Examining the Preparatory Behaviors of Lone Wolf and Group-Based Terrorists

• In Event: The Strategic Operations of Terrorists

Abstract

Recently there has been increased scholarly attention to “lone wolf” terrorism in the United States. To our knowledge, however, none have examined how lone wolves prepare for terrorist attacks, and how their preparative activities compare to terrorists who offend with others. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine how the nature of the planning process varies by offender type. We expect that both the quantity and quality of precursor activities to vary across incidents perpetrated by lone wolf and group-based terrorists. The data for this study come from the American Terrorism Study (ATS). Our focus is on incidents of domestic terrorism involving eco-terrorist, far-right, and Islamic extremist offenders who were federally-indicted for their crimes. We believe that advancing knowledge of the nature of terrorists’ criminal and non-criminal preparatory behaviors can inform counterterrorism policy and help to facilitate law enforcement in terrorism prevention and investigatory activities. Furthermore, identifying unique preparatory behaviors of lone wolf terrorists will illuminate potential points of law enforcement intervention for a type of terrorism of growing concern to homeland security officials.

Authors

• Brent R. Klein, University of Arkansas

• Jeff Gruenewald, University of Arkansas

• Brent Smith, University of Arkansas