Same but Different? Developmental Pathways to Demonstrative Targeted Attacks — Qualitative Case Analyses of Adolescent and Young Adult Perpetrators of Targeted School Attacks and Jihadi Terrorist Attacks in Germany

Abstract

Analysis of incidents over the past ten years in Germany reveals that the boundaries between targeted attacks in schools and terrorist attacks are starting to blur. Böckler, Leuschner, Roth, Zick, and Scheithauer (2018) recently presented a set of hypotheses about similarities between the developmental pathways of school attackers and lone actor terrorists. To date there is only a small body of empirical research comparing these two forms of targeted violence in depth. In order to fill this gap, this article presents findings from a qualitative analysis of prosecution files comparing the developmental pathways of German school attackers (N = 7; age range: 13 to 23) and Jihadi attackers (N = 7; age range: 21 to 28 years) who committed their attacks between 2000 and 2013. Using theoretical coding and constant case comparison, the contribution shows that the two phenomena have overlaps in which developmental processes and social mechanisms are similar. Both school attackers and Jihadi attackers frame their act of violence using cultural scripts and perform the attack on a public stage where victims are attacked not on the basis of personal conflicts but because of their symbolic meaning. Taking into account the similarities in the perpetrators’ developmental pathways, the authors propose that it might be more fruitful from an operational perspective to discuss severe target school violence and terrorist attacks under a common concept of demonstrative violence than to artificially assign them to exclusive classes of violence.

Disaggregating Lone-actor Grievance-fuelled Violence: Comparing Lone-actor Terrorists and Mass Murderers

“…Various studies have examined the conceptual boundaries between different types of LAGFV. These include comparisons of suicide terrorists with rampage, workplace and school shooters, 5 suicide terrorists with mass shooters, 6 ideologically and non-ideologically motivated mass public shooters, 7 political and non-political murderers in Northern Ireland 8 , adolescent targeted school attacks with jihadi terrorists attacks in Germany, 9 both far-right homicides, 10 and European lone-actor terrorists with 'common' homicides, 11 and lone-actor terrorists with mass murderers. 12 Most of these studies consistently report similar profiles of psychological and social characteristics, providing evidence for conceptualising these offenders as types of LAGFV.…”

Student Crisis Prevention in Schools: The NETWorks Against School Shootings Program (NETWASS) – An Approach Suitable for the Prevention of Violent Extremism?

“…Although there is no single profile or pathway for violent radicalization (Böckler, Leuschner, Roth, Zick, & Scheithauer, 2018a;Böckler, Leuschner, Zick, & Scheithauer, 2018b), or even speed at which it happens, there are general socio-economic, psycho-logical, and institutional factors that lead to violent extremism (Davies, 2008, p. 12): "Push Factors drive individuals to violent extremism, such as: marginalization, inequality, discrimination ( . .…”

Гендерные И Социально-Психологические Аспекты Интолерантности, Как Основы Развития Экстремистских Настроений В Молодежной Среде

“…Как указывают результаты исследований зарубежных авторов, и агрессивные подростки-школьники, радикалы-джихадисты, прибегающие к актам насилия имеют некоторые сходства в использовании публичного пространства при реализации экстремистских действий, которые носят исключительно символическое значение [27].…”