Search Results

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed. The study contains data from a survey of 480 large (200+ sworn officers) state and local law enforcement agencies, and 63 additional smaller county and municipal agencies that experienced violent extremism. These data were collected as part of a project to perform a comprehensive assessment of challenges and opportunities when developing partnerships between police and communities to counter violent extremism. Qualitative data collected as a part of this project are not included in this release. This collection includes one tab-delimited data file: "file6-NIJ-2012-3163-Survey-Responses.csv" with 194 variables and 382 cases.

Parents, siblings, partners, and friends are often the first people to suspect a loved one is on the trajectory towards targeted violence or terrorism. These intimate bystanders are well positioned to facilitate prevention efforts if there are known and trusted reporting pathways to law enforcement or other resources. Little is known in the United States about the reporting processes for intimate bystanders to targeted violence or terrorism. This study is built on previous Australian and United Kingdom studies to understand the processes of intimate bystanders in the United States, in order to inform new, localized and contextually-sensitive understandings of and approaches to community reporting issues. Qualitative-quantitative interviews were conducted from March 2021 to July 2021 virtually over Zoom with 123 community members living in California and Illinois. The researchers describe their perspectives on barriers, facilitators, and pathways. The study sought to enhance prior studies with a larger and more demographically-diverse sample. It included a focus on ISIS/Al-Qa'eda-inspired foreign-terrorism, White Power movement-inspired domestic terrorism, and--of particular relevance to the US---non-ideologically motivated targeted, workplace violence.

The study assesses the extent of commonalities between individuals who become involved in violent extremist groups and criminal gangs, and the processes by which individuals engage in each group. Following this comparison, the extent to which the empirical results support the potential for anti-gang programs to bolster the resilience of communities against violent extremism and other forms of crime is assessed. Quantitative assessment was conducted by comparing individuals included in the Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS) dataset with a subset of individuals drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) along a number of demographic, social, and socioeconomic characteristics. Supplementary survey data was also collected from 45 former and current gang members in the United States concurrently with long-form interviews, covering a range of variables including background characteristics, demographic information, and attitudes among the respondents.

This study examines the radicalization of Western women to extremist violence, both through the creation of a moral-situational-action risk model and the examination of their responses to various types of online propaganda. The Moral-Situational-Action Risk Model for Extremist Violence (MSA-RMEV) was developed using situational action theory from criminology and violence risk practice literature. The MSA-RMEV revolves around three domains reflective of propensity, mobilization, and capacity building, geared towards providing a violence risk assessment that can assist the intelligence community in preventing future acts of violence. A sample of women who self-identified as conservative, liberal, and Muslim were exposed to jihadist, alt-right, and alt-left online propaganda. Physiological responses and self-report assessments were recorded. Eye-gaze, pupil dilation, galvanic skin response, heart rate, and facial emotions were documented, along with women's judgment of their emotional, cognitive, and arousal states, while viewing propaganda. Based on their results, women were categorized as high-risk, medium-risk, or low-risk for violence. Additionally, numerous variables were created to identify participant's beliefs and behavior related to radicalization. Beliefs included religiosity, political affiliation, the presence of moral emotions, sacred values, developmental maturity, and militant thinking. Behaviors included group affiliations, extent of involvement in extremist activities, and presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter. Demographic variables such as age, marital status, number of children, race, ethnicity, country of origin, and educational status were included.

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed. This study attempted to be the first of its kind to evaluate a U.S. community-based Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Program. Conducted in Montgomery County, Maryland, the evaluation judged the relative effectiveness of various community programs on CVE-relevant outcomes. The collection contains 2 SPSS data files, Archive-ready, survey 1st phase.sav (n=67; 292 variables) and Archive-ready, survey final phase.sav (n=421; 232 variables). The qualitative data are not available as part of this data collection at this time.

