Community Reporting Thresholds: Sharing Information with Authorities Concerning Terrorism and Targeted Violence, California and Illinois, 2021 (ICPSR 38318)

Version Date: Jul 14, 2022

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Principal Investigator(s):
David P. Eisenman, University of California, Los Angeles

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38318.v1

Version V1

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Summary

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.

Citation

Eisenman, David P. Community Reporting Thresholds: Sharing Information with Authorities Concerning Terrorism and Targeted Violence, California and Illinois, 2021. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-07-14. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38318.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (2018-ZA-CX-0004)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

None

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2021

Date of Collection

2019-12 -- 2020-05

Data Collection Notes

  1. For additional information on the Community Reporting Thresholds study, please visit the Community Reporting Thresholds website.
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Study Purpose

This study 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.

This study addresses the following research questions:

  1. What are the thresholds, facilitators, and barriers to intimate bystanders reporting persons-of-concern?
  2. What processes, pathways, means, and channels do intimate bystanders favor when willing to share concerns?
  3. Are there differences by demographic factors (race, age, gender) or by the type of targeted violence (ideologically-motivated versus non-ideologically motivated, targeted violence)?

Study Design

Qualitative-quantitative interviews were conducted with 123 community members living in California and Illinois. Interviews were conducted from March 2021 to July 2021 virtually over Zoom. 62 identified as female and 61 identified as male.

Community members were read a scenario and asked to respond to questions. White-identified participants were offered a choice between "Connor" and "Sam" scenarios, while participants who did not identify themselves as White were offered a choice between "Joseph" and "Sam." Connor was a white supremacist targeting a nearby religious establishment. Joseph was a person of color who had experienced discrimination from law enforcement and was eager to use violence to exercise his beliefs. Sam was a disgruntled and aggrieved employee researching mass shootings online at his workplace.

Questions include the following topics:

  1. What reasons might motivate them to share concerns about the person suspected of planning targeted violence with authorities?
  2. What information or support would help them decide whether to share their concerns with authorities?
  3. What factors might encourage or discourage people to share their concerns?
  4. How would they go about reporting currently?
  5. What are their preferences for people and agencies that they could approach to share their concerns?
  6. How would they prefer to make the report (e.g., telephone, face-to-face, website, mobile phone app)?

In both phases the data was analyzed by using a grounded theory approach. Research team members coded the transcripts using thematic analysis. Consensus building was used to develop the final structure of relationships among the themes.

Sample

123 community members living in California and Illinois with 62 identifying as female and 61 identifying as male.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

Individuals who were 18 years and older.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Response Rates

Not available

Presence of Common Scales

None

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Original Release Date

2022-07-14

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Weight

None

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.