Creating Young Martyrs

The authors explain how and why we must understand the conditions that spur youths to become martyrs by making them think suicide bombings and other acts of self-destructive terrorism are a good way to die. LoCicero and Sinclair present cutting-edge research and theory about the political, social, and living conditions that raise the risk of children deciding to join organizations that use terrorist tactics, and, having joined, to volunteer for missions in which they intentionally die while causing death and destruction, in order to make an impact. Equally important, LoCicero and Sinclair offer concrete suggestions about how ordinary Americans can help reduce and prevent terrorism around the globe.

Alice LoCicero is Past President and Co-Founder of the Society of Terrorism Research, as well as Chair of Social Sciences at Endicott College. She is a certified Clinical Psychologist, and has been a faculty member at the Center for Multicultural Training and Boston Medical Center, as well as at Suffolk University. In earlier roles, LoCicero served as Senior Psychologist working with families at Children's Hospital, Boston, and as Clinical Instructor at Harvard Medical School. A member of the Massachusetts Behaviorial Health Disaster Responders, she provides mental health services to family members of victims of terrorism and other manmade and natural disasters. She traveled to Sri Lanka in May and June of 2007 to learn about conditions that make terrorism an appealing idea to some youths.

Samuel J. Sinclair is Co-Founder and President of the Society for Terrorism Research (www.societyforterrorismresearch.org). He is currently a Fellow in Psychology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He is also Founder and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the peer-refereed journal Terrorism Research, and developed as well as collaborated with an international Editorial Board comprised of some 80 experts from 14 countries on five continents. Sinclair is also the developer of the Terrorism Catastrophizing Scale, a new assessment tool measuring anticipatory fears about terrorism. He is past recipient of the Association for Threat Assessment Professionals' Chris Hatcher Memorial Scholarship Award.