The current study comparatively examines homicide events perpetrated by far-right extremists and “average” homicide events in the United States. Recent violence has highlighted the threat that far-right extremists pose to public safety and national security. To date, however, little is known about how such events compare to more common forms of homicide. Drawing from research on homicide, “hate crimes,” and domestic terrorism, this study addresses this gap in the research. Original open-source data on far-right extremist perpetrated homicide are integrated with traditional homicide data to overcome methodological and other substantive obstacles that have precluded the study of this form of violence. A number of similarities and differences across these forms of homicide demonstrate the heterogeneity in the nature of homicide in the United States. Implications for policy makers and law enforcement, as well as the broader study of homicide and domestic extremism, are discussed.
Barnes, A., & Ephross, P.H. ( 1994). The impact of hate violence on victims: Emotional and behavioral responses to attacks. Social Work, 39, 247-251.
2.
Berk, R.A., Boyd, E.A., & Hamner, K.M. ( 1994). Thinking more clearly about hate-motivated crimes. In G. M. Herek & K. T. Berrill (Eds.), Hate crimes: Confronting violence against lesbians and gay men (pp. 123-138). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
3.
Bradley-Engen, M.S., Damphousse, K.R., & Smith, B.L. ( 2009). Punishing terrorists: A re-examination of U.S. federal sentencing in the postguidelines era. International Criminal Justice Review, 19, 433-455.
4.
Brearly, H.C. ( 1932). Homicide in the United States. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
5.
Chermak, S.M. ( 2002). Searching for a demon: The media construction of the militia movement. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
6.
Chermak, S., Freilich, J., & Shemtob, Z. ( 2009). Law enforcement training and the domestic far right. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 36(12), 1305-1322.
7.
Colomb, W., & Damphousse, K. (2004). Examination of newspaper coverage of hate crimes: A moral panic perspective. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 28, 147-163.
8.
Decker, S.H. ( 1993). Exploring victim-offender relationships in homicide: The role of individual and event characteristics. Justice Quarterly, 10, 585-612.
9.
Decker, S.H. ( 1996). Deviant homicide: A new look at the role of motives and victim-offender relationships. Journal of Research on Crime and Delinquency, 33, 427-449.
10.
Decker, S.H., & Curry, G.D. ( 2002). Gangs, gang homicides, and gang loyalty: Organized crimes or disorganized criminals. Journal of Criminal Justice, 30, 343-352.
11.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2004). Crime in the United States, 2004. Washington, DC: Author.
12.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2005). Uniform crime reports: Supplementary homicide reports (ICPSR-4723). Retrieved from http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/index.html
13.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2006). Uniform crime reports: Supplementary homicide reports (ICPSR-22401). Retrieved from http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/index.html
14.
Ferber, A.L. ( 1998). White man falling: Race, gender, and White supremacy . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield .
15.
Flewelling, R.L., & Williams, K.R. (1999). Categorizing homicides . In M. D. Smith & M. A. Zahn (Eds.), Homicide: A sourcebook of social research (pp. 96-106). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
16.
Fox, J.A. ( 2007). Uniform crime reports: Supplementary homicide reports, 1976-2004 (ICPSR-20100). Retrieved from http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/index.html
17.
Freilich, J.D., Almanzar, N.A.P., & Rivera, C.J. ( 1999). How social movement organizations explicitly and implicitly promote deviant behavior: The case of the militia movement. Justice Quarterly, 16, 655-683.
18.
Freilich, J.D., & Chermak, S.M. ( 2007). Final DHS Summer Faculty and Student Research Team Grant Report: Creation of a database of U.S. extremist crime, 1995-2005. Washington, DC: Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate.
19.
Freilich, J.D., Chermak, S.M., & Simone, J. ( 2009). Surveying American state police agencies about terrorism threats, terrorism sources, and terrorism definitions. Terrorism and Political Violence, 21, 450-475.
20.
Fuocco, M., & Sherman, J.L. ( 2009). Officers killed, wounded in Stanton Heights standoff . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved from http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09094/960660-100.stm
21.
Gottfredson, M., & Hirschi, T. ( 1990). A general theory of crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
22.
Gruenewald, J.A. ( 2009, March). Bias-motivated homicide in the U.S., 1990-2007 . Paper presented at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Conference, Boston, MA.
23.
Gruenewald, J.A., Freilich, J., & Chermak, S. ( 2009). A review of the far-right extremism literature. In R. Blazak & B. Perry (Eds.), Hate crime issues and perspectives (pp. 1-21). Westport, CT: Praeger.
24.
Hamm, M.S. ( 1993). American skinheads: The criminology and control of hate crime. Westport, CT: Praeger.
25.
