Extremist Crime Database |

Project Overview

Since 2006, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) directly, as well as through the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism(START), has funded the United States Extremist Crime Database (ECDB). The ECDB collects information on violent incidents & financial schemes committed by the extreme far-right, Al Qaeda and similar groups supporters, and animal and environmental rights extremists in the U.S. The ECDB is the first of its kind database and it is a valuable resource for policymakers and researchers.

The ECDB expands the universe of cases relevant to the study of terrorism. Unlike other terrorism-focused databases, the ECDB includes ideological and non-ideological crimes, violent and non-violent (e.g., financial) crimes, terrorist and non-terrorist acts, crimes committed by groups and lone wolves, and cases prosecuted federally and under state-jurisdictions.The unique data collected by the ECDB allows us to examine important policy-relevant questions not previously addressed. The data will be used to investigate the connections across different types of offenses, whether divergent crimes covary on the micro or macro-levels, whether these patterns have changed over time, and whether there are individual or regional variations in activity. The data allow for the study of whether offenders “escalate” (e.g., from non-violent tax refusal cases to violent racist attacks or terrorist bombings), and whether comparisons of criminal activity exist by group type, ideology, structure, recruitment, or organizing characteristics. Importantly, the data allows for the comparison of criminal and extremist groups that do not employ “terrorist” methods with those that do. In addition, the ECDB is uniquely positioned to study the “criminal careers” of the suspects it codes. Once a suspect is included any prior or subsequent criminal incident (s)he committed are also noted in the study.The data will also be used to examine important theoretical questions such as whether ideologically motivated offenders also commit non-ideological routine crimes. Finally, the ECDB’s exhaustive methodology will allow us to identify the strengths and weaknesses of using open source materials because we systematically document what types of data are available from specific types of open sources for specific variables. These findings will advance the state of knowledge and will be useful to scholars, law enforcement and funding agencies. The “process” of creating this database will identify an important data compilation process that will be transferable to scholars investigating the criminal activities of other types of extremists and terrorists.

Associated Publications

Adamczyk, A., Gruenewald, J., Chermak, S. M., & Freilich, J. D. (2014). The relationship between hate groups and far-right ideological violence. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 30(3), 310-332.

Asal, V., Chermak, S. M., Fitzgerald, S., & Freilich, J. D. (2016). Organizational-level characteristics in right-wing extremist groups in the United States over time. Criminal Justice Review, 45(2), 250-266.

Belli, R., & Freilich, J. D. (2009). Situational crime prevention and non-violent terrorism: A “soft” approach against ideologically motivated tax-refusal. Crime Prevention Studies, 25, 173-206.

Belli, R., Freilich, J. D., Chermak, S. M., & Boyd, K. A. (2015). Exploring the crime‒terror nexus in the United States: a social network analysis of a Hezbollah network involved in trade diversion. Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 8(3), 263-281.

Caspi, D. J., Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2012). Worst of the bad: Violent white supremacist groups and lethality. Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 5(1), 1-17.

Chermak, S. M., Freilich, J. D., & Shemtob, Z. (2009). Law enforcement training and the domestic far right. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 36(12), 1305-1322.

Chermak, S. M., Freilich, J. D., & Simone Jr, J. (2010). Surveying American state police agencies about lone wolves, far-right criminality, and far-right and Islamic jihadist criminal collaboration. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 33(11), 1019-1041.

Chermak, S. M., Freilich, J. D., & Suttmoeller, M. (2013). The organizational dynamics of far-right hate groups in the United States: Comparing violent to nonviolent organizations. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 36(3), 193-218.

Chermak, S. M., Freilich, J. D., Parkin, W. S., & Lynch, J. P. (2012). American terrorism and extremist crime data sources and selectivity bias: An investigation focusing on homicide events committed by far-right extremists. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 28(1), 191-218.

Chermak, S.M., & Gruenewald, J. (2015). Laying a foundation for the criminological examination of right-wing, left-wing, and Al Qaeda-inspired extremism in the United States. Terrorism and Political Violence, 27(1), 133-159.

de Bie, J. L., De Poot, C. J., Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2017). Changing organizational structures of jihadist networks in the Netherlands. Social Networks, 48, 270-283.

Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2009). Preventing deadly encounters between law enforcement and American far-rightists. Crime Prevention Studies, 25(1), 141-172.

Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2012). Building the United States extremists crime database (ECDB): Lessons learned. Canadian Diversity/Canadian Diversité, 9(4), 18-22.

