TY - JOUR PY - 2020// TI - Lone actor terrorists: a residence-to-crime approach JO - Terrorism and political violence A1 - Marchment, Zoe A1 - Bouhana, Noemie A1 - Gill, Paul SP - 1413 EP - 1438 VL - 32 IS - 7 N2 - Although there has recently been a considerable increase in research into lone actor terrorism, one of the main areas that remains understudied is that of target selection. The lack of empirically driven studies that can guide prevention measures is a notable oversight. This paper applies methods from environmental criminology to examine the residence-to-attack journeys of 122 lone terrorist acts in the U.S and Europe. The distance decay effect was evident, and significant differences were found between subgroups. Individuals were more likely to travel further if a) they were in the U.S, b) they had links to a wider network, c) they had a single-issue ideology, d) they attacked an iconic target, e) they attacked a symbolic building, or f) they used a bomb as their main weapon. A few case studies are discussed which highlight a need to conduct further research that considers the whole nodal network of an individual. The findings suggest that distance can be put forward as a constraining factor on lone actor target selection and provide support for the notion that the spatial decision making of terrorists is similar to traditional criminals.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 0954-6553 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2018.1481050 ID - ref1 ER -