Post
The enemy within
Domestic Extremism in America
The occurrence of domestic terrorism has sharply increased in the United States over the past decade.
A recent threat assessment by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security concluded that domestic violent extremists are an acute threat and highlighted a probability that COVID-19 pandemic-related stressors, long-standing ideological grievances related to immigration, and narratives surrounding electoral fraud will continue to serve as a justification for violent actions.
In fact, the number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism. Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists, including 227 events that took more than 520 lives. In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives.
From high-profile incidents like the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021 to racially motivated acts of violence, these events have shed light on the need to understand and address the threat of domestic terrorism.
What is domestic terrorism?
According to the FBI, domestic terrorism encompasses violent, criminal acts that individuals and/or groups use to further their ideological goals from political, social, racial, or environmental influences within the country’s borders.
These acts appear to be intended to:
- Intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
- Influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
- Affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.
These individuals and groups are separated into five different threat categories, which help officials understand the motives of criminal actors better. These categories include:
- Racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism;
- Anti-government or anti-authority violent extremism;
- Animal rights/environmental violent extremism;
- Abortion-related violent extremism;
- All other domestic terrorist threats, with agendas such as personal grievances, or bias related to religion, gender, or sexual orientation.
It’s important to note that rather than being charged with domestic terrorism, prosecutors use other federal and state charges to prosecute people indicted in federal domestic terrorism–related cases.