Ryan Scrivens

Michigan State University | MSU · School of Criminal Justice

Despite the ongoing need for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to identify and assess the online activities of violent extremists prior to their engagement in violence offline, little is empirically known about their online behaviors generally or differences in their posting behaviors compared to non-violent extremists who share similar...

Although there is an ongoing need for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to identify and assess the online activities of violent extremists prior to their engagement in violence offline, little is empirically known about their online posting patterns generally or differences in their online patterns compared to non-violent extremists who sha...

Research has overwhelmingly focused on pathways into violent extremism, but few empirically grounded analyses have examined pathways out of violent extremism. Even less is empirically known about the interactions between processes of disengagement and deradicalization from violent extremism. To address this gap, in-depth interviews were conducted w...

Although many researchers, practitioners, and policymakers are concerned about identifying and characterizing online posting patterns of violent extremists prior to their engagement in violence offline, little is empirically known about their online patterns generally or differences in their patterns compared to their non-violent counterpart partic...

Despite the ongoing need for practitioners to identify violent extremists online before their engagement in violence offline, little is empirically known about their digital footprints generally or differences in their posting behaviors compared to their non-violent counterparts particularly – especially on high-frequency posting days. Content anal...

Involuntary celibates, or incels, have been of heightened interest to scholars and practitioners due to their ongoing engagement in misogynistic and violent discourse. The incel subculture is complex, requiring unique strategies to develop effective interventions. The present study investigates patterns in incels’ online posting behaviors and wheth...

There is an ongoing need for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to identify and examine the online posting behaviors of violent extremists prior to their engagement in violence offline, but little is empirically known about their online presence generally or differences in their posting behaviors compared to their non-violent counterparts...

This collection is the first on ex-extremists and combatants (Formers) in violence prevention work. While the engagement of Formers in violence prevention programs--especially in the context of countering and preventing violent extremism (P/CVE), and peacebuilding--has expanded across the world, their involvement has been controversial and conteste...

Background The difficulties in defining hate crime, hate incidents and hate speech, and in finding a common conceptual basis constitute a key barrier toward operationalisation in research, policy and programming. Definitions disagree about issues such as the identities that should be protected, the types of behaviours that should be referred to as...

Since the turn of the 21st century, advances in computer technology have revolutionized how people connect, communicate, and interact at a rapid pace. Increasingly, computer technologies and computer-mediated communications have been used by individuals to connect with one another from around the globe. The Internet’s seamless accessibility and use...

Little is known about online behaviors of violent extremists generally or differences compared to non-violent extremists who share ideological beliefs. Even less is known about desistance from posting behavior. A sample of 99 violent and non-violent right-wing extremists to compare their online patterns of desistance within a sub-forum of the large...

This chapter considers three types of online data available for researchers. First, it looks at machine learning and its use when considering the vast amount of data available to detect indicators of involvement in terrorism. Next, the chapter considers case studies and their use when addressing ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions. Given the difficulty of re...

Research has explored how the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a wave of conspiratorial thinking and online hate speech, but little is empirically known about how different phases of the pandemic are associated with hate speech against adversaries identified by online conspiracy communities. This study addresses this gap by combining observational metho...

This chapter summarizes the emerging trends in the empirical literature on right-wing extremists’ use of the Internet. These trends are organized into five core uses identified by (Conway, 2006): information provision, networking, recruitment, financing, and information gathering. Highlighted throughout this chapter are key gaps in the empirical li...

The online presence of incels, or involuntary celibates, has been an increasing security concern for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in recent years, given that self-identified incels – including Alek Minassian and Elliot Rodger – used the Internet to disseminate incel ideology and manifestos prior to committing acts of violence. Howev...

There is an ongoing need for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to detect and assess online posting behaviors of violent extremists prior to their engagement in violence offline, but little is empirically known about their online behaviors generally or the differences in their behaviors compared with nonviolent extremists who share simila...

The overall aim of the review is to map the definitions and measurement tools used to capture the whole spectrum of hate motivated behaviors, including hate crime, hate speech and hate incidents. This will benefit the field of hate studies by providing a baseline that can inform the building of cumulative knowledge and comparative research. The fir...

Right-wing extremists, among other extremists, continue to exploit the power of the Internet and associated technologies by connecting with the like-minded from around the globe and developing a sense of identity there. A growing body of literature has been dedicated to exploring this phenomenon, with an interest in how online identities of these a...

