Patterns of American Terrorism

Patterns of American Terrorism provides a detailed empirical examination of the patterns of behavior exhibited by persons indicted in federal criminal courts for "terrorism-related activities" in the United States over the past 35 years. Not intended to be a theoretical treatise on the etiology of terrorism, nor to be an indictment of federal counterterrorism efforts, this book seeks to provide a definitive guide to what we know about the behavior of terrorists who have targeted the United States and the country’s efforts to prosecute and punish them. Utilizing data from the American Terrorism Study, this volume provides an in-depth analysis of the temporal and spatial patterns that shaped the manner in which terrorists in the United States planned and carried out their attacks; how terrorists are investigated, prosecuted, and punished in federal courts; and how counterterrorism efforts have affected the behavior of individual terrorists and groups.

Smith, Damphousse, and Gruenewald delve into the demographic characteristics and geospatial and temporal patterns of terrorist behavior as an outgrowth of research they conducted over many years in the American Terrorism Study. Building on this foundation, the authors compare "lone actor" or "lone wolf" terrorists with the patterns of behavior exhibited by groups or cells and examine more recent behaviors of ISIS conspiracies in the United States with those of terrorists from other types of groups. Providing a comprehensive overview of the nature and evolution of modern international and domestic terrorism, this book offers a wealth of findings that will be useful in setting policy and developing guidelines for counterterrorism efforts as well as in formulating hypotheses to test theoretical models. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of terrorism and political violence, criminology, sociology, international security, and political science.