vehicle-borne suicide bombings. In many cases, the use of the women as bombers involved coercion. The unprecedented use of female suicide bombers, particularly young girls, should be a focus of policy moving forward.     

Why Do Some Terrorist Attacks Receive More Media Attention Than Others?

Abstract

Terrorist attacks often dominate news coverage as reporters seek to provide the public with information. Yet, not all incidents receive equal attention. Why do some terrorist attacks receive more media coverage than others? We argue that perpetrator religion is the largest predictor of news coverage, while target type, being arrested, and fatalities will also impact coverage. We examined news coverage from LexisNexis Academic and CNN.com for all terrorist attacks in the United States between 2006 and 2015 (N?=?136). Controlling for target type, fatalities, and being arrested, attacks by Muslim perpetrators received, on average, 357% more coverage than other attacks. Our results are robust against a number of counterarguments. The disparities in news coverage of attacks based on the perpetrator’s religion may explain why members of the public tend to fear the “Muslim terrorist” while ignoring other threats. More representative coverage could help to bring public perception in line with reality.     

The Impact of the Boston Marathon Bombings on Public Willingness to Cooperate with Police

While a key to law enforcement success is the willingness of the public to cooperate with police, we have limited understanding of how terrorist attacks affect this public readiness. Prior research suggests that terrorist attacks might increase citizen cooperation with police through both prevention efforts and rally effects. We test these assertions with three nationally representative surveys on respondents’ willingness to help police combat terrorism: one before the Boston Marathon bombings and two after. As predicted, public willingness to report suspicious behavior to police increases significantly following the bombings and there is evidence that these increases generalize to ordinary crime. We also find that knowledge of key counter terrorism programs increases after the bombings, effects are somewhat stronger for the New England area than other regions, and the strength of the results are greatly diminished 16 months after the attacks. Conclusions are similar for both panel and cross-sectional analyses.     

Change is the Only Constant: The Evolving Role of Women in the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)

In the past, women in the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) were known to serve as homemakers (i.e., wives, mothers). However, in recent times there has been a shift in their roles, as more women are starting to emerge on the front lines as suicide bombers, recruiters, or a part of ISIS's official women police brigade. This article investigates this phenomenon by performing a thematic analysis on open-source material, namely research reports, media reports, and propaganda material produced by ISIS. In doing so, it presents the evolution of the roles of women in ISIS from past to present and highlights key reasons that motivate women to join ISIS, which include ideology, alienation, romance, peer influence, and a sense of security. Implications for research on women in terrorism have also been identified.     

Homicide–Suicide in Cuyahoga County,Ohio, 1991–2016

Research on homicides followed by suicides has relied heavily on small samples and relatively short time spans of data. This study helps to fill this gap by examining 26 years of homicide–suicide data from Cuyahoga County, Ohio, between 1991 and 2016. The main data source for the study is medical examiner files. Analyses of the data indicate the rate of homicide–suicide in Cuyahoga County is consistent with other studies but fluctuates considerably across years studied. The majority of victims are female while perpetrators are overwhelmingly male. Black people are overrepresented as victims and offenders. Use of drugs and/or alcohol leading up to the incident is common among perpetrators. Both the homicides and suicides were overwhelming committed with firearms. When comparing our results to the typology of murder–suicides developed by Marzuk, Tardiff, and Hirsch (JAMA 1992;267:3179), we find amorous jealousy is a significant motivating factor in a many cases, including those involving nonintimate partners. Our findings underscore the importance of widespread use of lethality assessment instruments.     

Blast Injury and the Human Skeleton: An Important Emerging Aspect of Conflict‐Related Trauma

Recent decades have seen an accelerating trend in warfare whereby a growing proportion of conflict‐related deaths have been caused by explosions. Analysis of blast injury features little in anthropological literature. We present a review of clinical literature that includes prevalence of injury to anatomical regions and potential indicators of blast injury which can be used by forensic anthropologists. This includes high prevalence of extremity (22.8–91.2%) and facial (19.6–40%) injury in combat contexts, lower limb fractures (19–74.3%) in suicide bombing, traumatic amputation (3–43%) and diffuse fracture patterns in terrorist bombings. Potential indicators of blast trauma include blowout fractures in sinus cavities from blast overpressure, transverse mandibular fractures, and visceral surface rib fractures. Ability to recognize blast trauma and distinguish it in the skeleton is of importance in investigations and judicial proceedings relating to war crimes, terrorism, and human rights violations and likely to become increasingly crucial to forensic anthropology knowledge.     