This policy note highlights the importance of both identifying and examining the online behaviors of violent and non-violent extremists in preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) and provides researchers, practitioners, and policymakers with a number of recommendations for detecting and analyzing the online behaviors of violent and non-...

Historically, research in terrorism studies has drawn from a variety of disciplines including, but not limited to, political science, psychology, and security studies. More recently, however, researchers have argued that criminological approaches can and should inform terrorism studies as well. In this paper, we apply four criminological perspectiv...

Although many law enforcement and intelligence agencies are concerned about online communities known to facilitate violent right-wing extremism, little is empirically known about the presence of extremist ideologies, expressed grievances, or violent mobilization efforts that make up these spaces. In this study, we conducted a content analysis of a...

Right-wing extremist groups harness popular social media platforms to accrue and mobilize followers. In recent years, researchers have examined the various themes and narratives espoused by extremist groups in the United States and Europe, and how these themes and narratives are employed to mobilize their followings on social media. Little, however...

This chapter is broken up into two sections: terrorists' and violent extremists' use of the Internet, and cyberterrorism. In the first half of the chapter, we first define terrorism, violent extremism and radicalization and highlight the challenges of conceptualizing such terms. Next, we provide an overview of the central ideologies that motivate t...

The goal of this chapter is to trace some of the more contemporary contours of the criminological scholarship around right-wing extremism (RWE). Criminology is inherently inter-disciplinary, so we begin the essay with a consideration of where the boundaries of criminology lie, in terms of the discipline generally and extremism specifically. We then...

Many researchers, practitioners, and policymakers are concerned about online communities that are known to facilitate violent right-wing extremism, but little is empirically known about these digital spaces in general and the developmental posting behaviors that make up these spaces in particular. In this study, group-based trajectory modeling—deri...

Since the advent of the Internet, right-wing extremists and those who subscribe to extreme right views have exploited online platforms to build a collective identity among the like-minded. Research in this area has largely focused on extremists’ use of websites, forums, and mainstream social media sites, but overlooked in this research has been an...

This chapter examines how those who study issues related to radicalization and counter-radicalization have recently drawn from the experiences of former extremists to inform our understanding of complex issues in terrorism and extremism studies. The authors synthesize the empirical research on radicalization and counter-radicalization that incorpor...

The theoretical literature from criminology, social movements, and political sociology, among others, includes diverging views about how political outcomes could affect movements. Many theories argue that political defeats motivate the losing side to increase their mobilization while other established models claim the winning side may feel encourag...

While a growing body of evidence suggests that the Internet is a key facilitator of violent extremism, research in this area has rarely incorporated former extremists’ experiences with the Internet when they were involved in violent extremism. To address this gap, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 Canadian former right-wing extremists who...

In recent years, researchers have shown a vested interest in developing advanced information technologies, machine-learning algorithms, and risk-assessment tools to detect and analyze radical content online, with increased attention on identifying violent extremists or measuring digital pathways of violent radicalization. Yet overlooked in this evo...

The overwhelming focus in the scholarly literature on extremist groups online tends to focus on jihadist groups like the so-called Islamic State and Al Qaeda. With right-wing violence erupting in places like Charlottesville and Quebec City, and with a new generation of extreme right activism coming to the fore, there is a need to better understand...

Many researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers continue to raise questions about the role of the Internet in facilitating violent extremism and terrorism. A surge in research on this issue notwithstanding, relatively few empirically-grounded analyses are yet available. This chapter provides researchers with five key suggestions for progressing...

In recent years, research on pathways in and out of violent extremism has grown at a staggering rate. Yet much of what is known about these oftentimes "mysterious" processes does not necessarily shed light on the specific aspects of right-wing extremism, and especially not from a Canadian perspective. In an effort to bridge this gap, we use a life-...

This policy brief traces how Western right-wing extremists have exploited the power of the internet from early dial-up bulletin board systems to contemporary social media and messaging apps. It demonstrates how the extreme right has been quick to adopt a variety of emerging online tools, not only to connect with the like-minded, but to radicalise s...

While it has become increasingly common for researchers, practitioners and policymakers to draw from the insights of former extremists to combat violent extremism, overlooked in this evolving space has been an in-depth look at how formers perceive such efforts. To address this gap, interviews were conducted with 10 Canadian former right-wing extrem...

