By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
A new FBI study examining “lone offender terrorism” found common traits that could help identify future attackers.
Of the 52 examined cases between 1972 and 2015, 83% were carried out by people who had previously exhibited hostility or aggression, according to the 81-page report. In all of the cases, people around the attackers expressed concern over their behavior.
In 96% of the cases, the offender produced a video, blog or letter that was intended to be viewed by others.
“Absent this report and others like it, someone could see something and they’re solely relying on their gut feeling or spider sense to say, ‘That doesn’t look right,’ or ‘That’s concerning,’” Special Agent John Wyman, chief of the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU)’s Behavioral Threat Assessment Center, which conducted the research, said. “I think by putting this information out there, it helps people get over that barrier. It gives you something to fall back on to validate whatever your gut feeling was.”
The study found that half of the cases were motivated by anti-government extremism. Other significant motivators were racial extremism and Islamist violence.
All of the attackers were men, mostly white and a vast majority born in the U.S. Most were single and had free time to focus on the attacks and their grievances.
