Comparative Analysis of Violent Radicalization Across Three Offender Types with Implications for Criminal Justice Training and Education

• In Event: Intersections of Criminology, Psychology and Political Violence

Abstract

This presentation will describe a two-year program of research (January 2014-December 2015) to develop a series of studies comparing the behavioral underpinnings of three types of U.S.-based offenders since 1990: solo-terrorists, lone-actor terrorists, and individuals who engage in mass casualty violence but lack an ideological motivation. In particular this research program compares the developmental, antecedent behavioral and ideological factors that crystallize within the offender and are later expressed behaviorally via the offense itself. This program of research seeks to understand whether (dis)similarities are observable across these offender types and what the relevant implications are for law enforcement. By providing empirically informed and practitioner-oriented research, the project will deliver an evidential basis for informing multiple facets of investigative practice both within and across offense and offender types. This research is sponsored by the National Institute of Justice.

Authors

• Paul Gill, University College London

• John Horgan, University of Massachusetts, Lowell