Miss Tiffany Cook1, Dr Simon Davies1
1Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
Biography:
Tiffany Cook is completing her Master's in Forensic Psychology. Through her programme, she undertook an internship with the Department of Internal Affairs' Digital Safety Group. This experience proved formative, giving her firsthand insight into the field of violent extremism research and more in depth understanding of the operational challenges faced by those working in this space. The idea for her Master's thesis was developed in collaboration with investigators at the DIA to maximise relevance and utility.
Abstract:
Over the past decade, research on violent extremism has grown exponentially as it has become an enduring threat to national security worldwide. Violent extremism encompasses offences ranging from the distribution of extreme violent material to ideologically driven mass-fatality attacks. Researchers have identified factors influencing an individual's propensity to engage in these offences; however, further work is needed to identify when this risk becomes heightened. Identifying these acute risk factors—individual and circumstantial variables that may signal an imminent attack—could help agencies tasked with prevention. Yet the evidence base on acute risk factors associated with violent attacks remains particularly limited, constrained by difficulties in data acquisition and low base rates of offending. This study aimed to contribute to the nascent body of research by identifying potential acute risk factors present across three open-source databases containing information about events leading up to violent attacks: the Profiles of Individuals Radicalised in the United States (PIRUS), the Profiles of Individuals Radicalised in Australia (PIRA), and the Domestic Terrorism Offender Level Database (DTOLD). We identified the factors present in the immediate lead-up to the incidents, determined the rates of co-occurrence of potential acute factors, and examined the relationships between potential acute factors and individual factors such as ideology, age, and lone actor status. Finally, we examined whether acute risk factors had changed over time as the extremism landscape has evolved alongside technological advances and societal shifts. This presentation will recap key findings from the research and discuss implications for practice.