During the 1960s, many young people joining terrorist organisations were drawn from upper middle-class homes. Today's terrorists tend to be drawn more from the less fortunate than from the comfortable, middle-class homes. Of course, there are exceptions, such as the billionaire Osama bin Laden. Yet, most terrorists these days hail from poorer homes and are often unemployed, for whom terrorism represents one way of lashing out at society's injustices. And their numbers are set to rise in developing countries, with the population explosion and the rising levels of unemployment.
Most terrorists appear to be unmarried.
There are probably as many different life stories as there are terrorists. Whilst we can identify broad factors in very general terms, in themselves these factors are not enough to provide a full explanation. These, then, are the new terrorists, and they are a formidable force. Their youth and their pattern of socialization makes them unique, even in the long history of terrorism. Civilized society everywhere faces the daunting task of countering the radicalization of the very young towards the violence of terrorism.