Suicide bombers in Western literature: demythologizing a mythic discourse

In facing the challenge of suicide terrorism today on a global scale, it is tempting to attribute the phenomenon to cultural or religious behavior patterns observed solely in non‐Western countries. Yet recent scholarly research on its possible cultural or religious origins has led less to convincing and satisfactory results than to an unresolved aporia between arbitrariness and contingency. By the same token, little notice is taken of the fact that, in Western history and literature, actions and figures can be found whose development and strategies conspicuously resemble those of today’s suicide bombers. A series of such analogous examples in Western literature from antiquity to the present is explored in order to provide deeper insights into situational and systemic factors at work beyond cultural and religious determinants. To more effectively counter suicide terrorism, alternative policies are proposed with the vision of a peaceful coexistence of diverse cultures and religions.     

Program analysis of the NYPD container inspection program

In response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the bus and train bombings in England and Spain that followed, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) developed the ‘Container Inspection Program’ which ‘focuses on backpacks and containers large enough to hold explosives, [and to] ideally discourage subway riders from carrying backpacks and large bags in the subway system’. This paper analyzes the NYPD Container Inspection Program.     

The Situational Prevention of Terrorism: An Evaluation of the Israeli West Bank Barrier

Objectives

Informed by situational crime prevention (SCP) this study evaluates the effectiveness of the “West Bank Barrier” that the Israeli government began to construct in 2002 in order to prevent suicide bombing attacks.

Methods

Drawing on crime wave models of past SCP research, the study uses a time series of terrorist attacks and fatalities and their location in respect to the Barrier, which was constructed in different sections over different periods of time, between 1999 and 2011.

Results

The Barrier together with associated security activities was effective in preventing suicide bombings and other attacks and fatalities with little if any apparent displacement. Changes in terrorist behavior likely resulted from the construction of the Barrier, not from other external factors or events.

Conclusions

In some locations, terrorists adapted to changed circumstances by committing more opportunistic attacks that require less planning. Fatalities and attacks were also reduced on the Palestinian side of the Barrier, producing an expected “diffusion of benefits” though the amount of reduction was considerably more than in past SCP studies. The defensive roles of the Barrier and offensive opportunities it presents, are identified as possible explanations. The study highlights the importance of SCP in crime and counter-terrorism policy.

     

Personality traits in suicidal and homicidal subjects with schizophrenia

Paranoid schizophrenia is characterised by an increased risk of suicide and homicide. Little is known about the influence of personality dimensions as determinants for suicidal and homicidal behaviour within this condition. We assessed the differences among suicidal, homicidal and non-aggressive adult male in-patients with ICD-10 paranoid schizophrenia. The clinical assessments included structured psychiatric interviews and reports on harmful alcohol use and suicide attempts. The personality dimensions were assessed with the Big Five Inventory-10. The study recruited 264 patients divided into three groups: suicide attempters (N = 62), homicide group (N = 70), and a comparative control group (N = 132). To examine how the clinical subgroups differed from the comparative sample in the studied variables, a multinomial regression was performed. Each subgroup was considered a nominal outcome variable and the log odds of the outcomes were modelled as a linear combination of the predictor variables. Neuroticism or emotional instability was the only personality dimension that was different among the study subgroups: a lower level of neuroticism was found in the homicide group. Other risk factors such as age, education, relationship status and history of self-aggressive behaviour could potentially distinguish these subgroups of paranoid schizophrenia patients.     

