• Californians Living with Handgun Owners More Than Twice as Likely to Die by Homicide

    Californians who didn’t own handguns but lived with handgun owners were more than twice as likely to die by homicide compared with those living in gunfree homes.

  • European Neo-Nazi Group Exports Anti-Semitism Across Scandinavia, Beyond

    Sweden’s Nordic Resistance Movement held 185 “combat training” sessions in 2020 and has served as inspiration for American racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists. The Nordic Resistance is Scandinavia’s most dangerous far-right extremist group, actively spreading its hate message abroad.

  • The Military Is Making Progress in Its Counter-Extremism Efforts, but Gaps Remain

    DOD released its report on countering extremist activity in the ranks. Andrew Mines writes that the report is timely, as data from research by different organizations provide multiple metrics that show a relatively small but growing problem of extremism in the military. “Today, the U.S. faces an extremist threat that is increasingly mainstream and harder to counter with traditional prevention tools. The federal government is already undergoing a sea change in its own approach, and the military has shown that it isn’t shying away from the problem either,” he writes.

  • DHS Sued Over Vetting Program to Collect and Data Mine

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) the other day filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for records about a multi-million dollar, secretive program that surveils immigrants and other foreign visitors’ speech on social media.

  • Jihadists, Far-Right Extremists Vex Russia–Ukraine War

    Jihadist militants from Chechnya have been helping Russia in its war in Ukraine, but the influx of jihadist militants does not constitute the bulk of foreign fighters who have joined the war. It is feared that the pro-Ukraine ‘International Legion’ is infiltrated by far-right extremist groups who support Ukraine’s own far-right organizations. One expert warns that the war “will almost certainly attract far-right extremists, who have long viewed [Ukraine] as an ideal training ground to gain combat experience for the eventual ‘race wars’ they anticipate waging back home.”

  • Domestic Violent Extremism within DHS

    DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas created a working group consisting of senior DHS officials to conducted a comprehensive review of how to best prevent, detect, and respond to potential threats related to domestic violent extremism within the Department of Homeland Security.

  • U.S. Stand Your Ground Laws Associated with 700 Additional Homicides Every Year: Study

    Stand Your Ground laws in the United States have expanded legal protections for individuals who use deadly violence in self-defense. A new study estimates they result in an additional 700 homicides each year - an increase in monthly homicide rates of 11 percent nationally, but up to 28 percent in some states.

  • Which is the Bigger Threat: Offline or Online Radicalization?

    The Global Network on Extremism Technology (GNET) has just released a report which seeks answers to these questions: Are those radicalized offline or online more of a threat? Which group is harder to detect, more successful in completing attacks, and more lethal when they do so? Is the pattern different for youth versus older perpetrators and for men versus women?

  • Not a Suicide Pact: Urgent Strategic Recommendations for Reducing Domestic Terrorism in the United States

    America’s Bill of Rights protects U.S. citizens’ rights to free speech, to bear arms, and to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, among other things. As the Supreme Court has consistently held, however, no right is absolute: All rights must be balanced against other societal needs, including and especially public safety. Barbara L. McQuade writes that as the threat of domestic terrorism metastasizes in the United States, Americans need to use the practical wisdom urged by Justice Robert L. Jackson – who, in 1949, advised that the Constitution is not “a suicide pact” — to ensure the survival of the republic.

  • Why Homicide Rates Spiked 30% During the Pandemic

    The number of homicides in the United States spiked almost 30% during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a phenomenon seen in both cities and rural areas, and in Republican and Democratic-leaning states. While there have been calls from some quarters to abolish or defund the police, the vast majority of Americans oppose getting rid of police departments.

  • Who Commits Which Crimes

    Why do some young men turn to crime, while others don’t? An international study shows that preferences such as risk tolerance, impatience and altruism as well as self-control can predict who will commit crime.

  • Threats to the U.S. Jewish Community: The Facts

    According to the FBI’s annual data on hate crimes, defined as criminal offenses which are motivated by bias, crimes targeting the Jewish community consistently constitute more than half of all religion-based crimes.

  • Civil War in the U.S. Is Unlikely Because Grievance Doesn’t Necessarily Translate Directly into Violence

    Claims that America is at the greatest risk of civil war since, well, the Civil War, recently received additional support from some experts in the field of political science. But civil wars are rare events. But even if a civil war in America is unlikely, this does not preclude the occurrence of other forms of less intense violence. Concerns about increased violent extremism in the United States recently led the U.S. Justice Department to establish a new domestic terrorism group.

  • DOJ Adding New Unit Dedicated to Combatting Domestic Terrorism

    The Justice Department’s National Security Division is adding a new unit, dedicated to combatting domestic terrorism, as attacks, threats, and associated cases continue to grow. The FBI tells lawmakers that the greatest threat of mass casualty attacks against civilians in the United States comes from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.

  • A Year After January 6, Is Accelerationism the New Terrorist Threat?

    Far-right extremists are attempting to incite an insurrection to hasten the downfall of what they see as a deeply corrupt U.S. government. Some could resort to deadly acts of terrorism.