Lone Wolf Terrorism: The Definition Of Lone Wolf Terrorism

America has seen a rise in terrorist attacks since September 11, 2001. Preceding these attacks by Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida an ostensibly new threat emerged on American soil. However, this apparent growing new threat of terrorism to America has been active for decades and is known as the Lone Wolf terrorist. Mark S. Hamm and Ramon Spaaj have indicated and disclosed in their research that the lone wolf terrorist has been active in 98 cases in America between 1940-2013. In their 2015 grant report after further examinations were concluded; the definition of lone wolf terrorism needs to include the following:

Lone wolf terrorism is political violence perpetrated by individuals who act alone; who do not belong to an organized terrorist group

Ted Kaczynski also known as the Una Bomber, lived deep in a Montana forest, secluded from society and shunned it. Ted Kaczynski killed 3 and wounded 23 people from his mail bombings (Pantucci, 2011). Not all lone wolf terrorists live like Ted Kaczynski in almost total seclusion, however they tend to disassociate with society as a whole and separate themselves from interacting in society. Normally, these lone wolves do not communicate with others their intentions, being withdrawn from society, and be radicalized in a secluded manner. As indicated by Rodger Bates when he states:

Lone wolf terrorism involves self-radicalized individuals who commit violent acts to promote a cause or support a belief system. These acts, or propaganda by deeds, are extremely difficult to counter because they appear to be isolated and avoid many of the traditional organizational characteristics used to identify and track traditional terrorist groups. Though usually not capable of large-scale attacks, the modern lone wolf terrorist has access to a range of weapons with greater capacities for terror-inspiring events

Reid Meloy, 2016).

There are warning signs but they are not always predicative of a lone wolf terrorist or another criminal act of violence. The law has safeguards for the citizens of America for freedom of speech which also makes the task more difficult for law enforcement. Due to each lone attackers’ individual belief structure there are not any singular profile to match the Lone wolf. Profiling these lone attackers has not been an effective method in catching the Lone wolf terrorist. However, there are some similarities that do match a generalized profile, which leads to the different types of the Lone wolf terrorist

Observing the many factors about the Lone wolf terrorist, their thought processes, excluding themselves from society to become so wrapped up in religious ideology and political radicalism listen to someone else who propagates an act of violence against other human beings of their nation will help their cause; teach them to be secretive, promoting anti-social behavior that way they can hide the agendas. Many of these lone wolf attackers are radicalized by jihadist groups promoting over the