Report on Domestic Violence: Understanding Lone Wolf Terrorism

This report examines the phenomenon of 'lone wolf' terrorism, defining it as violence planned and committed by individuals acting independently without material assistance from groups. Originating in the 1990s, the term gained traction among supremacists and has since evolved to describe individuals loosely connected to larger terrorist organizations. The report highlights the increasing threat posed by unaffiliated lone offenders, exemplified by events like the Las Vegas Strip shooting and the Cascade Mall shooting. It suggests best practices for detection, including isolating potential lone wolves, fostering collaboration between law enforcement and communities, monitoring jihadist social media, and disproving the ideologies that fuel such violence. Infrastructure protection through decentralized state and local law enforcement, coupled with cyber capabilities, is also recommended. Long-term solutions involve addressing the political, social, ideological, or personal grievances that drive individuals to violence, encouraging troubled individuals to seek help, and determining the causes of violent behavior, including mental health factors. The report emphasizes the importance of understanding and preventing the factors that contribute to lone wolf terrorism.

Domestic Violence
Lone Wolf

Nature of Problem
‘Lone wolf’ is a person who plans and commits violent acts and is an independently
operating individual.
Such violent acts are organized by them without material assistance from any group.
Lone Actors are also known as lone operator terrorists ,lone wolves, individual
terror cells, etc.
This term was coined by the media and by radical political actors (Spaaij & Hamm,
2015).
Lone Actors can be viewed as a part of larger group of terrorists . However, it is difficult to
establish difference among their criminal intention, terrorist ideology, & personal stimulus

History of problem
Supremacists Alex Curtis and Tom Metzger made the term ‘lone
wolf’ popular in 1990s.
They believed individual or small-cell secretive activity predicting
combatants who used to act alone or in small groups and attacked
the government and other targets in anonymous acts (Beydoun,
2018) .
According to terrorism expert Brian Michael Jenkins of RAND
Corporation, most of the individuals involved in such attacks
appear to be acting alone but they are often linked with terrorist
organizations (Weimann, 2012).

Contd…
Lone offender attacks make
headlines fairly regularly but it
is not new.
In late 1800s, Russian and
European anarchists used to
call individuals to target
government, system and
bourgeois to bring attention to
their grounds (Phillips, 2011).
Between 1894 to 1901, the
assassination of the ruling
heads of state in Spain, Italy,
France, Austria and U.S.
President were conducted by
the lone anarchist attackers.

Extent of the Problem
Homeland Security in 2017 reported that “unaffiliated lone
offenders” have become one of the “most significant near-term
threat” to the mass assemblies in the U.S.
As per the report, there were more than 10 attacks by terrorists
between 2015 and 2017 and mass assemblies were targeted
(Zamost, 2017).
They conduct small-scale simple attacks that do not require
significant planning or expertise but could be potentially fatal and
leads to a number of casualties.
Lone offenders possess the ability to remain unnoticed until active
Except willingness to attack civilians, soft as well as hard targets,
they do not require specialized knowledge, admittance or training
(Zamost, 2017).

Example 1
Las Vegas Strip Shooting

Contd..
It was an incident of single shooter, who killed around 59 people and wounded around 527
people in Las Vegas.
The bullets were fired from suite’s windows located on 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay
He fired bullets on thousands of people who were present outside country music festival.
Some attendees initially thought it to be fireworks but when people started to fell down and
rapid-fire shots continued and, the crowd came to know about actual happening.
It was later on revealed that a 64-year-old man named Stephen Paddock alone carried out the
mass shooting (Las Vegas Review-Journal, 2017).

Example 2
Mass Shooting at Cascade Mall, Washington

Contd..
A gunman wearing black clothes after firing in the makeup
department at a Macy’s store in Burlington ran away in the direction
of an interstate highway. Five people were killed in incident.
The Cascade Mall’s surveillance footage revealed that suspect entered
the mall at night. He was not carrying any weapon at that time. But he
had rifle in his hand when he walked into Macy’s 10 minutes later.
Washington State Police arrested Arcan Ceting, a 20 year old teenager
from Oak Harbor in Washinton (Stanglin & Ventura, 2016).

Best Practices to Detect
Offenders or Attacks
However, lone-wolf attacks are difficult to be
prevented, governments can do a number of
things to make them less probable and to
prepare for future attacks (Byman, 2017).
Lone wolves should be kept isolated because if
they collaborate, they have greater chances of
success
There is need for governments to develop
association between law implementation
agencies and Muslim communities.

Contd..
It will allow security
officials to intercede in
several ways without
requirement of jail
sentences. It will allow
officials to keep watch
over individuals without
detaining them.
There security services
should be deployed by
government to keep an
eye on jihadist social
media accounts for
identifying individual
terrorists & disrupting
their communications.
The governments need to
disprove the ideology
developed by lone wolves
(Byman, 2017).