Disparities Between Homegrown Right Wing Extremist Violence and Prevalence in the CVE Literature

• In Event: Poster Session II

Abstract

Since 9/11, there has been an increase in countering violent extremism (CVE) research. To better inform policy recommendations for CVE, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) has developed a CVE research framework to support a research agenda seeking to save lives, reduce property losses, and enhance community resilience. As part of S&T’s efforts, RTI and S&T are conducting the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) – Developing a Research Roadmap project. The Roadmap’s aim is to enhance the CVE framework by assessing the current state of CVE research, including gaps in CVE research. One gap is a lack of research on right wing extremists (RWE), who are responsible for a significant number of attacks. Despite the number of RWE-motivated attacks, the research has neglected to fully investigate RWE. One potential reason is lack of an agreed upon operational definition, resulting from the fact that adherents often belong to multiple groups simultaneously and these groups lack high levels of organization and media attention. This poster proposes an operational definition for RWE based on the literature, compares the number of RWE attacks in the U.S. to other ideologies, analyzes RWE’s representation in the literature, and recommends future CVE research.

Author

• Ross Owens, Research Triangle Institute