NCJ Number
222784
Journal
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism Volume: 31 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2008 Pages: 304-326
Date Published
April 2008
Length
23 pages
Annotation
Based on biographical accounts of 30 female and 30 male suicide terrorists that were coded for method of recruitment, motivation for attack, and outcome of attack, this study examined any differences in these factors by gender.
Abstract
The findings suggest differences in male and female motivations for becoming suicide bombers, which reinforces Dolnik's (2004) argument about the limitation of developing typologies that consider only male terrorists. Men were more often motivated by religious/nationalistic motivation compared to women. Women, on the other hand, cited more revenge motivations for harms or killings of family members and/or friends. Regarding recruitment method, men were recruited more often than women through religious/group persuasion. More women than men were recruited through outreach efforts designed to find individuals harmed by a specific victimization or series of victimizations by the enemy, or through active efforts to volunteer for suicide bombing. There was no significant difference between the number of men and women who were recruited through peer pressure; however, compared to their female counterparts, men who were recruited through peer pressure were significantly more likely than women to fail in their attacks. Biographical data on the suicide bombers were obtained from a variety of sources, including newspaper articles, Internet sites, and books. 8 tables and 68 references