Freilich, J. D., Adamczyk, A., Chermak, S. M., Boyd, K. A., & Parkin, W. S. (2015). Investigating the applicability of macro-level criminology theory to terrorism: A county-level analysis. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 31(3), 383-411.

Freilich, J. D., Bejan, V., Parkin, W. S., Chermak, S. M., & Gruenewald, J. (2019). An intervention analysis of fatal far-right extremist violence within a vector-autoregressive framework. Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 1-29.

Freilich, J. D., Chermak, S. M., & Caspi, D. (2009). Critical events in the life trajectories of domestic extremist white supremacist groups: A case study analysis of four violent organizations. Criminology & Public Policy, 8(3), 497-530.

Freilich, J. D., Chermak, S. M., & Gruenewald, J. (2015). The future of terrorism research: A review essay. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 39(4), 353-369.

Freilich, J. D., Chermak, S. M., & Simone Jr, J. (2009). Surveying American state police agencies about terrorism threats, terrorism sources, and terrorism definitions. Terrorism and Political Violence, 21(3), 450-475.

Freilich, J. D., Chermak, S. M., Belli, R., Gruenewald, J., & Parkin, W. S. (2014). Introducing the United States extremis crime database (ECDB). Terrorism and Political Violence, 26(2), 372-384.

Freilich, J. D., Chermak, S. M., Gruenewald, J., Parkin, W. S., & Klein, B. R. (2018). Patterns of fatal extreme-right crime in the United States. Perspectives on Terrorism, 12(6), 38-51.

Freilich, J. D., Chermak, S. M., & Klein, B. R. (2020). Investigating the applicability of Situational Crime Prevention to the public mass violence context. Criminology and Public Policy, 19(1), 271-293.

Freilich, J. D., Parkin, W. S., Gruenewald, J., & Chermak, S. M. (2019). Comparing extremist perpetrators of suicide and non-suicide attacks in the United States. Terrorism and Political Violence, 31(5), 943-965.

González, A. L., Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2014). How women engage homegrown terrorism. Feminist Criminology, 9(4), 344-366.

Gruenewald, J. (2011). A comparative examination of homicides perpetrated by far-right extremists. Homicide Studies, 15(2), 177-203.

Gruenewald, J. (2012). Are anti-LGBT homicides in the United States unique?. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 27(18), 3601-3623.

Gruenewald, J. (2013). Using open-source data to study bias homicide against homeless persons. International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, 2, 538-549.

Gruenewald, J., & Allison, K. (2018). Examining differences in bias homicide across victim groups. Crime & Delinquency, 64(3), 316-341.

Gruenewald, J., & Kelley, K. (2014). Exploring anti-LGBT homicide by mode of victim selection. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 41(9), 1130-1152.

Gruenewald, J., & Pridemore, W.A. (2012). A comparison of ideologically-motivated homicides from the new Extremist Crime Database and homicides from the Supplementary Homicides Reports using multiple imputation by chained equations to handle missing values. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 28, 141-162.

Gruenewald, J., Chermak, S. M., & Freilich, J. D. (2013). Distinguishing “loner” attacks from other domestic extremist violence: A comparison of far‐right homicide incident and offender characteristics. Criminology & Public Policy, 12(1), 65-91.

Gruenewald, J., Chermak, S. M., & Freilich, J. D. (2013). Far-right lone wolf homicides in the United States. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 36(12), 1005-1024.

Gruenewald, J., Dooley, K.M.G., Suttmoeller, M.J., Chermak, S. M., & Freilich, J.D. (2016). A mixed-method analysis of fatal attacks on police by far-right extremists. Police Quarterly, 19(2), 216-245.

Gruenewald, J., Klein, B. R., Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2019). American jihadi terrorism: A comparison of homicides and unsuccessful plots. Terrorism and Political Violence, 31(3), 516-535.

Gruenewald, J., Klein, B. R., Parkin, W. S., Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. (2019). A situated comparison of suicide and non-suicide terrorist plots and homicides in the United States, 1990-2014. Crime & Delinquency, 65(9), 1187-1217.

Hayes, B. E., Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2016). An exploratory study of honor crimes in the United States. Journal of Family Violence, 31(3), 303-314.

Hayes, B. E., Mills, C. E., Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2018). Are honor killings unique? A comparison of honor killings, domestic violence homicides, and hate homicides by far-right extremists. Homicide Studies, 22(1), 70-93.

Henry, T. K., Hayes, B. E., Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2018). Comparison of honor killings to anti-LGBTQ homicides. Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research.

