Deviance: Jurnal Kriminologi
Vol 10, No 1 (2026)

Altruistic Suicide Committed by Terrorist

Cyrena Temaluru (Pascasarjana Kriminologi, Departemen Kriminologi Universitas Indonesia)
Adrianus Eliasta Meliala (Departemen Kriminologi Universitas Indonesia)



Article Info

Publish Date
30 Jun 2026

Abstract

Altruistic suicide is a term introduced by Durkheim in his monograph Suicide, which emphasizes the high level of integration between the actor of suicide and his/her social group. Meanwhile, if we look at the altruistic concept, it is the highest self-actualization concept of an adult by being useful to other people, which this concept becomes a golden moral in some cultures and dogma. These concepts conflict when we put them into the terrorism concept, which already took victims other than the perpetrators himself/herself, not only combatants but also civilians. This study aims to determine whether suicide committed by a terrorist is altruistic suicide from a criminological point of view. This study used a qualitative method by conducting semi-structured interviews with academic and practitioner observers and conducting a literature study of suicide cases by terrorists in Indonesia. As a result, it was found that altruistic suicide in terrorism was specific altruistic, which is a product of social construction in terrorist groups, where they produce a high level of integration that encourages someone to sacrifice his or her life for the benefit of his or her group and destruction for other groups.

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

deviance

Publisher

Subject

Law, Crime, Criminology & Criminal Justice Social Sciences

Description

Deviance Jurnal Kriminologi (ISSN 2580-3158 for printed version and ISSN 2580-3166 Online version), is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by Universitas Budi Luhur. This journal publishes twice a year (June and December). Deviance Jurnal Kriminologi publishes articles on criminological ...