Correlates of law enforcement suicide in the United States: a comparison with Army and Firefighter suicides using data from the National Violent Death Reporting System

Law Enforcement (LE) officers are considered to be at elevated risk of suicide. This study explored variables associated with LE suicide and the extent they differentiated LE suicides from those within similar occupations considered at risk – Army and Firefighters. Using a public health database of violent deaths, the US National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), the prevalence of and association between seven suicide variables (treatment for a mental health condition, Post Traumatic Stress disorder diagnosis, alcohol and substance abuse, job problems, intimate partner problems) and suicide within LE, Army and Firefighters was computed. Method of suicide and demographic characteristics were also identified. All of the suicide variables were associated with suicide in the three occupation groups. LE suicides were differentiated from Army and Firefighter suicides by being more strongly associated with job problems and suicide by females was more common. Implications for suicide prevention strategies within LE are discussed.     

DNA analysis in perpetrator identification of terrorism-related disaster: Suicide bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta 2004

We report the strategy that we employed to identify the perpetrator of a suicide car bombing in front of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 9 September 2004. The bomb was so massive that only small tissue pieces of the perpetrator could be recovered, preventing conventional approach to the identification of the bomber, necessitating the introduction of DNA analysis as the primary means for perpetrator identification. Crime scene investigation revealed the trajectory of the bomb blast, which was used to guide the collection of charred tissue fragments of the perpetrator. Mitochondrial DNA analysis was first conducted on 17 tissue fragments, recovered over large areas of the trajectory to, (a) confirm that they are of a common source, i.e. the perpetrator, and thus (b) establish the mtDNA HV1 sequence profile of the perpetrator. The mtDNA of the perpetrator matches that of a maternally related family member of one of four suspects. Standard autosomal STR analysis confirmed the identification. This case is of interest as an illustration of a successful application of DNA analysis as the primary means of disaster perpetrator identification.     

Martyrs’ Last Letters: Are They the Same as Suicide Notes?

Abstract: Of the 800,000 suicides worldwide every year, a small number fall under Emile Durkheim’s term of altruistic suicides. Study on martyrdom has been limited. There has to date, for example, been no systematic empirical study of martyr letters. We examined 33 letters of Korean self‐immolators, compared with 33 suicide notes of a matched sample of more common suicides. An analysis of intrapsychic factors (suicide as unbearable pain, psychopathology) and interpersonal factors (suicide as murderous impulses and need to escape) revealed that, although one can use the same psychological characteristics or dynamics to understand the deaths, the state of mind of martyrs is more extreme, such that the pain is reported to be even more unbearable. Yet, there are differences, such as there was no ambivalence in the altruistic notes. It is concluded that intrapsychic and interpersonal characteristics are central in understanding martyrs, probably equal to community or societal factors. More forensic study is, however, warranted.     

The role of self-help efforts in the reintegration of ‘politically motivated’ former prisoners: implications from the Northern Irish experience

Self-help (or mutual aid) processes play a substantial role in the reintegration of stigmatized individuals, in particular, a substantial self-help movement has developed around addiction recovery. Prisoners and ex-prisoners have also established self-help groups around the world. This paper focuses in particular on the role of self-help principles and practices among “politically motivated” former prisoners from all sides of the Northern Irish conflict. The concept of self-help and its application to former prisoners are analysed theoretically, then applied to the Northern Irish case study through a series of interviews with ex-prisoners whose incarceration has been related to the conflict in Northern Ireland. We draw on the implications of this case study for wider issues of reintegration for politically motivated and ordinary prisoners.     

自杀的认定及其相关行为的刑法评价

刑法中认定自杀有主客观两方面要求。在主观方面,被害人不仅应当认识到并且意欲死亡结果发生,而且必须自愿地、也即自主决定地选择了死亡。对于自愿性的判断应当以有效承诺的主观要件为标准。重大的动机错误同样导致不能成立自杀。此外,被害人还必须客观上事实性地支配着直接导致死亡的行为,在将不可逆转地造成死亡结果的最后关键时刻自己控制着事态的发展。自杀本身并非刑事不法行为,教唆或帮助自杀、对自杀者不予救助或者过失导致他人自杀等自杀相关行为也不应受到刑事处罚。     

Attributions of responsibility,blame and justifiability to a perpetrator and victim in an acquaintance rape scenario: the influence of Marijuana intoxication

