FBI Report On Lone-Attacker Terrorism: 10 Key takeaways

By Katherine Kuhlman, PsyD

Yesterday, the FBI released a report on Lone Attacker Terrorism. The BAU examined 52 lone offender terrorist attacks between in 1972 and 2015, with the goal being to understand motivating factors, social networks, behavioral characteristics, and more. Lone Attacker Terrorism is really a subset of generalized targeted violence, the difference being that the motivation or injustice is based on ideology. The individuals that carried out these attacks did so outside of any ideological group.
 
You can read the whole report here.

10 Key Takeaways

1. There is no significant demographic of a lone offender terrorist – there were massive variations among age, relationship status, educational background, and race.
2. Most have no prior violent crime arrests, BUT over 80% had a history of hostile, aggressive, or violent behaviors. For example, they had made threatening statements or had an explosive temper. About 70% were arrested at some point in their lifetime, just not for anything violent.
3. Mental Health issues were not diagnosed in about three quarters of the offenders. For those with a mental health diagnosis, the most common were mood disorders. However, mental illness was retroactively diagnosed in about 35% of total cases. Paranoia was present in about 62% of the offenders. Less than half had a history of suicidal ideation, and just about half had used illegal drugs at some point in their lifetime.
4. The primary ideologies that encouraged the offender were Anti-Government (25%), Racially-Motivated (23%), Radical Islamist (19%), Other (19%), Pro-Life (10%), and Environmental (4%). Many offenders were categorized in more than one ideology.
5. There was a primary grievance or perceived injustice in about 70% of the attacks. Sometimes this was being the target of perceived discrimination, unfair practices, or feeling targeted. The attack was a way for them to air their grievance.
6. Ideologies/ Radicalization formed over a year prior to the attack in over 90% of cases. Over three-quarters were radicalized through media (books, pamphlets, CDs, online, etc.)
7. Leakage/ broadcasts were evident in 90% of cases, through writing or videos. The majority wrote or made videos and posted them prior to their attack.
8. Guns were the primary weapon (67%), followed by explosives (27%), airplane/vehicle (6%), and bladed weapons (4%). Firearms were purchased legally the majority of the time. 31% of firearm attacks were by weapons that were either stolen or illegally purchased.
9. Most attackers were not socially isolated and held relationships either in person or online. Just over half had a family member or associate who was sympathetic to violent/radical ideology. Over a third had a family member or associate who adhered to violent ideology.
10. In 100% of cases, concern was noted by someone about the attacker. In about three-quarters of the attacks, significant behavioral changes were observed during the year prior to the attack. Over 80% noted concerns about anger or aggression and interpersonal interactions. About 80% of attackers made statements to others indicating violence was justifiable in service of a cause or objective.

 
What can we do to prevent these attacks? The good news is that targeted violence, whether based in ideology or not, can be prevented.
 
Individual Considerations:
As an individual, awareness of some key characteristics, and knowing where to report them, is key. Standing by and monitoring does not prevent anything, and action must be taken. If you are in a school or workplace, do you know where to report concerning behaviors? If not, find out. Do you feel like your concerns are taken seriously if/when you report them? If not, encourage change or use another avenue (such as notifying law enforcement). If you’re concerned about a neighbor or a family member, do not keep the concerns to yourself. Check and see if your local law enforcement has a Threat Management Unit who specializes in being the central data collection point for this type of information. If that doesn’t exist, see if they have an Intelligence Unit that can serve the same purpose. You can notify federal law enforcement, such as the FBI, easily. It’s most important to make sure you aren’t silo-ing information. You might think it’s nothing, but it could play a role in the big picture. Some of they key behaviors to look out for include:

• Seeing violence as a way to share a message or air a grievance
• Change in behavior over time (beliefs, drug use, hygiene, mood, etc.)
• Multiple rejections (from both people or places, like getting fired, group exclusion, breakup, etc.)
• Increased interest in weapons
• Unhealthy interest in past attacks
• Sympathizing with other attackers

 
Workplace Considerations:
As an employer, it is your duty to protect your employees. You have a powerful role in the prevention of violence, whether at your agency/facility or elsewhere. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on security for this either (although it surely doesn’t hurt!).

• Develop insider threat or threat assessment teams, comprised of employees from multiple disciplines. This is your centralized point that creates policies and assesses information about concerning employees or clients. Most importantly, make sure employees know where and how to report their concerns!
• Educate your staff on detecting concerning behavior and disrupting it. It is key to ensure people focus on WHAT the individual is saying and doing, not WHO they are (i.e. race, what groups they belong to, religion, etc.).
• Don’t just monitor! Any concerning behavior has to be disrupted immediately to avoid normalizing it or allowing it to fester.
• Don’t blow off employee’s grievances if they don’t seem valid; it’s real to them and it has to be real to you.

 
Ultimately, targeted violence can be prevented with education, awareness, multi-disciplinary cooperation, and disruptors. Please contact me if you would like to implement this at your place of business.