This chapter describes and discusses the roles of media tools and technologies in the facilitation of violent extremism and terrorism. Rather than focusing on how media report on terrorism, we investigate how extremist and terrorist groups and movements themselves have exploited various ‘traditional’ and ‘new’ media tools, from print to digital, ou...

This bibliography contains doctoral dissertations (Ph.D.) and Master (MA) Theses on issues relating to victims of violent extremism and terrorism. Titles were retrieved manually by browsing the Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD) database using various combinations of search terms, including – but indeed not limited to – ‘victims of terrori...

Despite the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)’s recent concern with the growing threat from right-wing extremists (RWEs) nationwide, we have little contemporary scholarship on the RWE movement in Canada and fewer attempts to systematically analyse their ideologies and activities. Drawing on the three-year study described in Chapter 2, i...

This chapter describes how, in the two intervening years since the 2015 report was completed, the landscape of the right-wing extremist (RWE) movement in Canada appears to have changed dramatically, in large part thanks to Donald J. Trump’s journey to the White House. His campaign and his surprising electoral victory rode a wave of anti-elitism and...

Recent world events seem to have motivated renewed activity among and public attention to right-wing extremism (RWE), not only within a global context but in Canada as well. Our findings suggest that the foundations of RWE are complex and multifaceted, grounded in both individual and social conditions. This suggests that, so too must counter-extrem...

This chapter explores the landscape of right-wing extremism (RWE) in Canada. Three overlapping sections make up this chapter: (1) historical context; (2) contemporary categories and distribution of groups; and (3) nature and threat of violence. We first provide a historical timeline of RWE in Canada, from the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in...

This chapter highlights the social, cultural and political landscape in which organized hate groups emerge in Canada. Here, our focus is on the social contexts that enable such groups to flourish. We first lay out the theoretical frame to understand how broader social, cultural and political patterns render “permission to hate” in Canada. We consid...

Heightened saliency/immediacy of the perceived grievance, as is evident from the intensity of the rhetoric of the hate group;

Purpose – This chapter examines how sentiment analysis and web-crawling technology can be used to conduct large-scale data analyses of extremist content online. Methods/approach – The authors describe a customized web-crawler that was developed for the purpose of collecting, classifying, and interpreting extremist content online and on a large sca...

This book comprehensively examines right-wing extremism (RWE) in Canada, discussing the lengthy history of violence and distribution, ideological bases, actions, organizational capacity and connectivity of these extremist groups. It explores the current landscape, the factors that give rise to and minimise these extremist groups, strategies for cou...

This bibliography contains doctoral dissertations (Ph.D.) and Master (MA) Theses on issues relating to the role of the Internet in facilitating and combating radicalization, extremism, terrorism and cyber-terrorism. Titles were retrieved manually by browsing the Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD) database using various combinations of sear...

Correctional scholars have long explored how those who are imprisoned for sexual offences (SOs) are targeted because of the nature of their crimes. In consequence, SOs report experiencing excessive physical, psychological, and emotional violence in prison. On the surface, their experiences resonate with how some scholars conceptualize the patterns...

Donald J. Trump’s journey to the White House signaled the resurgence of right-wing populism in the United States. His campaign and his surprising electoral victory rode a wave of anti-elitism and xenophobia. He masterfully exploited the economic and cultural anxieties of white working class and petite bourgeois Americans by deflecting blame for the...

This bibliography contains doctoral dissertations (Ph.D.) and Master (MA) Theses on issues relating to countering violent extremism, preventing violent extremism, and terrorism prevention. Titles were retrieved manually by browsing the Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD) database, using the broad search term 'terror-ism', 'terrorisme', 'ter...

Researchers have previously explored how right-wing extremists build a collective identity online by targeting their perceived “threat,” but little is known about how this “us” versus “them” dynamic evolves over time. This study uses a sentiment analysis-based algorithm that adapts criminal career measures, as well as semi-parametric group-based mo...

Donald J. Trump’s journey to the White House signaled the resurgence of right-wing populism in the United States. His campaign and his surprising electoral victory rode a wave of anti-elitism and xenophobia. He masterfully exploited the economic and cultural anxieties of white working class and petite bourgeois Americans by deflecting blame for the...

This bibliography contains doctoral dissertations (Ph.D.) and Master (MA) Theses on issues relating to terrorism and counter-terrorism. Titles were retrieved manually by browsing the Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD) database using the search terms 'terrorism' and 'jihad'. More than 4,800 entries were evaluated, of which 130 were ultimate...

