Robert Pape, associate professor of political science at the University of Chicago, has spent 25 years creating a database of such attacks and has chronicled them in his new book, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism.
According to the author, most suicide terrorists were well-integrated and productive members of their communities from working-class or middle-class backgrounds.
"Technicians, waitresses, security guards, ambulance drivers, paramedics ... few are criminals. Most are volunteers whose first act of violence is their very own suicide attack," Pape said.
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Pape collected demographic information on 462 suicide attackers who completed their missions and said he found that the common wisdom was wrong.
"The standard stereotype of a suicide attacker as a lonely individual on the margins of society with a miserable existence is actually quite far from the truth," he said.
Pape, who has been invited to discuss his analysis with a bipartisan group of US congressmen, said he hoped his book would demonstrate to policymakers that a presumed connection between suicide attacks and Islamic fundamentalism is misleading and could contribute to policies that worsen the situation.
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Attempted evisceration of Pape by Avi Dov Klein at The American Spectator
