The Contextual Nature of Right-Wing Terrorism Across Nations

• In Event: Poster Session I

Abstract

Despite the growing threat of right-wing terrorism as a national security concern in many countries, no empirical research has examined the variables that are associated with increases or decreases in right-wing terrorist incidents at a national level. This project examines the applicability of indicators informed by macro-level criminological theories related to immigration, economic conditions, and social composition to the study of right-wing terrorism. A data set of right-wing terrorist incidents in North America and Western Europe from 1990-2014 was created using secondary sources. The results show that indicators informed by criminological theory are not useful when the analyses are aggregated across countries, but provide more insight when examining relationships within individual countries. Factors related to increases or decreases in right-wing terrorism are unique to each country, and the targets of right-wing terrorist attacks also varied across the sampled countries.

Authors

• Sara Doering, Simon Fraser University

• Garth Davies, Simon Fraser University