Homicide bombers: Life as a weapon

Abstract

In the last three decades, the media, the general public and the scientific community have used the words 'suicide bomber' to describe the deaths of those who kill others while at the same time dying themselves. This is, in fact, not suicide, but the deliberate death of others, the death of the perpetrator being incidental to the act, rather than suicidal. We believe that better words to describe such acts are 'homicide bombing/bombers.' By the use of 'homicide bomber,' a gradual change in the worldwide interpretation and acceptability of these acts may occur. We offer this conceptualisation for further discussion and debate.