“Serial threat offenders, particularly bomb threat offenders, often follow a specific offender profile, although individual differences exist,” she said. Men in particular were prone to such acts.
Often antisocial characteristics
The level of education among perpetrators often varies; most have an average school leaving certificate. However, they are often quite tech-savvy or IT-savvy. “The mostly male perpetrators are between the ages of around 20 and 45,” said the criminologist. Mental illnesses are also common components of perpetrator profiles. “Bomb threaters often suffer from personality disorders or psychological problems.” These often also showed antisocial characteristics, “such as psychopathic, narcissistic and/or sociopathic tendencies.” Social isolation, problems with relationships and social interactions are also part of such a perpetrator.
“Many come from unstable family backgrounds and live in their personal world filled with internal and external conflicts,” said Staniek. “Some also have a history of criminal offenses or have shown unusual and conspicuous behavior at school or at work.”
Urge for recognition and attention
This behavior is often aimed at gaining attention. In general, “attention and the desire for recognition play a central and important role in many serial threats,” said Staniek. “The need to be the center of attention is a common motivating factor.” Postscript: “The majority of perpetrators are looking for and needing attention and want to feel important for once in their life.” He takes advantage of the opportunity “by exercising control over a situation and influencing the reactions of the police and the public.”
It often gives satisfaction to those threatening bombs when “threats are taken seriously and cause a major reaction.” The evacuation of buildings or media coverage gives them a feeling of satisfaction. “This expression of power often reinforces behavior and leads to perpetrators making repeated threats to get the same attention. They use this to create an effective platform for themselves.”
Different motifs
However, there are differences in possible motives. “Some perpetrators acted out of revenge against certain people or institutions. “They often feel disadvantaged or treated unfairly. “In some other cases, the threats are politically motivated or “part of an ideological agenda,” as the expert called it. Such perpetrators always create panic or want to draw attention to a certain thing. “In some cases the perpetrators are mentally ill and suffer from delusions or other serious mental disorders.”
Threats by email are primarily the method of choice to make it easier to remain anonymous and because spreading them is not complicated. “Often they are simple, almost unremarkable or worded in general terms, but contain very specific details that make a threat appear to be taken seriously.”
Telephone threats also occur. “The perpetrators often use distorted voices or call from public telephones to conceal their identity,” explained the profiler. In recent years, however, social media or encrypted messaging apps have been increasingly used to spread threats.
To person: Patricia Staniek is a business economist for economic crime, a certified master profiler and behavior analyst. Among other things, she has already taught as a guest lecturer at the FH Wiener Neustadt and the University of Vienna, is part of the Cologne Research Center for State Denial and Subversive Extremism (FSTE) and gives training courses for employees of the Austrian security authorities as well as lawyers and private detectives.
Video: The investigators assume there is a connection, but cannot yet confirm this. Florian Hartleb tells us what can be said about it. He is research director at the European Research Institute for Counterterrorism and Conflict Prevention in Vienna.
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