A suicide attack is when an attacker perpetrates an act of violence against others, typically to achieve a military or political goal, that foreseeably results in his or her own death as well. Suicide bombings have been prominent in the news in recent years as an act of terrorism. Other historical examples include the assassination of Tsar Alexander II and the in part successful kamikaze (Divine Wind) attacks by Japanese air pilots during the Second World War. As the WW2 progressed some pilots were locked into their cockpits to prevent escape. In that situation, the Japanese almost always chose to die with honor in an attempt to take out an aircraft carrier in the Carrier War. They tended to aim for the elevators which, when crippled, would stop the carrier from launching planes.

Self-injury is not a suicide attempt; however, initially self-injury was erroneously classified as a suicide attempt. There is a non-causal correlation between self-harm and suicide; both are most commonly a joint effect of depression.