Investigators said they killed for ISIS. But were they different from ‘regular’ mass killers? [View all]

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Source: Washington Post, by Abigail Hauslohner, Joel Achenbach, Ellen Nakashima

For years, FBI officials and other national security experts have said that apparent lone wolves such as Adan and Ahmad Khan Rahami, charged in last weekend’s New York bombing, have no discernible profile that could be used to head off terrorist acts. But some counterterrorism experts who studied attackers motivated by jihadist ideology say they often exhibit traits similar to those of non-Muslim mass killers who have attacked schools, churches and workplaces.

“They share common behavioral and psychological characteristics,” said John Cohen, a criminal justice professor at Rutgers University and the former counterterrorism coordinator at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “They’re the same people.”

Many studies of mass killers show that they had serious personal or psychological issues, regardless of their motives or religious identity. They bounced from job to job, struggled to find friends or romantic partners, or felt bullied by their peers. Some had traumatic home lives. Others struggled with a profound sense of shame.

Awareness of these shared traits could help focus FBI questioning of certain young men who already have come to the attention of law enforcement, these experts say.

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