NCITE

NCITE Insights No. 37 — Public Perceptions of Punishment For Mass Violence Ben sits down with NCITE researcher Erin Kearns, Ph.D., and visiting scholar Adam Ghazi-Tehrani, Ph.D., to discuss their research into public attitudes toward punishment for terrorism, hate crimes, an...

Watch or listen here ⤵️
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The two discuss their research into the similarities and differences in 1) the scholarship on, 2) the public conceptualization of, and 3) the public attitudes toward punishment for terrorism, hate crimes, and other forms of mass violence.

🎙 NCITE Insights No. 37 — Public Perceptions of Punishment for Mass Violence
Ben sits down with NCITE researcher @kearnserinm.bsky.social, Ph.D., and visiting scholar Adam Ghazi-Tehrani, Ph.D., to discuss their research into public attitudes toward punishment for forms of mass violence.

Adam Ghazi-Tehrani sits on a couch in the foreground with Ben Battafarano sitting on an adjacent couch looking at him.

A group of NCITE staff and students sits and listens to Professor Ghazi-Tehrani speak.

💡NCITE visiting scholar Adam Ghazi-Tehrani, Ph.D., professor at Indiana University Bloomington, chatted with NCITE students during a lunch and learn today. They discussed Ghazi-Tehrani's research abroad, advice and career paths for those in graduate school, and much more.

Read the full piece ⤵️
thehill.com/policy/natio...
Check out the latest NCITE publication on threats to public officials from Hughes and Pete Simi ⤵️
digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcont...

“That has a chilling effect on democracy,” Hughes said.

Hughes described the impact of threats to local officials: "They don’t know who to call…they don’t know what to do when they’re doxxed, and maybe they don’t raise their hand next time to run for office, because it’s not worth the hassle and trouble and threats."

Today marks the first anniversary of the assassination attempt on President Trump during an open-air campaign rally outside Butler, P.A. NCITE's @seamushughes.bsky.social spoke with The Hill reporter @byellalee.bsky.social to discuss NCITE research on trends of threats to public officials.

NCITE Research Associate Michael Becker published an article about gamified media literacy in the most recent issue of the Journal for Deradicalization.
Read the article ⤵️
journals.sfu.ca/jd/index.php...

Read the report ⤵️
pt.icct.nl/article/inve...
Read more research on IEDs ⤵️
digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcont...
digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcont...

A pie chart with the information listed in the Tweet.

Most terrorist IED plots are foiled. 80% of plots were foiled while around 9% of plots failed and nearly 11% of plots were successful.

Teenagers have also been defendants in terrorist IED incidents. The authors write, "Three out of the four teen-related cases have occurred since 2023, highlighting the growing increase and worsening pattern of youth and juvenile mobilisation to acts of terrorism."

A table about defendants in federal charges associated with terrorist IED incidents in the U.S. from 2009-2024 with male and female categories, as well as age categories. The male category had 104 defendants while 6 are included in the female category. Ages 15-20 had 24 defendants, 21-20 had 44 defendants, 31-40 had 21 defendants, 41-50 had 12 defendants, 51-60 had 6 defendants, 61-70 had 2 defendants, and 71-75 had 1 defendant.

The defendants in IED cases tend to be younger men. The average age of defendants is 31, and they are overwhelmingly men, with six cases involving women and 104 cases involving men.

A bar chart showing the number of cases per year separated by ideology.

IED incidents involving different extremist ideologies differs every year. Radical Jihadist affiliated incidents decreased from 2019 to 2023 but increased in 2024. Additionally, there was an increase in anti-institutionalist and REMVE incidents in 2024 compared to previous years.

A bar chart showing the information shared in the post.

There are several terrorist ideologies associated with IED incidents. The most incidents are motivated by radical jihadism, followed by anti-institutionalism, then racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism (REMVE), and then other ideologies.

A bar graph with targets associated with terrorist IED incidents. The most targeted is crowded spaces, followed by unspecified, then critical infrastructure, then government buildings, then place of worship, then law enforcement, then multiple, then public elected official, then military, then educational institution, then private business, then private property.