This project convened experts and practitioners in the areas of program evaluation, radicalization to violent extremism, and social media analytics in order to generate and integrate scientifically derived knowledge into strategies for effective prevention and intervention against domestic radicalization and violent extremism in the United States. More specifically, we generated substantive evaluation data, which can be used by practitioners and policy makers to enhance the creation and dissemination of effective counter-narratives for reducing the threat of ideologically-motivated violence in the US. We used a mixed-methods approach to evaluate an existing nationwide initiative, Peer-to-Peer (P2P): Challenging Extremism, which aims at engaging youth in countering violent extremism in schools and online arenas. The project had four specific objectives: 1) Evaluate the content and dissemination of the P2P Initiative social media products, 2) evaluate the impact of the P2P Initiative on youth engaged in its development, 3) evaluate the impact of youth exposure to the P2P educational activities, and 4) assess the drivers of success and barriers in the implementation of the initiative. To complete these objectives, the following research phases were conducted: A secondary review of 150 P2P social media products created between fall 2015 and spring 2017, including data on end-users interactivity. Phone and in-person group interviews with faculty and students engaged in the P2P Initiative. A prospective cohort study evaluating the impact of the Kombat with Kindness (KWK) campaign on Utah secondary school students, using a pre-post intervention design. A randomized control study evaluating the impact of the Operation 250 (OP250) on Massachusetts secondary school students, using a pre-post intervention design. Phone interviews with faculty who implemented the P2P Initiative.

How is the process of radicalization understood over time? Do current radicalization to violence differ from earlier waves? How can these understandings be utilized to prevent radicalization to violence and--equally important--understand the reach and impact of programs designed to do so? The overall goal of this project was to pursue the following aims: Aim 1: To understand how adversity and social bonds relate to changes in openness to violent extremism over time. Aim 2: To evaluate experience and perception of, and the effectiveness of, Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) activities. Aim 3: To evaluate mechanisms of change in violent extremism. Aim 4: To understand similarities/ differences in experiences and/or histories of Somali youth who joined Al-Shabab vs. those known to have been killed in Syria, fighting with ISIS and other terrorist groups. The above aims were accomplished through extending an ongoing longitudinal research program to span 5 years, and expanding a psychological autopsy sample to include Somali youth who have left Minneapolis and been killed fighting with ISIS and other terrorist groups in Syria. Data collection for the longitudinal study consisted of conducting an additional wave of structured interviews with Somali youth (between the ages of 21-33); interviews included assessments of structural adversity (resettlement hardships, trauma exposure, and discrimination), social factors (connection to the resettlement community and/or Somali diaspora community, internet use, and level of acculturation) delinquency, gang involvement, civic engagement, and support for legal and illegal (violent) actions in support of political change. The researchers used latent transition analysis (LTA), generalized estimating equation modeling, and linear regression modeling to accomplish Aims 1-3. Aim 4 was accomplished by using a combination of open source data analysis, psychological autopsy and case analysis methodology. The researchers expanded our current in-depth case studies of Somali youth who left Minneapolis to join al-Shabaab (N = 23, males aged 22-30) to include those who joined ISIS or Al-Nusra (N=4, males aged 18-29). Research questions associated with Aim 4 were analyzed using a psychological autopsy method of developing case histories. Case histories were coded for themes and analyzed for convergence or divergence with case histories of youth who joined Al-Shabab. Scholarly products include manuscripts in journals relevant to criminal justice, policy briefs, and interim and final reports. This project builds on partnerships between Boston Children's Hospital, Somali communities, and Georgia State University.

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed. This study sought to empirically test one of the most widely cited perspectives relative to radicalization and the growth of social movements - Identity and Framing Theory. Identity and framing perspectives contend that radicalization towards violence can be theorized as a process which entails a journey, typically from a non- or less-radical identity and corresponding orientation, towards a more radical identity and corresponding orientation which enhances the likelihood of employing targeted forms of violence because the prospect of desired change is seen as laying outside the realm of legitimate modes of challenge and expression within the targeted institutional arena. As implied, a key component of the process is the adoption or evolution of a radical identity. The study collection includes 1 SPSS data file (ATS_NIJ_FRAMING_QUANTITATIVE_DATASET.sav, n=465, 16 variables) and 1 Excel data file (ATS_NIJ_FRAMING_QUALITATIVE_DATASET.xls, n=38, 17 variables).