Despite a pervasive concern among law enforcement and security agencies, there are relatively few academic explorations of the likelihood of violence associated with anti-authority activists from groups such as the Freemen-on-the-Land, Sovereign Citizens, and similar movements within Canada. In order to begin addressing this gap in knowledge, this...

This article highlights the social, cultural, and political landscape in which organized hate groups emerge, drawing from a 3-year study of the right-wing extremist movement in Canada. Through extensive interviews with law enforcement, community activists and hate group activists, as well as open source intelligence, we examined the factors that ar...

The Terrorism Research Initiative (TRI) seeks to stimulate and coordinate high-quality research in the field of (Counter-)Terrorism Studies. One of TRI’s instruments are national and (sub-)regional networks of post-graduate students working on their doctoral theses. TRI networks, led by a local coordinator who is usually her- or himself working on...

This bibliography contains doctoral dissertations (Ph.D.) and Master’s (MA) Theses on issues relating to terrorism and counter-terrorism. Titles were retrieved manually by browsing the Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD) database, using the search terms ‘terrorisme’, ‘terrorismo’, and ‘Terrorismus’. More than 1,000 entries were evaluated, o...

This bibliography contains doctoral dissertations (Ph.D.) and Master’s (MA) Theses on issues relating to terror- ism and counter-terrorism. Titles were retrieved manually by browsing the Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD) database, using the search term ‘terrorism’. More than 1,400 entries were evaluated, of which 152 were ultimately selec...

Criminologists have generally agreed that the Internet is not only a tool or resource for right-wing extremists to disseminate ideas and products, but also a site of important identity work, accomplished interactively through the exchange of radical ideas. Online discussion forums, amongst other interactive corners of the Web, have become an essent...

Recent world events seem to have motivated renewed activity of and public attention to right-wing extremism, not only within a global context but in Canada as well. In a national study involving interviews with Canadian law enforcement officials, community organizations, and right-wing activists, paired with analyses of open source intelligence, we...

This bibliography contains doctoral dissertations (Ph.D.) and Master (MA) Theses on issues relating to terrorism and counter-terrorism. Titles were retrieved manually by browsing the Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD) database, using the search term ‘terrorism’. More than 2,500 entries were evaluated, of which 238 were ultimately selected...

As violent extremists continue to surface in online discussion forums, law enforcement agencies search for new ways of uncovering their digital indicators. Researchers have both described and hypothesized a number of ways to detect online traces of potential extremists, yet this area of inquiry remains in its infancy. This study proposes a new sear...

Our goal in this chapter is to review the current “state of the art” with respect to conceptualizing, researching, and responding to hate crime. It seeks to lay out areas that are by now widely addressed, those that represent recent developments, and those that remain underdeveloped. We reflect on what we do and don’t know, and to encourage our col...

That terrorism associated with right-wing extremists is largely absent from the public agenda in Canada is evident from even a cursory review of the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC) website, for example. The list of Terrorist Incidents, while international in scope, includes only one right wing terrorist incident – Anders Breivik’s hor...

Since the inception of the World Wide Web, security agencies, researchers, and analysts have focused much of their attention on the sentiment found on hate-inspired web-forums. Here, one of their goals has been to detect and measure users' affects that are expressed in the forums as well as identify how users' affects change over time. Manual inspe...

The total number of webpages has grown substantially since the birth of the Internet. So too have the number of webpages dedicated to radical yet subtle content. As these new circumstances have necessitated a guided data collection method, one that can sidestep the laborious manual methods that have been classically utilized, simple keyword analysi...

Each entry contains information on the (working) title of the doctoral dissertation, its author, the academic institution where the thesis is being written (including name of supervisor where provided) and the expected date of completion. At the end of the list are a number of theses that have recently been completed.

To see the Internet as only a ‘tool’ or ‘resource’ for disseminating ideas and products, as much of the literature has done, is to miss an even more significant aspect of online venues. The Internet is also a site of important ‘identity work’, in which collective identities can be accomplished interactively. This chapter explores how collective ide...

Despite the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's recent concern with the growing threat from right-wing extremists nationwide, we have little contemporary scholarship on the far right movement in Canada and fewer attempts to systematically analyze their ideologies and activities. Drawing on a three-year study involving interviews with Canadian...