Abstract

Marijuana is a commonly used illicit drug by young adults and has been implicated in about one third of sexual assaults. However, the influence of Marijuana intoxication on rape attributions has not been previously investigated. This study examined the effects of perpetrator and victim Marijuana intoxication and participant sex on rape attributions. Young adults (N = 285) read an acquaintance rape scenario where Marijuana intoxication was manipulated and completed measures of perpetrator (responsibility, blame and justifiability) and victim attributions (responsibility and blame). The results revealed that an intoxicated, compared to sober, perpetrator was attributed less responsibility for his sexual aggression. When the victim was intoxicated, compared to sober, the perpetrator and victim were attributed less and more blame for the assault, respectively. These findings demonstrate that, irrespective of perceiver sex, Marijuana intoxication, like alcohol intoxication, results in an attributional double standard in favour of the perpetrator.     

Social network analysis and small group ‘dark’ networks: an analysis of the London bombers and the problem of ‘fuzzy’ boundaries

Social network analysis (SNA) is believed to be capable of revealing significant insights into crime and terror groups, including identifying important individuals and unique approaches to disruption. However, SNA has a number of theoretical and practical limitations, particularly when applied to ‘dark’ networks. While most analysts certainly acknowledge at least some of these limitations, we need to know more about their potential impact in a crime intelligence context. This article aims to go some way towards that end by placing greater scrutiny on the problem of ‘fuzzy boundaries’ when applied to small group networks. SNA is applied to the groups responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the 21 July 2005 attempted London bombings. The article concludes that while SNA is a valuable tool for understanding crime and terror groups, the age-old problem of fuzzy boundaries can have a profound impact on the analysis of small dynamic networks.     

Predictors of Weapon Use in Domestic Violence Incidents Reported to Law Enforcement

The study’s aim was to determine the predictors of weapon use during domestic violence incidents that were reported to the police. Randomly selected cases (N = 369) from the San Diego County Sheriff’s department comprised the study sample. The predictor variables for weapon use included relationship type, relationship length, suspect drug or alcohol use, and restraining order status at the time of the attack. Suspect sex and race were included as control variables. A logistic regression demonstrated that victims who had restraining orders against the perpetrator were more likely to have a weapon used against them in a domestic violence incident. Suspect sex was significant in an unanticipated direction, with female perpetrators being more likely to use a weapon during a domestic violence incident.     

HIGH TIMES FOR HATE CRIMES: EXPLAINING THE TEMPORAL CLUSTERING OF HATE‐MOTIVATED OFFENDING

This research explains the temporal clustering of hate crimes. It is hypothesized that many hate crimes are retaliatory in nature and tend to increase, sometimes dramatically, in the aftermath of an antecedent event that results in one group harboring a grievance against another. Three types of events are used to test and refine the argument: 1) contentious criminal trials involving interracial crimes, 2) lethal terrorist attacks, and 3) appellate court decisions concerning same‐sex marriage. The results from time‐series analyses indicate that contentious trial verdicts and lethal domestic terrorist attacks precede spikes in racially or religiously motivated hate crimes, whereas less evidence is found for antigay hate crimes after appellate court rulings that grant rights to same‐sex partners. The model put forth in this article complements prior work by explaining in part the timing of hate crime clusters.     

The Gender Paradox in Prison Suicide Rates

Few studies of prison suicide have focused on suicide among female inmates, and even fewer studies have provided comparisons of rates by gender. Using national data on U.S. prisons and suicide, this study examined the “gender paradox” in prison suicide rates by comparing suicide rates of female and male inmates and U.S. residents and then examined characteristics of prisons that reported suicides. Findings indicated that rates of suicide in prison were similar for female and male inmates, but rates were higher for female inmates and lower for male inmates compared to the respective rates for female and male U.S. residents. Prisons that reported female suicides evidenced significant differences in prison conditions, including higher assault rates and mental health service utilization, compared to prisons for males and female prisons without suicide. Implications of the findings for understanding the gender paradox and for prison suicide prevention are discussed.