There is a myriad of targets associated with terrorist IED incidents targeted at different rates. The most targeted area is crowded spaces, followed by unspecified areas, then critical infrastructure, then government buildings, then places of worship. More targets follow.

A bar graph showing PBIED with around 55 cases, Unspecified with around 40 cases, VBIED with around 10 cases, and UxS and Mailed IED with about 3 cases. Unspecified cases include when a plot was foiled in early planning stages and the IED employment method couldn't be identified.

There are several ways in which an IED can be delivered to the target. This includes when the bomber brings the IED to the target (PBIED), using a vehicle to bomb a target (VBEID), mailing an IED to a target (Mailed IED), and using unmanned systems to deliver an IED (UxS).

A map with the distribution of cases in each U.S. state.

Terrorist IED incidents are widespread. From 2009 to 2024, 31 states across the United States had cases of terrorist IED incidents. In the same time period, 22 states had multiple cases of terrorist IED incidents.

A bar chart with numbers of federal charges associated with terrorist IED incidents in the U.S. from 2009-2024. The years with the highest number of incidents include 2024, 2015, 2017, and 2019. The years with the lowest number of incidents include 2022, 2014, 2011, 2023, and 2010.

Terrorist IED incidents continue to impact the United States. While the number of cases varies per year, there was a spike in cases in 2024.

📝New research release
NCITE's Angie Benda and Austin Doctor published their research about improvised explosive devices (IED) in Perspectives in Terrorism. Here are some highlights ⤵️

"Ideology can’t be separated from activity when it comes to violent extremism—the two are closely intertwined and the broader implication of their criminal activity carries more weight when it is ideologically-motivated," writes Mackenzie Harms in her new Just Security article.

Omaha-based national counterterrorist group monitors suspicious activity after attacks in Iran Monitoring terrorist activity and impacts on local and federal economy after air strikes in Iran.

Read the story ⤵
www.ketv.com/article/omah...

"We have an incredibly proficient and professional homeland security workforce that has been successfully disrupting and thwarting plots well before Operation Midnight Hammer was conducted," Doctor said.

NCITE's Austin Doctor spoke Monday with KETV NewsWatch 7 about the increased threat to cybersecurity and U.S. public officials in the wake of Operation Midnight Hammer, the U.S. military operation conducted in Iran over the weekend.

NCITE Insights No. 36 — AI Case Studies Report Ben sits down with two of the authors of a new NCITE report on malign case studies of AI: NCITE Senior Scientist Sam Hunter, Ph.D., and I-O psychology doctoral student Alexis D'Amato.

Watch or listen to the podcast now! ⤵
www.unomaha.edu/ncite/news/2...
Read the full report ⤵
digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/ncitereports...

“We always think about, what are practical applications? I don’t think there’s a better practical application than the case study approach.” — Sam Hunter

🎙 NCITE Insights No. 36 — AI Case Studies Report
On the latest episode of the podcast, NCITE Senior Scientist Sam Hunter, Ph.D., and I-O psychology doctoral student Alexis d'Amato discuss their new AI malign use cases report.

NCITE researchers Pete Simi, Chris Bader, and Seamus Hughes have tracked the rising threats to public officials over the past decade, with 2024 being the highest on record. digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcont...

A graph showing that AGAAVE (Anti-Government, Anti-Authority Violent Extremists) at 43%, AGAAVE+RMVE (Racially Motivated Violent Extremists) at 23%, RMVE at 19%, Salafi Jihadist at 9%, and Single Issue at 6%

NCITE researchers Pete Simi, Gina Ligon, Seamus Hughes, and Natalie Standridge found that ideologically motivated threats make up the largest portion of threats of violence, with anti-government (AGAAVE) and racially motivated (RMVE) comprising the largest portion of those.

Today's tragic violence against Minnesota elected officials is an extension of the rising anger and grievances on display against targets symbolic of local government.