Demographic and Ideological Variations in Behavior Terrorism in Time and Space (TITAS) ... Assignment of tasks. Preparatory Activities Theft of explosives, detonation cord, or weapons

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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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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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


Web Based Data Entry System

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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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ATS Demographic Characteristics of Terrorists

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Richard Snell

MarilynBuck

Omar Rahman

ChelseaGerlach

PaulHill



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Glenn Miller

JoanneChesimard

JenniferKolar


ATS Database- Demographic Characteristics 1980 – 2004

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Group Roles by Gender and Group Type


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



Terrorist Residences to Antecedent Activities



Terrorist Antecedent Activities to Incident Locations




Spatial Analysis- Linear Distance Analysis by Age

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Spatial Analysis- Linear Distance Analysis by Gender

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Residences to Incidents Spatial Analysis: Right-Wing

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Residences to Incidents Spatial Analysis: Left-Wing

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Residences to Incidents Spatial Analysis: International

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Residences to Incidents Spatial Analysis: Environmental

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Antecedent Activity for All Categories


Antecedent Activity by Crime/Non-Crime

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Antecedent Activity Breakdown by All Categories


Antecedent Activity by Crime Type for All Categories


Spatial Distribution of Antecedent Acts

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Thefts and Robberies Spatial Analysis

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Linear Distance from Residences to Thefts and Robberies


Most Common Spatial Pattern


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.


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


Temporal Analysis- Incident Timeline


Litchfield BLM ELF/ALF “The Family” Incident



Preparatory Temporal Analysis- All Groups


Time and Space Interaction


Incident Acts by Day of Week


Incident Acts by Time of Day


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]

mailto:[email protected]�


http://trc.uark.edu/�


Documents

Demographic and Ideological Variations in Behavior Terrorism in Time and Space (TITAS) ... Assignment of tasks. Preparatory Activities Theft of explosives, detonation cord, or weapons