Since the September 11 attack, the United States of America (USA) has recorded an ever-increasing trend of homegrown terrorists. Brooks, 2011 notes that homegrown terrorists refer to individuals American citizens who engage in terrorist activities in and outside the USA. As such, homegrown terrorists may actively participate in terrorist attacks, provide radical teaching or facilitate terrorism activities of already established terrorism groups. Some of the risk factors that led to the increase in homegrown terrorist include exposure to extremists' ideology, unemployment,
Exposure to extremists’ ideology on the internet and social media has contributed to most cases of homegrown terrorism. Most of the USA citizens that engage in terrorist activities have access to extremisms’ ideas teaching on the internet. Extremist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS) make publications, videos that encourage individuals to carry out attacks at their locality (FBI, 2020). The local attacks contribute to the rising cases of terrorism and hard to track. Exposure to extremists' ideology can be tamed by institutions such as the National Institute of Justice's Domestic Radicalization to Terrorism program being more proactive in educating individuals about extremist's ideology and their danger. They can also restrict channels that disseminate the information.
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Lone offenders are another major contributor to the increase of the homegrown terrorists. The narrative of terrorists being members of an organized group is slowly changing to incorporate lone individuals that have no affiliation to any terrorist activities. Lone individuals are encouraged to engage in terrorism due to having risk factors that include unemployment, exposure to extremist ideas, frustration and history of violence (National Institute of Justice, 2018) . Lone offenders can be migrated by the government working on reducing the risk factors such as unemployment. Also, the individuals that are at high risk of engaging in terrorism can be targets for anti-terrorism education.
In conclusion, the main factors that have contributed to the risen in homegrown terrorism in the USA are Exposure to extremists’ ideology on the internet and social media and Lone offenders. The internet and social media make organized groups to disseminate radical information to a large population increasing their chances of gaining sympathizers. On the other hand, lone offenders have made the tracking of terrorists difficult due to their wide range of risk factors. Therefore, other than surveillance and law enforcement the government through its agencies should mitigate homegrown terrorism through working on the risk factors and the channels of distributing extremist ideology.
References
Brooks, R. (2011). Muslim “Homegrown” Terrorism in the United States: How Serious Is the Threat? International Security , 36 (2), 7-47. https://doi.org/10.1162/isec_a_00055
FBI. (2020). Terrorism | Federal Bureau of Investigation . Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 18 April 2020, from https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/terrorism .
National Institute of Justice. (2018). Risk Factors and Indicators Associated With Radicalization to Terrorism in the United States: What Research Sponsored by the National Institute of Justice Tells Us (pp. 1-12). Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice.
