Boston bombing suspect has his defenders, many of them female

Michelle Healy | USA TODAY

A small but vocal chorus of young people, many of them female, are filling social-media sites with claims that the two brothers accused in the Boston Marathon bombings are innocent and have been unjustly accused, even "set up."

In defense of 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (identified as Jahar on his Twitter account) sympathizers have taken to the Internet to proclaim their support. On Twitter, they post with hashtags including JaharisInnocent; fightforJahar; freejahar; and FreeTheLion. More than 6,600 visitors on Facebook have "liked" The Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Free Jahar movement.

Some of the tweets are fawning and cheeky, such as this one from @freeJahar97: "Yes i like Justin Bieber and i like Jahar but that has nothing to do with why i support him. I know he's innocent, he is far too beautiful." And this one from @keepitbluntedd: "getting one of jahars tweets tattooed on me tomorrow. I guess you could say I'm a #freejahar supporter. ;)

Most, however, are in the vein of @xoangelabellexo: "I don't think Jahar is cute. I think he's innocent."

That teenage girls and twenty-something women are among the most active participants of this social-media charge comes as no surprise to experts who work with adolescents.

In some ways, "there's a romanticism about him that is being connected to," says Jennifer Powell-Lunder, a clinical psychologist and adjunct professor at Pace University in New York. Supporters are drawn to "the boy next door… the smart, attractive young college student."

Combined with YouTube postings, pictures of him goofing around with friends, his own Twitter feed and media interviews with classmates who describe "the kind of kid they knew him to be," he doesn't fit the part of some "nefarious" person you need to fear, says Powell-Lunder, co-author of Teenage As a Second Language: A Parent's Guide to Becoming Bilingual.

The initial depiction of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, as portrayed in the mainstream media, "was somewhat sympathetic, painting him as a teenager who was taken advantage of by a brutish older brother," says educator Rachel Simmons, co-founder of the non-profit Girls Leadership Institute and author of The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence. Dzhokhar's brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died in a police shootout after the bombing.

Along the way, "a celebrity of some kind" was formed and with it, "the cult of celebrity defense," she says, citing as an example the female fans who rallied in defense of singer Chris Brown, who pleaded guilty to assaulting singer and on-again/off-again girlfriend Rihanna.

"Adolescent girls have a tendency to get very worked up on social media when celebrities (they care about) are attacked," Simmons says.

Many young women respond to issues of morality and justice "from a place of compassion and caring," so the support that some have expressed for Tsarnaev isn't that surprising, says psychologist Rona Carter, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan,

"They're often more concerned with how to support and protect the person when they see that others are not doing that," says Carter, who studies adolescent interpersonal relationships.

While there's a certain idealism in "standing on a soapbox" and declaring someone innocent until proven guilty, teens are also drawn to alternative viewpoints, says Powell-Lunder.

The adult world asks, 'Are you kidding, how could you possibly take that stand?' but "adolescence is all about causes and balking at authority," she says.

That sympathizers have turned to advocating for the suspected bomber when there has been so much "death, destruction and incredible hurt" is "sickening to hear, even bits and pieces" of it, says Peter Brown, who lives just outside Boston. His nephews, J.P. and Paul Norden, were spectators at the marathon, cheering on a friend who was running, when the second bomb exploded near the finish line on Boylston Street.

In addition to suffering burns and shrapnel injuries, each brother had to have a leg amputated. Paul, 31, was released from the hospital last week; J.P., 33, is still hospitalized.

"As far as people standing up and wanting to demand justice and saying innocent until proven guilty, I don't have a problem with that because I think this justice system is the best in the world," Brown adds. "I believe in it. I think it's the best form of meting out punishment, and I think it will take its course."

Online, the "free Jahar" activists may be small in total numbers, "but because of social networking, they're able to get far more power behind their punch," says Powell-Lunder.

"Once you read or hear that other people have similar thoughts, you're more likely to have what you're thinking validated," adds Carter.

Tsarnaev is certainly not the first accused killer to garner female support and attention from behind bars, says author Sheila Isenberg, who researched the phenomenon for her book Women Who Love Men Who Kill. "Every time there's a serial killer or some kind of notorious killer, there's always scores of women vying to be the one whose name is linked with his," she says.

Although Tsarnaev is younger than most of the men in those famous cases and his supporters are equally young, "I don't think it's that different," says Isenberg, who believes a desire for attention and fame is the common motivation.

They may cite fairness and moral issues as their compelling interest in this case, but "by putting themselves near him in any way, whether it's tweeting about him or writing on his Facebook page, or putting a tattoo on their body, whatever they can do to get near him or close to him or be associated with him will also give them fame," she says.

In fact, "it's notoriety, which is negative fame," Isenberg says, "but they don't see it as notoriety, just celebrity or fame."

Although parents who see their teenage daughters, or sons, defending an accused terrorist may be stunned, it's important that that they talk with them and listen "to really get a sense of their reasoning behind their position," says Carter.

And "don't mistake what we're seeing here as emblematic of what most girls really believe," says Simmons. "It's not like this is a mass movement."