Leiden University Student Repository

Boghossian, Ermoni (2022)

The Boston Marathon attack: Understanding perpetration through the lens of functionalism

Bachelor thesis | Security Studies (BSc)

As terrorist attacks have intensified in the last decade, researchers have increasingly sought to understand terrorism from the perspective of past perpetrators. This thesis discusses the Boston Marathon attack committed by the brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Placing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as the object of study, the current research aims to apply Functionalism Theory to explore events in his life prior to the attack, and consider whether how these may have affected his decision to commit a terrorist attack. Thematic analysis was conducted on a range of open sources, focusing specifically on court documents from Tsarnaev’s 2014/2015 and 2021/2022 trials. Several themes emerged, which indicated that in the case of Dzhokhar, his life prior to the attack firmly affected his decision-making. Specifically, the strong influence of Tamerlan over him, Dzhokhar’s double life and the anger towards the West.

Terrorism

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Boston Marathon

Functionalism Theory

Childhood

Author

Boghossian, Ermoni

Faculty

Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs

Supervisors

Carthy, S.L.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en