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator if further information is needed. This study examined the longevity of individual terrorists using data from the American Terrorism Study (ATS). Using these data, researchers examined the longevity of individual terrorists in relationship to five major factors: 1) the possible effects of changes in the Attorney General's Guidelines for terrorism investigations; 2) the impact of ideology, which may indirectly affect longevity through perpetrator and incident characteristics; 3) lone actors versus group participation; 4) the extent of participation in preparatory activity; and 5) the sophistication of the incidents in which the person participated. Previous ATS research funded through National Institute of Justice (NIJ) by focusing on individual terrorists, instead of terrorist groups. The collection includes 1 SPSS data file: ICPSR_Data_File_Edit.sav (n=346; 15 variables).

Current research that seeks to inform terrorism prevention, intervention, and interdiction efforts has been hampered by at least three problems: the lack of adequate control groups, a tendency to conceptually conflate radicalization with mobilization, and a preponderance of research designs that only include data on the perpetrator or the event, but not both. This project addresses these shortcomings by collecting data that includes control groups consisting of non-violent offenders, non-mobilized ideologues, and unsuccessful terrorists, and by modeling mobilization as the interaction between individual characteristics, social networks, and event-level situational opportunities for action. The integrated approach of this research isolates the interactive factors that distinguish violent from nonviolent offenders, identifies the individual, network, and event-level variables that are significantly related to extremist mobilization, and determines which law enforcement interdiction strategies are most likely to succeed in stopping terrorist attacks. This research expands on the NIJ-funded Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS) and Social Networks of American Radicals (SoNAR) datasets to include event-level information on more than 1,400 United States-based extremist plots and financial crimes from 1974-2021. These event data can be linked to data on the individuals and networks contained in the PIRUS and SoNAR datasets, respectively, in order to build a fully relational database on radicalization characteristics, social-network dynamics, and event-level details and outcomes. Data collection used open-sources, including media reports, unsealed court documents, unclassified government reports, and other open-source archived content. To strengthen the reliability and validity of the analyses, at least 25% of the data were double coded, and the project team dedicated the last phase of data collection to conduct rigorous quality control. To analyze these data, the project team used three methods: descriptive and bivariate analyses, advanced regression methods with regularization, and multi-step configurational methods on a subset of 50 event cases. These data are currently available as an Excel workbook. The "Plots" sheet contains data on premeditated violent and non-violent crimes. The "Financial Crimes" sheet contains data on financial crimes only. Please refer to the ICPSR README for more information.

The purpose of this study was to address some of the gaps in what is known about right-wing terrorism by (1) comparing right-wing extremist "advocates" with "implementers", and (2) identifying internal processes related to organizational planning and group roles by focusing on how right-wing extremist groups recruit new members. Using a wide variety of secondary sources, the principal investigator collected data beyond what was available in the AMERICAN TERRORISM STUDY, 1980-2002 (ICPSR 4639) and constructed an alternate database, the Right-Wing Terrorist Recruitment (RWTR) database, that related to terrorist recruitment and individual-level risk factors. The research team collected data on a total of 112 persons from 16 right-wing extremist (RWE) groups. In order to analyze the recruitment process, the principal investigator developed a new codebook that included a greater number of variables designed to measure different dimensions of the recruitment process. Some of the variables the investigator included were already in the American Terrorism Study dataset, however, the variable categories were revised. Other variables were included in light of prior terrorism studies and related scholarship such as research in the areas of social movements and new religious movements. The investigator also designed variables to measure the structural characteristics of the recruitment process. The dataset includes a total of 82 terrorist recruitment and individual-level risk factor variables.

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed. The Empirical Assessment of Domestic Radicalization (EADR) project seeks to provide practitioners, researchers, and the public with an empirical foundation for understanding the radicalization processes of United States-based extremists. Project researchers utilized a mixed-method, nested approach to explore a number of key research questions related to radicalization, including: what are the demographic, background, and radicalization differences between and within the different ideological milieus? are there important contextual, personal, ideological, or experiential differences between radicals who commit violent acts and those who do not? is it possible to identify sufficient pathways to violent extremism? are the causal mechanisms highlighted by extant theories of radicalization supported by empirical evidence? To address these questions, EADR researchers built the largest known database on individual radicalization in the United States: Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS). The database includes 147 variables covering demographic, background, group affiliation, and ideological information for a sample of 1,473 violent and non-violent extremists who radicalized in the United States from 1948-2014. The database is not limited to a particular ideological milieu, but instead contains information on individuals who adhere(d) to far right, far left, Islamist, and single-issue ideologies The collection includes 5 SPSS datasets and 2 SPSS syntax files: PIRUS_full_dataset_ICPSR_archive.sav (n=1,473; 113 variables) PIRUS_expected_maximization_version.sav (n=16,203; 27 variables) PIRUS_fixed_value_imputation_version.sav (n=1,473; 27 variables) PIRUS_regression_based_imputation_version.sav (n=16,203; 28 variables) PIRUS_subgroup_mean_substitution_version.sav (n=1,473; 27 variables) quantitative_analysis_syntax.sps variable_prep_syntax.sps

