Victims of Ideological Homicides, 1990-2014

This research brief presents the preliminary results of 25 years of ideological victimization committed by al-Qa’ida and affiliated movements and the extremist far-right in the United States from 1990 to 2014. For a full copy of the report, visit START’s website. Very little is known about victimization patterns, especially across ideologies, as researchers in terrorism and extremist violence tend to focus on perpetrator motives and typologies. Victim and target centered research provides a nuanced perspective of these violent events that can help mitigate victimization risk.

Excluding the homicide victims associated with the four attacks on September 11th and the Oklahoma City bombing, 62 individuals were killed in 38 ideologically motivated homicide events committed by extremists associated with al-Qa’ida and affiliated movements and 245 were killed by far-right extremists (FRE) in 177 ideologically motivated incidents. The data for this brief originates from the United States Extremist Crime Database (ECDB), an open-source dataset that examines ideologically motivated and routine criminal activity, both violent and financial, committed by ideological extremists.