Violent Extremists: Understanding the Domestic and International Terrorist Threat by Mockaitis Thomas R.;

Author:Mockaitis, Thomas R.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC-CLIO, LLC
Published: 2019-02-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

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Lone Wolves on the Prowl

No study of violent extremism would be complete without in-depth consideration of lone-wolf terrorism. The phenomenon has become so prevalent that the term is bandied about with much imprecision. Anyone engaging in wanton violence is being called a “lone wolf.” The increase in mass shootings at schools and venues perpetrated by disturbed individuals with no identifiable ideological agenda further complicates matters. Imprecise use of the term clouds objective analysis of this important phenomenon. Any discussion of lone wolves must, therefore, begin by considering what the term has meant historically, how it has evolved in recent years, and the threat it describes today.

The term derives its name from an aberration in nature. Wolves are social animals that live and hunt in packs. They seldom roam about alone. “Lone wolf” has a long history as a metaphor for any maverick operating outside the organization to which he/she nominally belongs. Law enforcement soon adopted the term to refer to criminals not associated with gangs.1 In 1927, the journal Dialect Notes defined “lone wolf” as “a bandit or house breaker who works without confederates.”2 Substitute “terrorist” for “bandit or housebreaker,” and you have the current definition of “lone wolf.” Lone wolves do not belong to a terrorist group, network, or organization, although they may adopt the ideology of an active group. They carry out attacks on their own, usually to promote or at least publicize their agenda. Although they are not always on a suicide mission, they are usually willing to die while carrying out the attack. Unlike terrorist cells, they create no “communications chatter” and seldom leave the intelligence trail that helps law enforcement catch members of terrorist groups. Only friends, family members, and close associates have any chance of seeing the warning signs that a lone wolf is preparing to strike.

Lone-wolf attacks are becoming much more common and more lethal. The decade of the 1980s saw just seven lone-wolf attacks. During the 1990s, the number doubled to 15. For the first decade of the 2000s, it reached 23, and during the next five and a half years, it hit 35.3 The number of people who died in these attacks also increased. During the 1980s, lone-wolf attacks killed 49 people. The number who died in the 1990s shot up to 180, 168 of whom perished in single attack, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The first decade of the new century saw 98 people killed by lone wolves, and from January 2010 to July 2016, 160 people died, 49 of them in the Pulse Night Club shooting in June 2016.4 Beneath the increase in frequency and lethality of terrorist attacks lies another disturbing trend: the nature of lone-wolf terrorism is changing.

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