Weaponized Words

Braddock, Kurt

doi:10.1017/9781108584517

Cited by 30 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 253 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Changes in thinking and emotion is an admittedly complex distal characteristic of the TRAP-18 focusing on changes in interpersonal behaviors, internal fantasies, and emotions felt toward an out-group (Berger, 2018; Matsumoto et al, 2016; Meloy, 2017; Meloy & Yakeley, 2014; Rahman, 2018, Rahman et al, 2019). This may also be the indicator wherein attitudes become behaviors (Braddock, 2020; Khalil et al, 2019), and radicalization becomes fanaticism (Schuurman & Taylor, 2018; Taylor, 1991), and failures in social and occupational life, incubated in fantasies of revenge, glorification, and purification (Meloy, 2018), herald violent actions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time sequencing the TRAP-18 indicators.

Meloy¹,

Goodwill²,

Clemmow³

et al. 2021

Journal of Threat Assessment and Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A time sequence analysis is conducted on 125 lone actor terrorists, most of whom mounted attacks in Europe and North America, utilizing the TRAP-18 (Terrorist Radicalization Assessment Protocol), a structured professional judgment instrument with demonstrable interrater reliability and criterion, discriminant, and predictive validity. Both frequency filters (>3) and coefficient filters (>.50) were applied to the data. Results indicate that virtually all distal characteristics, such as criminal violence, mental disorder, and ideology, preceded the proximal warning behaviors, such as pathway, fixation, identification, leakage, last resort, and directly communicated threats. Indicators that were "gatekeepers" and "turning point events" were also identified (Taylor et al., 2008). The time sequence analysis further validates the model of the TRAP-18 as a risk instrument for the assessment and management of lone actor terrorist violence. Public Interest StatementThis study applies a terrorist risk assessment instrument, the TRAP-18, to a large sample of lone actor terrorists using time sequence analysis: a method by which indicators of risk are organized in a temporal relationship with one another. It allows counterterrorism investigators to better understand the unfolding of risk indicators over time on the way to a terrorist attack, and helps prioritize the most dangerous cases.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time sequencing the TRAP-18 indicators.

Meloy¹,

Goodwill²,

Clemmow³

et al. 2021

Journal of Threat Assessment and Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Changes in thinking and emotion is often a relatively long-term change in interpersonal behaviors, internal fantasies (often inferred through social media intelligence gathering), and emotions expressed toward the out-group (Matsumoto et al, 2017). As Meloy, Goodwill, et al (2021) wrote:This may also be the indicator wherein attitudes become behaviors (Braddock, 2020), radicalization becomes fanaticism (Schuurman & Taylor, 2018), and failures in social and occupational life, incubated in fantasies of revenge, glorification, and purification (Meloy, 2018), herald violent actions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This may also be the indicator wherein attitudes become behaviors (Braddock, 2020), radicalization becomes fanaticism (Schuurman & Taylor, 2018), and failures in social and occupational life, incubated in fantasies of revenge, glorification, and purification (Meloy, 2018), herald violent actions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

TRAP-18 indicators validated through the forensic linguistic analysis of targeted violence manifestos.

Kupper¹,

Meloy²

2021

Journal of Threat Assessment and Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study is a qualitative and quantitative analysis of written and spoken manifestos authored by lone offenders that planned to or committed a targeted attack (n = 30). The acts of violence were primarily motivated by an ideology or a personal grievance, and occurred between 1974-2021. The main objective of this retrospective study was to examine if a behavior-based threat assessment instrument, the Terrorist Radicalization Assessment Protocol (TRAP-18), could be applied to a thin slice of data using only language evidence compiled by the perpetrator before the event occurred. Findings indicate that 17 out of 18 TRAP-18 indicators (94%) were able to be coded in the manifestos. Proximal warning behaviors ranged from 2 to 7, with an average of 4.5. The average number of distal characteristics was 3.8 across the sample. The most frequent proximal warning behaviors were leakage, identification, fixation, and last resort. The most frequent distal characteristics were changes in thinking and emotion, framed by an ideology, and personal grievance and moral outrage. Further analyses of the manifestos comparing written versus spoken communications, ideologically based versus grievance-fueled attacks, and seven categories of primary motivations, supported the generalizability of the TRAP-18 when applied to only language data. A definition for targeted violence manifestos is proposed and examined within a genre framework. Application to threat assessment and management is discussed. Public Significance StatementThis study analyzed the language of targeted violence manifestos to see if TRAP-18 indicators could be identified in a thin slice of data. Ninety-four percent of the indicators were present, including both proximal warning behaviors, which averaged 4.5 per manifesto, and distal characteristics. A definition for targeted violence manifestos is proposed and examined within a genre framework. Application to threat assessment and management is discussed.

show abstract

“…This post visualizes a Muslim man named Bilal who "reveals" the "true reasons" behind the Hanau attack, highlighting anti-Muslim attacks by prominent mainstream political actors within the German Bundestag, or-in a bid to show that this is not an exclusively German issue-by the French premier, Macron. As such, GI indicates that it does not come as a surprise when-after politics and the media constantly portray Muslims as dangerous-some actors and groups develop a defensive reflex and decide to counter that "danger" (Braddock 2020).…”

Section: Gi's Text-level Narrative Persuasion Strategy Of Hanaumentioning

confidence: 99%

The Narrative Foundations of Radical and Deradicalizing Online Discursive Spaces: A Comparison of the Cases of Generation Islam and Jamal al-Khatib in Germany

2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Radical/extremist Islamist actors use social media to disseminate uncompromising stories of monist religious political orders and identities. As a reaction, counter-movements to online Islamist radicalism/extremism emerged in Western societies (and beyond), while uncertainty about effective outcomes remains widespread. In a bid to understand how inclusionary and exclusionary discursive spaces are created, we ask: How do some Muslim actors create discursive spaces open to self-reflection, pluralism and liberal-democratic principles, while others construct illiberal, particularistic and non/anti-democratic spaces? To respond to this question, we compare two contrasting storytellers, one who agitates for exclusionary Islamist radicalism/extremism (Generation Islam) and one who offers inclusionary prevention and deradicalization work against that (Jamal al-Khatib). We draw on novel narrative approaches to the Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) in Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), via which we compare text-level and context-level narratives disseminated about three Muslim-related crises: the racist terrorist attacks/genocide to represent the national, European and global level. Our two-layered, DHA-inspired narrative analysis illustrates that, at the level of text, narrative persuasion varies between both contrasting actors. While Jamal al-Khatib disseminates persuasive stories, Generation Islam is much less invested in narrative persuasion; it seems to address an already convinced audience. These two text-level strategies reveal their meaning in two antagonistic narrative genres: Jamal al-Khatib’s “self-reflexive savior” creates an inclusionary discursive space represented in a self-ironic narrative genre, while Generation Islam’s ”crusading savior” manufactures an exclusionary discursive space represented in a romance featuring a nostalgic return to the particularistic Islamic umma.

show abstract

Weaponized Words

Cited by 30 publications

References 253 publications

Time sequencing the TRAP-18 indicators.

Time sequencing the TRAP-18 indicators.

TRAP-18 indicators validated through the forensic linguistic analysis of targeted violence manifestos.

The Narrative Foundations of Radical and Deradicalizing Online Discursive Spaces: A Comparison of the Cases of Generation Islam and Jamal al-Khatib in Germany

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About