One possible source of data about a suicide bomber is that individual’s background and personal history. If sufficiently detailed, a biography should provide ample information to fill out the questionnaire in a way that reasonably approximates what the recruiter of that bomber would have said. There are two major sources of
potential bias in this approach. The first has to do with investigator bias, error and inconsistency. To avoid this form of bias a rubric has been developed to help transform from the biography to the questionnaire. The second source of potential bias has to do with the source of the biography, and errors, distortions and omissions resulting from the source. To help decrease the impact of this bias, biographies from multiple sources with strong differences in political outlook will be gathered.
Another source of error in the use of biographies is the misrepresentation of what the perpetrator thought was a conventional attack as a suicide attack. For example, a bomb-deliverer is killed when the device explodes prematurely; it is unclear to external viewer if the deliverer intended to die or if it was unintentional. Experts discuss the difficulty in practice of identifying actual cases of suicide terrorism. To some extent, modern suicide bomber methods have clarified many of the possible ambiguities which concern experts. For example, many of the attacks studies were conducted with the use of a suicide vest. Such a device is employed by Shahid to avoid detection by holding explosives and shrapnel close to the body. These vests are usually tied on, and generally very difficult to undo. It can be reasonably assumed that individuals who use such means of explosive delivery are clearly suicide bombers, and do not fall into any of experts’ three problem areas: they are actively seeking death, they are not fooled by their handlers regarding the nature of the mission, and they are committing suicide in a manner intended to kill others.
All biographies used in this analysis were of what were deemed by the authors to be clear-cut suicide bomber cases.
