European Lone Actor Terrorists Versus “Common” Homicide Offenders: An Empirical Analysis

Liem, Marieke; Buuren, Jelle van; Zuijdewijn, J. de Roy van; Schönberger, Hanneke; Bakker, Edwin

doi:10.1177/1088767917736797

Cited by 38 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…According to their findings, the differences between the two groups are cultural rather than personal in nature. Similar results are found by McCauley, Moskalenko, and Van Son (2013) in their comparative analysis of school shooters and politically motivated attackers: in both cases the perpetrators planned their actions in advance, usually acted alone, and drew their motivation more from emotional/social than material or instrumental needs; biographies in both groups are characterized by depression, despair, and suicidal tendencies. Significant differences exist only in relation to age and marital status: Politically motivated attackers are considerably older and more likely to be married.…”

supporting

confidence: 77%

“…Liem, Van Buuren, De Roy van Zuijdewijn, Schönberger, and Bakker (2018) compared characteristics of lone actor terrorists in Europe in the period 2000–2016 with “ordinary” homicide offenders. The demographics and perpetrator profiles led this group of authors to nearly the same conclusions as Capellan, with the difference that the ideologically motivated perpetrators exhibited higher levels of education than the “ordinary” homicide offenders.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Same but Different? Developmental Pathways to Demonstrative Targeted Attacks — Qualitative Case Analyses of Adolescent and Young Adult Perpetrators of Targeted School Attacks and Jihadi Terrorist Attacks in Germany

Böckler¹,

Leuschner

Zick

et al. 2018

DEV

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Analysis of incidents over the past ten years in Germany reveals that the boundaries between targeted attacks in schools and terrorist attacks are starting to blur. Böckler, Leuschner, Roth, Zick, and Scheithauer (2018) recently presented a set of hypotheses about similarities between the developmental pathways of school attackers and lone actor terrorists. To date there is only a small body of empirical research comparing these two forms of targeted violence in depth. In order to fill this gap, this article presents findings from a qualitative analysis of prosecution files comparing the developmental pathways of German school attackers (N = 7; age range: 13 to 23) and Jihadi attackers (N = 7; age range: 21 to 28 years) who committed their attacks between 2000 and 2013. Using theoretical coding and constant case comparison, the contribution shows that the two phenomena have overlaps in which developmental processes and social mechanisms are similar. Both school attackers and Jihadi attackers frame their act of violence using cultural scripts and perform the attack on a public stage where victims are attacked not on the basis of personal conflicts but because of their symbolic meaning. Taking into account the similarities in the perpetrators’ developmental pathways, the authors propose that it might be more fruitful from an operational perspective to discuss severe target school violence and terrorist attacks under a common concept of demonstrative violence than to artificially assign them to exclusive classes of violence.

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supporting

confidence: 77%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Same but Different? Developmental Pathways to Demonstrative Targeted Attacks — Qualitative Case Analyses of Adolescent and Young Adult Perpetrators of Targeted School Attacks and Jihadi Terrorist Attacks in Germany

Böckler¹,

Leuschner

Zick

et al. 2018

DEV

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“…In her extensive review of research into homicide followed by suicide, Liem (, ; Liem, van Buuren, de Roy van Zuijdewijn, Schönberger, & Bakker, ) sets out four areas of potential importance in preventing these events. First is awareness of possible risk from conversations with potential front line contacts.…”

Section: Homicide Followed By Suicide—an Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extended suicide, or homicide followed by suicide

Gunn

2019

Criminal Behav Ment Health

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Background: Suicide with accompanying homicide is frightening and ill understood. Aims:To raise professional awareness of its complexities and difficulties and identify areas for developing research. Method: A Crime in Mind seminar was held in London in December 2018, with four expert presentations and discussion. This paper draws on that seminar and supplementary literature. Findings: Homicide/suicide is very difficult to predict and thus prevent. Victims and perpetrators may have a dependency relationship. Better training, especially of general practitioners, may increase the likelihood of detecting signs of despair and delusional ideas. Psychiatrists should be more alert to fixed delusions and homicidal thoughts. Individual assessment and management alone is unlikely to be sufficient. Public health strategies are likely to be important too. Weapons control is vital. Employers of people with great personal responsibility and special access to potentially lethal tools, such as airline pilots, and perhaps clinicians, should have regular, compulsory, mental health checks. Conclusions: Six points of clinical importance emerged, including lowering the threshold for diagnosing delusional disorder and the establishment of anti-violence clinics.

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“…In the terrorism field, researchers have reported elevated rates of mental disorders in lone‐actor terrorists versus group actors (Corner & Gill, ; Fein & Vossekuil, ; Gill et al., ; Gruenewald, Chermak, & Freilich, , ; Hewitt, ; Liem, van Buuren, van Zuijdewijn, Schönberger & Bakker, ). These findings, however, are aggregated.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing person‐exposure patterns in lone‐actor terrorism

Clemmow

Marchment

Gill

2019

Criminology & Public Policy

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Research Summary:The lone-actor terrorist population can be extremely heterogeneous and difficult to detect. Intelligence is vital to countering this threat. We devise a typology of person-exposure patterns (PEPs) that could serve as a framework for intelligence gathering and threat assessment. We use cluster analysis and a risk analysis framework (RAF) to identify relations among three components: propensity, situation, and network.The results of the analysis reveal four PEPs: solitary, susceptible, situational, and selection. The solitary PEP lacks common indicators of a propensity to pursue terrorist action. The susceptible PEP reveals cognitive susceptibility, manifesting as mental illness, to be a key factor in the emergence of a terrorist propensity. The situational PEP demonstrates how situational stressors may act as warnings of acceleration toward violent action. Lastly, the selection PEP demonstrates higher frequencies of leakage and antecedent violent behaviors.Policy Implications: Our findings have two key policy implications. First, given the multifinality of terrorism risk indicators, we suggest a move toward a structuredprofessional judgement approach to the risk analysis of lone-actor terrorists. Second, we present the PEP typology as a framework for intelligence gathering. Existing frameworks are predominantly focused on mobilization 452 CLEMMOW ET AL.indicators. We suggest expanding data collection to include propensity and situational indicators, as operationalized here, and using the PEP typology to inform decisions about the emergence of the motivation to commit an attack. To do so, it is necessary to pursue a multiagency approach to intelligence gathering.

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European Lone Actor Terrorists Versus “Common” Homicide Offenders: An Empirical Analysis

Cited by 38 publications

References 43 publications

Same but Different? Developmental Pathways to Demonstrative Targeted Attacks — Qualitative Case Analyses of Adolescent and Young Adult Perpetrators of Targeted School Attacks and Jihadi Terrorist Attacks in Germany

Same but Different? Developmental Pathways to Demonstrative Targeted Attacks — Qualitative Case Analyses of Adolescent and Young Adult Perpetrators of Targeted School Attacks and Jihadi Terrorist Attacks in Germany

Extended suicide, or homicide followed by suicide

Analyzing person‐exposure patterns in lone‐actor terrorism

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