Portions of this research were funded by the National Institute of Justice (Grant Numbers: 2003-DT-CX-0003; 2005-IJ-CX-0200; 2006-IJ-CX-0037) and the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (Grant Number MIPT 106-113-2000-064) through the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. The opinions presented here do not represent the official position of the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the MIPT, or the NIJ.
Demographic and Ideological Variations in Behavior Among American Terrorists
Brent SmithTerrorism Research Center in Fulbright College
Geospatial and Temporal Patterns - Trial Outcomes and Sentencing - Prosecutorial and Defense Strategies - Terrorism Financing
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
Background and Prior Research
• The American Terrorism Study (ATS) – MIPT funded project tracked and recorded federal criminal cases resulting from FBI terrorism investigations. DOJ/NIJ/DHS/MIPT.
• Pre-incident Indicators of Terrorist Activities (PITA) – NIJ funded project involved geocoding 65 case studies of terrorists’ residences, preparatory activities, and target locations (10/1/03 - 9/30/05). DOJ/NIJ.
• Geospatial Analysis of Terrorist Activities (GATA) – NIJ funded project involves coding of international and environmental cases (10/1/05 - 9/30/07). DOJ/NIJ.
• Terrorism in Time and Space (TITAS) – NIJ funded project began 1/1/06 to collect data on remaining ATS court cases that have been collected and compile all previous NIJ funded research into one Oracle Web Accessible database for analysis and dissemination.
• Prosecutorial Strategies and Defense (PADS) – NIJ funded project began 10/1/06. Involves examination of defense and prosecutorial strategies on case outcomes. DOJ/NIJ
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Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
American Terrorism Study (ATS)
The “American Terrorism Study” (ATS) was created in 1988 in cooperation with the FBI’s Terrorist Research and Analytical Center and is currently conducted by the Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College (TRC), University of Arkansas.
The study utilizes “official” FBI measures of terrorism: focusing on only federally indicted terrorism court cases. Thereby, accepting the FBI “academic” definition of terrorism and the AG regulatory definition when applied.
Includes only cases resulting from federal indictment under the following:
For Domestic Terrorism:The Attorney General Guidelines on General Crimes, Racketeering Enterprises, and Domestic Security/Terrorism Investigations and subsequent editions (1983, 1989, 2002).
For International Terrorism:The Attorney General Guidelines for FBI Foreign Intelligence Collection and Foreign Counterintelligence Investigations.
*New AG Guidelines were implemented in December 2008. No cases from these guidelines are included in the database.
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Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
Patterns of Terrorism in America
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Planning and Preliminary
Organization
Identification and clarification of roles in group
Exposure to terrorism training manuals
Discussion of potential targets
Drawing schematics
Assignment of tasks
Preparatory Activities
Theft of explosives, detonation cord, or weapons
Counterfeiting/ laundering money to support group activities
Procurement of false IDs
Modifications to semi-automatic weapons to fire automatic
Buying of ANFO or other bomb materials such as timers and electrical components
Establishment of bomb making labs
Terrorist Incident
Bombings
Assassinations
“Ecotage”
Hostage taking
Hoaxes
Threats
Hijackings
Recruitment
Membership in extremist group
Attendance at rallies or demonstrations
Exposure to Internet sites
Personal recruitment
Accessing extremist literature
T1 Time T2 T3 T4 Time T5 T6 T7
D1 Distance/Location D3 D4, D5
D2 Distance/Location D4, D5 D6
Establishment of Residences
Residential Locations
May be correlated with other geo-political or census data
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
Web Based Data Entry System
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Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
Data Collection Results
Data collection was performed by Mercyhurst College’s Intelligence Analyst Program and Sam Houston State University’s Institute for the Study of Violent Groups in conjunction with University of Arkansas’ TRC research staff.
Geocoding was performed on 2,364 records of data. Records were geocoded to the street address, zip codes, or city centroid level using the Yahoo! Geocoding API .
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Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
ATS Demographic Characteristics of Terrorists
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Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
ATS Demographic Characteristics of Terrorists
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Richard Snell
MarilynBuck
Omar Rahman
ChelseaGerlach
PaulHill
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
ATS Demographic Characteristics of Terrorists
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Glenn Miller
JoanneChesimard
JenniferKolar
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
ATS Database- Demographic Characteristics 1980 – 2004
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Group Roles by Gender and Group Type
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
ATS Database- Demographic Characteristics 1980 – 2004
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Kolar
Overaker
Rubin
ELF/ALFThe Family
Chesimard
Buck
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 12
Spatial Analysis- Linear Distance Analysis of All Categories
Terrorist Residences to Incident Locations
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 13
Spatial Analysis- Linear Distance Analysis of All Categories
Terrorist Residences to Antecedent Activities
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 14
Spatial Analysis- Linear Distance Analysis of All Categories
Terrorist Antecedent Activities to Incident Locations
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 15
Spatial Analysis- Linear Distance Analysis of All Categories
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
Spatial Analysis- Linear Distance Analysis by Age
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Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
Spatial Analysis- Linear Distance Analysis by Gender
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Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
Residences to Incidents Spatial Analysis: Right-Wing
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Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
Residences to Incidents Spatial Analysis: Left-Wing
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Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
Residences to Incidents Spatial Analysis: International
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Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
Residences to Incidents Spatial Analysis: Environmental
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Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 22
Antecedent Activity for All Categories
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
Antecedent Activity by Crime/Non-Crime
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Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 24
Antecedent Activity Breakdown by All Categories
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 25
Antecedent Activity by Crime Type for All Categories
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
Spatial Distribution of Antecedent Acts
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Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected]
Thefts and Robberies Spatial Analysis
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Linear Distance from Residences to Thefts and Robberies
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 28
Most Common Spatial Pattern
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 29
Single Issue- Environmental Case Study: ELF/ALF “The Family”
Rather than individual “direct actions” as commonly believed, these individuals are alleged to have conspired in most of the major acts of eco-terrorism in the U.S. over the past nine years.
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 30
Timeline of ELF/ALF “The Family” Incidents
Thurston Tankersley
Dibee
Paul Kolar
Ferguson Overaker
Tubbs
Meyerhoff Gerlach
Savoie McGowan
Block Zacher
Solondz WatersRodgers
Rubin Phillabaum
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 31
Temporal Analysis- Incident Timeline
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 32
Litchfield BLM ELF/ALF “The Family” Incident
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 33
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 34
Preparatory Temporal Analysis- All Groups
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 35
Time and Space Interaction
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 36
Incident Acts by Day of Week
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 37
Incident Acts by Time of Day
Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College Phone: 479.575.3502 Web: http://trc.uark.edu Email: [email protected] 38
Contact InformationBrent SmithChair- Department of Sociology and Criminal JusticeDirector- Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College
211 Old MainUniversity of ArkansasFayetteville, AR [email protected]://trc.uark.edu
Kelly R. DamphousseAssociate Dean, College of Arts and SciencesPresident's Associates Presidential Professor - Sociology
633 Elm Avenue, 323 Ellison HallUniversity of OklahomaNorman, OK 73019(405) [email protected]