Holt, T. J., Freilich, J. D., Chermak, S. M., & LaFree, G. (2018). Examining the utility of social control and social learning in the radicalization of violent and non-violent extremists. Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 11(3), 125-148.

Holt, T. J., Freilich, J. D., Chermak, S. M., Mills, C., & Silva, J. (2019). Loners, colleagues, or peers? Assessing the social organization of radicalization. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 44(1), 83-105.

Holt, T. J., Stonhouse, M., Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2019). Examining ideologically motivated cyberattacks performed by far-left groups. Terrorism and Political Violence, 1-22.

Kelley, K., & Gruenewald, J. (2015). Accomplishing masculinity through anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender homicide: A comparative case study approach. Men and Masculinities, 18(1), 3-29.

Kerodal, A. G., Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2016). Commitment to extremist ideology: Using factor analysis to move beyond binary measures of extremism. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 39(7-8), 687-711.

Kerodal, A. G., Freilich, J. D., Chermak, S. M., & Suttmoeller, M. J. (2015). A test of Sprinzak’s split delegitimization’s theory of the life course of far-right organizational behavior. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 39(4), 307-329.

Klein, B. R., Gruenewald, J., Chermak, S. M., & Freilich, J. D. (2018). A Mixed Method Examination of Law Enforcement Investigatory Strategies used in Jihadi and Far-Right Foiled Terrorist Plots Before and After 9/11. JQCJC, 29.

Mills, C. E., Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2017). Extreme hatred: revisiting the hate crime and terrorism relationship to determine whether they are “Close Cousins” or “Distant Relatives”. Crime & Delinquency, 63(10), 1191-1223.

Mills, C. E., Freilich, J. D., Chermak, S. M., Holt, T. J., & LaFree, G. (2019). Social Learning and Social Control in the Off-and Online Pathways to Hate Crime and Terrorist Violence. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 1-29.

Mills, C. E., Schmuhl, M., & Capellan, J. A. (2020). Far-right violence as backlash against gender equality: A county-level analysis of structural and ideological gender inequality and homicides committed by far-right extremists. Journal of Crime and Justice, 1-17.

Morgan, S. J., & Chermak, S. M. (2019). In the Shadows: A Content Analysis of the Media’s Portrayal of Gender in Far-Right, Far-Left, and Jihadist Terrorists. Deviant Behavior, 1-17.

Parkin, W. S., & Freilich, J. D. (2015). Routine activities and right-wing extremists: An empirical comparison of the victims of ideologically-and non-ideologically-motivated homicides committed by American far-rightists. Terrorism and Political Violence, 27(1), 182-203.

Parkin, W. S., Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2015). Ideological victimization: Homicides perpetrated by far-right extremists. Homicide Studies, 19(3), 211-236.

Parkin, W. S., Gruenewald, J., & Jandro, E. (2017). Extremist violence from the Fatherland to the homeland: A comparison of far-right homicide in Germany and the United States. International Criminal Justice Review, 27(2), 85-107.

Silva, J. R., Duran, C., Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2019). Addressing the myths of terrorism in America. International Criminal Justice Review, 1057567719833139.

Sullivan, B. A., Chermak, S. M., Wilson, J. M., & Freilich, J. D. (2014). The nexus between terrorism and product counterfeiting in the United States. Global Crime, 15(3-4), 357-378.

Sullivan, B. A., Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2019). An Examination of the American Far Right’s Anti-Tax Financial Crimes. Criminal Justice Review, 44(4), 492-514.

Suttmoeller, M. J., Chermak, S. M., & Freilich, J. D. (2015). The influence of external and internal correlates on the organizational death of domestic far-right extremist groups. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 38(9), 734-758.

Suttmoeller, M. J., Chermak, S. M., & Freilich, J. D. (2016). Only the Bad Die Young: The Correlates of Organizational Death for Far-Right Extremist Groups. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 39(6), 477-499.

Suttmoeller, M. J., Chermak, S. M., & Freilich, J. D. (2018). Is more violent better? The impact of group participation in violence on group longevity for far-right extremist groups. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 41(5), 365-387.

Suttmoeller, M. J., Gruenewald, J., Chermak, S. M., & Freilich, J. D. (2013). Killed in the line of duty: Comparing police homicides committed by far-right extremists to all police homicides. In Law Enforcement Executive Forum,13(1), 45-64.

van Baak, C., Hayes, B. E., Freilich, J. D., & Chermak, S. M. (2018). Honor crimes in the United States and offenders’ neutralization techniques. Deviant Behavior, 39(2), 187-202.