THREATS | HOME

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Definition |  Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.

Terrorist threats have evolved from large-group conspiracies toward Lone-Offender attacks. 

• These individuals often radicalize online and mobilize to violence quickly. 
• Without a clear group affiliation or guidance
• Lone offenders are challenging for Law Enforcement to identify, investigate, and disrupt. 

The Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS), in particular, encourages sympathizers to carry out simple attacks wherever they are located—or to travel to ISIS-held territory in Iraq and Syria and join its ranks as foreign fighters. This message has resonated with supporters in the United States and abroad.

Violent extremists based in the United States have different beliefs that lead them to commit crimes and acts of violence. Some of the most common domestic ideologies are listed here. 

It is important to note that it is legal to have hateful or extremist beliefs as long as you don’t commit crimes or violence based on those beliefs. The right to assemble (or gather) in groups is also protected by the U.S. Constitution.

• Sovereign Citizen Extremists
• Animal Rights Extremists and Environmental Extremists
• Abortion Extremists
• Anarchist Extremists
• Militia Extremists
• White Supremacy Extremists
• ANTIFA Extremists

Definition | An active shooter incident is defined as an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated areas.

The frequency of active shooter events has increased in recent years. In many cases, there is no pattern or method to the selection of victims by an active shooter, and these situations are, by their nature, unpredictable and can evolve quickly.

• Majority of incidents was a single shooter
• 56.3% of Incidents ended on the shooter's initiative (Stopped Shooting, Committing Suicide, Fleeing)
• 40% of Shooter's committed suicide
• 60% of incidents had ended before Law Enforcement arrived
• 486-killed and 557-wounded (2000-2013 incidents)
• 15.6% of incidents took place at more than one location

Maritime piracy—the plundering, hijacking, or detention of a ship in international waters—has evolved over the centuries but remains a challenge to international law.  

Two notable sub-sets of maritime crime are armed robbery at sea, occurring within a nation's territorial waters, and piracy, which takes place in international waters. 

Both have occurred throughout the world with notable recent concentrations in the waters off Southeast Asia, the Horn of Africa, South America, and the Gulf of Guinea.