This study includes three waves of the Online Extremism Survey (collected in 2015, 2016, and 2017) which offers information on a host of issues related to online hate material. Data were collected online from a sample of youths and young adults between the ages of 15 and 36 who voluntarily agreed to participate in research surveys. Survey Sample International (SSI) was used to collect the data. SSI recruits potential participants through random digit dialing, banner ads, and other permission-based techniques. These datasets contain information on exposure to online hate material, targeting by online hate material, production of online hate material, and responses to online hate material, among many additional topics related to online hate. The datasets also contain key demographic information on respondents, including age, gender, race/ethnicity, immigrant status, education, employment status, political ideology, and religious affiliation, among other indicators.

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed. This study identified the temporal dimensions of terrorists' precursor conduct to determine if these behaviors occurred in a logically sequenced pattern, with a particular focus on the identification of sequenced patterns that varied by group type, group size, and incident type. The study specifically focused on how these pre-incident activities were associated with the successful completion or prevention of terrorist incidents and how they differed between categories of terrorism. Data utilized for this study came from the American Terrorism Study (ATS), a database that includes "officially designated" federal terrorism cases from 1980-October 1, 2016, collected for the National Institute of Justice. The project focused on three major issues related to terrorists' precursor behaviors: A subgroup analysis of temporal, crime-specific patterns by group type, The nature of the planning process, and Factors associated with the outcomes of terrorist incidents (success or failure). The collection contains 2 SPSS data files, Final_Hypothesis_Data_Set.sav (n=550; 16 variables) and Final_Sequencing_Antecedent_Temporal.sav (n=2354; 16 variables), and 1 plain text file, Recode_Syntax.txt.

Somalis in North America offer a window into the remarkable potential that can be realized by refugees/immigrants despite experiences of severe adversity as well as the challenges some subgroups encounter when adjusting to life in a new country. Somalia has endured one of the longest and most brutal wars of the past 30 years. This enduring conflict has led to millions of Somalis being dispersed as refugees across the globe. As refugees with limited resources, many Somalis in North America are resettled in poor urban neighborhoods where they are visibly different, not only because of race or ethnicity but also because of dress, especially for women who wear a Muslim head covering. In addition, the community has been plagued by violence. While the number of Somali American youth joining these groups are small and while the majority of Somali Americans are law-abiding citizens, the terrorist groups' ability to recruit these youth and to convince some of them to engage in violent acts is concerning, not only to policymakers and law enforcement, but also to the Somali community, which fears losing more youth to violence or having the community's reputation sullied by being associated with terrorism. While some of the social and cultural factors affecting Somalis are unique to that ethnic group, they also share experiences common to many immigrants, navigating identity development and duality as they move between home and host cultures, contending with discrimination as religious, racial and ethnic minorities, and striving to achieve their dreams while struggling to gain socioeconomic stability. Thus, understanding their developmental trajectories may inform the understanding of other immigrant and refugee groups as well. No valid and reliable measurement for risk for violent extremism exists; there is no single profile or set of risk factors that can accurately determine who is most at risk for engaging in violent extremist acts. The study did not attempt to determine who is most at risk. Rather, the researchers sought to identify broad attitudes that would indicate a general openness to, or rejection of, the use of violence or illegal actions in support of a political cause. The qualitative interviews feature experiences of formal (e.g. police) and informal (e.g. community) institutions over the past year. Examples of interview prompts include questions related to social bonds with family and community, and interactions with police.