The 7/7 Bombers: A Psychological Investigation

Overview

On 7 July 2005 Britain experienced its first ever suicide attack. Four bombs exploded in central London, killing 52 people and injuring over 700. When Scotland Yard launched one of the biggest investigations in its history, another first was quickly uncovered: the suicide bombers were home-grown, they were young British men, attacking their own country. Ariel Merari interviewed the friends and family of suicide bombers, as well as those who were stopped before their bombs went off. He tried to piece together a personality type capable of such acts. The unsettling finding that emerged was that suicide bombers weren't mad, weren't psychopaths, in fact they did not have any psychological flaws that set them apart.