Extremist Crime Database Related Projects

Investigators:
Joshua Freilich
Steven Chermak
Other START Researchers:
Brandon A. Sullivan
Roberta Belli
Jeff Gruenewald
William Parkin

Project Details

Abstract:

The Extremist Crime Database was created by Joshua Freilich and Steven Chermak to better understand extremist crime in the United States. The national database first included information on the perpetrators, victims, event, and group characteristics of crimes committed by members of the domestic far-right, but has since been expanded to include information on crimes by the far-left, religious extremists and single-issue extremists.  

The Extremist Crime Database is part of the Terrorism and Extremist Violence in the U.S. (TEVUS) database.

Related Projects (Chronological Order):

  • Creation of a Database of U.S. Extremist Crime, 1990-2005: This project built a national database on the perpetrators, victims, event, and group characteristics of crimes committed by members of the domestic far-right. More specifically, it focuses on illegal acts committed by far right extremists whose criminal activity span a wide variety of acts
  • United States Extremist Crime Database, 1990-2010: This project involves (1) systematic collection of open-source data on non-violent and violent criminal behavior associated with far right-wing extremist groups, including data on event, perpetrator, and victim, all integrated into a relational database; (2) statistical analyses of data, to include: descriptive analyses, bivariate analysis and multivariate regressions, and time-series analyses.
  • U.S. Crime-Terror Nexus: Terrorist Networks & Trade Diversion: This project will conduct an exploratory network analysis of a large network of Islamic extremists and non-extremist criminal associates prosecuted by US Federal courts for their involvement in terrorism financing schemes based on trade diversion.
  • Radicalization Clusters? Geographic Concentrations of Violent Extremism and Terrorism in the United States: This project is designed to (1) identify geographical areas that have experienced the highest levels of to terrorist violence and extremist crime during the past 20 years; and (2) explore factors that might serve to foster violent extremism.
  • Patterns of U.S. Extremist Crime: The research team will conduct analyses designed to understand both the scope of criminal activities (including but not limited to terrorism) in which extremists have engaged in the United States and how the nature of this activity varies across different types of political extremism.

Selected Publications

Social Learning and Social Control in the Off- and Online Pathways to Hate Crime and Terrorist Violence  (Journal Article)
Patterns of Fatal Extreme-Right Crime in the United States  (Journal Article)
Far-Right Fatal Ideological Violence against Religious Institutions and Individuals in the United States: 1990-2018  (Project Fact Sheet)
Comparison of Honor Killings to Anti-LGBTQ Homicides  (Journal Article)
Islamist and Far-Right Homicides in the United States: Infographic  (Research Brief)
Criminal Justice & Military Deaths at the Hands of Extremists  (Background Report)
Introducing the United States Extremist Crime Database (ECDB)  (Journal Article)
Victims of Ideological Homicides, 1990-2014  (Research Brief)
Twenty-Five Years of Ideological Homicide Victimization in the United States of America  (START Reports)
The Nexus between Terrorism and U.S. Product Counterfeiting  (Report)
Financial Crimes Perpetrated by Far-Right Extremists in the United States: 1990-2013  (Research Brief)
Research Brief: Validation of the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative  (Research Brief)
Validation of the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative: Identifying Suspicious Activities from the Extremist Crime Database (ECDB) and the American Terrorism Study (ATS)  (START Reports)
Far-right Violence in the United States: 1990-2013  (Fact Sheet)
How Women Engage Homegrown Terrorism  (Journal Article)
Financial Crime and Political Extremism in the U.S.  (Research Brief)