Hamm, M.S. ( 1994). A modified-social control theory of terrorism: An empirical and ethnographic assessment of the American neo-nazi skinhead. In M.S. Hamm (Ed.). Hate crime: International perspective on causes and control (pp. 105-150). Cincinnati, OH: Anderson Publishing Co.
26.
Hamm, M.S. ( 1998). Terrorism, hate crime, and antigovernment violence: A review of the research. In H. W. Kushner (Ed.), The future of terrorism: Violence in the new millennium (pp. 59-96). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
27.
Heitmeyer, W. ( 2003). Right-wing extremist violence. In W. Heitmeyer & J. Hagan (Eds.), International handbook of violence research (pp. 399-436). Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic.
28.
Hewitt, C. ( 2003). Understanding terrorism in America. New York, NY: Routledge.
29.
Hudson, A., & Lake, E. ( 2009, April 14). Federal agency warns of radicals on the right . The Washington Times. Retrieved from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/14/federal-agency-warns-of-radicals-on-right/
30.
Iganski, P. ( 2001). Hate crimes hurt more. American Behavioral Scientist, 45, 626-638.
31.
Iganski, P. ( 2008). Hate crime and the city. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press.
32.
Jackson, S.L., Zahn, M.A., & Brownstein, H.H. (2004). The need for a theory of violence. In M. A. Zahn, H. H. Brownsteim, & S. L. Jackson (Eds.), Violence: From theory to research (pp. 227-236). Washington, DC: LexisNexis Group.
33.
Jacobs, J. ( 1993). Should hate be a crime? The Public Interest , 113, 3-14.
34.
Jackson, B., & Frelinger, D.R. (2007). Rifling through the terrorists arsenal: Exploring group’s weapon choices and technology strategies (Rand working paper). Retrieved from http://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/2007/RAND_WR533.pdf
35.
Jacobs, J.B., & Henry, J.S. ( 1996). The social construction of a hate crime epidemic. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 86, 366-391.
36.
Jenness, V., & Broad, K. ( 1997). Hate crimes: New social movements and the politics of violence. New York, NY: Aldine De Gruyter.
37.
LaFree, G., & Dugan, L. ( 2007). Introducing the Global Terrorism Database. Terrorism and Political Violence, 19, 181-204.
38.
LaFree, G., Dugan, L., Fogg, H., & Scott, J. ( 2006). Building a global terrorism database. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice.
39.
Lee, M.R., & Bartkowski, J.P. (2004). Civic participation, regional subculture, and violence: The differential effects of secular and religious participation on adult and juvenile homicide. Homicide Studies , 8, 5-39.
40.
Legault, R.L., & Hendrickson, J.C. (2009). Weapon choice and American political violence: A comparison of terrorists and other felons in federal custody. Criminology and Public Policy, 8, 531-559.
41.
Levin, J., & McDevitt, J. ( 1993). Hate crimes: The rising tide of bigotry and bloodshed . New York, NY: Plenum.
42.
Loftin, C., Kindley, K., Norris, S., & Wiersema, B. ( 1987). An attribute approach to relationships between offenders and victims in homicide. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology , 78, 259-271.
43.
Martin, S.E. ( 1996). Investigating hate crimes: Case characteristics and law enforcement responses. Justice Quarterly, 13(3), 455-480.
44.
Messner, S., McHugh, S., & Felson, R. ( 2004). Distinctive characteristics of assaults motivated by bias. Criminology, 42(3), 585-618.
45.
Maxfield, M.G. ( 1989). Circumstances in Supplementary Homicide Reports: Variety and validity. Criminology, 27, 671-696.
46.
Maxson, C.L., Gordon, M.A., & Klein, M.W. ( 1985). Differences between gang and nongang homicides. Criminology, 23, 209-222.
47.
McDevitt, J., Balboni, J.M., Bennett, S., Weiss, J.C., Orchowsky, S., & Walbolt, L. ( 2000). Improving the quality and accuracy of bias crime statistics nationally: An assessment of the first ten years of bias crime data collection (Executive summary). Boston, MA: Center for Criminal Justice Policy Research, Northeastern University.
48.
McGarrell, E.F., Freilich, J.D., & Chermak, S. ( 2007). Intelligence-led policing as a framework for responding to terrorism. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 23(2), 142-158.
49.
McVeigh, R. ( 2003). Hate crime reporting as a successful social movement . American Sociological Review, 68, 843-867.
50.
National Counterterrorism Center. (2010, April 30). 2009 NCTC report on terrorism. Retrieved from http://www.nctc.gov/witsbanner/docs/2009_report_on_terrorism.pdf
51.
Nolan, J.J., III, Akiyama, Y., & Berhanu, S. ( 2002). The Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990. American Behavioral Scientist, 46(1), 136-153.
