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Loners, Colleagues, or Peers? Assessing the Social Organization of Radicalization

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Abstract

This study explores the utility of a sociological model of social organization developed by Best and Luckenbill (1994) to classify the radicalization processes of terrorists (i.e., extremist perpetrators who engaged in ideologically motivated acts of violence) who are usually categorized as loner or lone wolf attackers. There are several organizational frameworks used to define or classify violent acts performed by individuals who may or may not have ties to extremist groups, but these studies largely ignore the role of social relationships in radicalization and the extent to which they inform our knowledge of terror. To address this gap, we apply the Best and Luckenbill model of social organization using a qualitative analysis of three case studies of four lone actor or small cell terrorists. The findings demonstrate lone actors are not always true loners in the context of radicalization, and highlights the ways that the Internet and social ties foster the radicalization processes of terror.

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Notes

  1. The search engines used in this analysis include Lexis-Nexis; Proquest; Yahoo; Google; Copernic; News Library; Infotrac; Google Scholar; Amazon; Google U.S. Government; Federation of American Scientists; Google Video; Center for the Study of Intelligence; Surf Wax; Dogpile; Mamma; Librarians’ Internet Index; Scirus; All the Web; Google News; Google Blog; and Homeland Security Digital Library.

  2. At the time of the development of this study, there was insufficient material available in open source documents to justify the inclusion of Noor Salman, Omar Mateen’s wife, in the analysis. Though she has been charged with obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting Mateen’s attack, there is insufficient information currently available in publicly accessible documents to describe her direct or indirect role in the planning or execution of the shooting (e.g. Mazzei & Goldman, 2018). Thus, we excluded her from the analysis, and any family or friends of the other cases included. We chose to only focus on the direct actors involved in the execution of the offense for the sake of analytical parsimony.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported, in part, by Award No. 2014-ZA-BX-0004, awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, and U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not reflect those of the Department of Justice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, 655 Auditorium Road, 434 Baker Hall, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Thomas J. Holt & Steven M. Chermak

  2. John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, USA

    Joshua D. Freilich, Colleen Mills & Jason Silva

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Appendix: Case Study Template

Appendix: Case Study Template

Name:

Total documents identified:

Provide count of documents by type/category:

  1. 1.

    Please provide a timeline and overview life-history of the selected individual, from birth until final arrest (e.g., family, work, friends, mental health, military experience, prison) or death (dependent on the outcome of the incident).

  1. 2.

    General on-line involvement

    1. a.

      what sites did they have accounts on, or appear to participate in?

    2. b.

      how many of these sites were part of a radical/extremist ideology?

  1. 3.

    Emergence of the appearance of radicalization/acceptance of an extremist ideology

    1. a.

      off-line signs/markers

      1. i.

        Dates, locations, assessments provided by family, friends?

    2. b.

      on-line signs/markers

      1. i.

        Posting behaviors, what sites, dates?

  1. 4.

    The process of entry into the extremist movement and/or radicalization process

    a. What were the sources of their exposure to extremist ideology and what seemed to be most important and why?

    1. i.

      Was there an initial push into a search for extremist materials or ideology?

      1. 1.

        Negative social interaction with peer group?

      2. 2.

        Negative familial development (divorce, death of parent, etc)?

      3. 3.

        Individual failure at any pro-social activity (sports, employment, school)?

    2. ii.

      Was there an initial pull into searching for extremist materials or ideology?

      1. 1.

        Contact with a recruiter

      2. 2.

        Contact with someone else who was interested in extremist ideology

        1. a.

          Was this individual a friend, family member, or someone else?

  2. 5.

    What was their peer/collegial involvement like?

  3. 6.

    Did they socialize frequently with other peers generally?

  4. 7.

    Was this primarily on- or off-line?

  5. 8.

    Did they socialize frequently with others who are in extremist movements?

  6. 9.

    Was this primarily on- or off-line?

    1. a.

      Is the individual strongly attached with their parents/grandparents?

    2. b.

      Is the individual strongly attached with other family members?

    3. c.

      Is the individual married prior to joining an extremist movement / radicalizing?

    4. d.

      Is the individual strongly attached with religious groups or leaders?

      1. i.

        Do the religious groups or leaders share an extremist ideology?

    5. e.

      as the individual strongly attached to peers; i.e., do they have a strong peer group?

      1. i.

        Are the preponderance of individuals in this peer group involved in delinquent activities?

        1. 1.

          To what extent of seriousness were these activities (i.e. mostly misdemeanors or felonies)?

      2. ii.

        Are any of the individuals in this peer group also interested in extremist ideology?

        1. 1.

          on or off-line?

      3. iii.

        Are any of these individuals in this peer group also involved in extremist activity?

        1. 1.

          on or off-line?

  1. 10.

    Did their behavior change as a function of exposure to ideological materials on or off-line?

    1. i.

      Was there a noticeable change in behavior before and after their interest in

    2. ii.

      extremist ideology/materials?

      1. 1.

        Off-line

      2. 2.

        On-line

    3. iii.

      Was there a noticeable change in behavior before and after their joining of an extremist group/movement (if they did so)?

      1. 1.

        Off-line

      2. 2.

        On-line

    4. iv.

      Did the actor openly indicate the need to take action or use violence to further their ideology or achieve some goal?

      1. 1.

        Off-line

      2. 2.

        On-line

      3. 3.

        Did they have social media accounts?

      4. 4.

        Did they have discussion forum accounts? If so, what/where?

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Holt, T.J., Freilich, J.D., Chermak, S.M. et al. Loners, Colleagues, or Peers? Assessing the Social Organization of Radicalization. Am J Crim Just 44, 83–105 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-018-9439-5

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