title: A false dichotomy? Mental illness and lone-actor terrorism.
abstract: We test whether significant differences in mental illness exist in a matched sample of lone- and group-based terrorists. We then test whether there are distinct behavioral differences between lone-actor terrorists with and without mental illness. We then stratify our sample across a range of diagnoses and again test whether significant differences exist. We conduct a series of bivariate, multivariate, and multinomial statistical tests using a unique dataset of 119 lone-actor terrorists and a matched sample of group-based terrorists. The odds of a lone-actor terrorist having a mental illness is 13.49 times higher than the odds of a group actor having a mental illness. Lone actors who were mentally ill were 18.07 times more likely to have a spouse or partner who was involved in a wider movement than those without a history of mental illness. Those with a mental illness were more likely to have a proximate upcoming life change, more likely to have been a recent victim of prejudice, and experienced proximate and chronic stress. The results identify behaviors and traits that security agencies can utilize to monitor and prevent lone-actor terrorism events. The correlated behaviors provide an image of how risk can crystalize within the individual offender and that our understanding of lone-actor terrorism should be multivariate in nature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Security and Crime Science, University College London.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Corner
authors.affiliation: Department of Security and Crime Science, University College London.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gill
mesh_terms: D057237:Criminals / Q000523:psychology*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D001523:Mental Disorders; D023481:Terrorism / Q000523:psychology*