52.
Parker, K.F. ( 2001). A move toward specificity: Examining urban disadvantage and race- and relationship-specific homicide rates. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 17, 89-110.
53.
Perry, B. ( 2001). In the name of hate: Understanding hate crimes. New York, NY: Routledge.
54.
Perry, B., & Iganski, P. (Eds.). (2009). Hate crimes: The consequences of hate crimes (Vol. 2). Westport, CT: Praeger.
55.
Pizarro, J.M. ( 2008). Reassessing the situational covariates of homicides: Is there a need to disaggregate? Homicide Studies, 12, 323-349.
56.
Pizarro, J.M., & McGloin, J.M. ( 2006). Explaining gang homicides in Newark, New Jersey: Collective behavior or social disorganization? Journal of Criminal Justice , 34, 195-207.
57.
Plohetski, T. ( 2010). Plane hits northwest Austin office building. American Statesman. Retrieved from http://www.statesman.com/news/local/plane-hits-northwest-austin-office-building-251925.html
58.
Potok, M. (n.d.). Rage on the right: The year in hate and extremism. Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report, 137. Retrieved from http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/spring/rage-on-the-right
59.
Riedel, M. ( 1987). Stranger violence: Perspectives, issues, and problems . Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 78, 223-258.
60.
Riedel, M., & Welsh, W.N. ( 2001). Criminal violence: Patterns, causes, and prevention. Beverly Hills, CA: Roxbury Park.
61.
Ruane, M.E., Duggan, P., & Williams, C. ( 2009). At a monument of sorrow, a burst of deadly violence. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/06/10/AR2009061001768.html
62.
Salfati, C.G. ( 2000). The nature of expressiveness and instrumentality in homicide: Implications for offender profiling. Homicide Studies, 4, 265-293.
63.
Schmid, A.P. ( 2004). Frameworks for conceptualizing terrorism. Terrorism and Political Violence, 16, 197-221.
64.
Schmid, A.P., & Jongman, A.J. ( 1988). Political terrorism: A new guide to actors, authors, concepts, databases, theories and literature. Amsterdam , Netherlands: North-Holland Publishing.
65.
Senate Republican Policy Committee. (2000). Crimes and hate crimes: What the numbers tell us? Retrieved from http://rpc.senate.gov/releases/1999/cr061500.htm
66.
Shields, C.A., Damphousse, K.R., & Smith, B.L. ( 2006). Their day in court: Assessing guilty plea rates among terrorists. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 22, 261-276.
67.
Silke, A. ( 1996). Terrorism and the blind men’s elephant. Terrorism and Political Violence, 8(3), 12-28.
68.
Simi, P. ( 2009). Skinhead street violence. In R. Blazak & B. Perry (Eds.), Hate crime issues and perspectives (pp. 157-169). Westport, CT : Praeger.
69.
Smith, B.L. ( 1994). Terrorism in America: Pipe bombs and pipe dreams. Albany: State University of New York Press.
70.
Smith, B.L., & Damphousse, K.R. (1996). Punishing political offenders: The effect of political motive on federal sentencing decisions. Criminology, 34, 289-321.
71.
Smith, B.L., Damphousse, K.R., Yang, S., & Ginther, C. ( 2005). Prosecuting politically motivated offenders. The impact of the "terrorist" label on criminal case outcomes. International Journal of Contemporary Sociology, 42, 209-226.
72.
Smith, B.L., & Damphousse, K.R. (2001). American Terrorism Study: Patterns of behavior, investigation and prosecution of American Terrorists (Final report to the National Institute of Justice [DOJ]). Retrieved from http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/193420.pdf
73.
Smith, M.D., & Parker, R.N. ( 1980). Type of homicide and variation in regional rates. Social Forces, 59(1), 136-147.
74.
Stumpe, J., & Davey, M. ( 2009, May 31). Abortion doctor shot to death in Kansas church . The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/us/01tiller.html
75.
Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology. ( 1987). Special issue on "stranger violence". Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 78, 223-470.
76.
Varano, S.P., & Cancino, J.M. ( 2001). An empirical analysis of deviant homicides in Chicago . Homicide Studies, 5(1), 5-29.
77.
Wachholz, S. ( 2009). Pathways through hate: Exploring the victimization of the homeless. In B. Perry (Ed.), Hate crimes: The victims of hate crime (173-197). Westport, CT : Praeger.
78.
Warrick, J., & Hsu, S.S. ( 2010, March 6). Experts: Pentagon shooter, others strike symbols of "power for the powerless."Washington Post, p. A01.
79.
Weinberg, L., Pedahzur, A., & Hirsch-Hoefler, S. (2004). The challenges of conceptualizing terrorism. Terrorism and Political Violence, 16, 777-794.
