Spatial Analysis Between Home and Attack Sites Chosen by Perpetrators of Right-Wing Terrorist Incidents in the United States

• In Event: Characterizing and Preventing Domestic Terrorism: A Mixed-Methods Study of Seven Far-Right Terrorist Groups

Abstract

This paper will describe research examining if existing theories of spatial proximity of crime are also relevant to far-right violence in the United States. Specifically, if perpetrators of hate crimes and far-right violence are more inclined to operate in their “home” county, and if not, what operational, political, demographic, and economic factors may lead them to operate far from their familiar environment. The first part of the study examines if attacks outside the home county of the perpetrator have specific operational (tactics, target selection) characteristics. The second stage examines if gaps in the demographic, political and economic characteristics between the home county of the perpetrators and the county where they operated can explain spatial distribution of attacks. The DSG-UML county-level dataset of far-right terrorist incidents from 1990 to 2020 will be utilized for this research.

Authors

• Hope LaFreniere, University of Massachusetts Lowell

• Eoin Healy, Development Services Group, Inc.