Lone Wolf Terrorism Analysis

Lone wolf terrorism focuses on a leaderless resistance and has spread across the world in more than two decades, creating a fear by the public of unpredictable attacks. The lone wolf acts apart from any organization and are more difficult to track, even over long periods of time (Hilleary, 2013). However, There are several psychological mechanisms that can be associated with lone wolf terrorists, which may help with counter terrorism prevention methods. Even though lone wolf attacks are planned rather than impulsive, society cannot completely preempt them because perpetrators act alone for political reasons and not for material self-interest (Bakker & De Graaf, 2011).
The main focus of lone wolf being a leaderless resistance was created out …show more content…
The colossal challenge of intelligence collection has to be modified to properly piece together the puzzle of a disconnected lone wolf. The analysts and information collectors must work together to properly exploit and identify factors that will lead to capture before the violent acts occur. This cooperative data collection will insure important information is shared with the people who need it while increasing the sensitivity of detection methods (Hamm & Spaaj, 2015, p.13). While a lone wolf is not a part of any group or organization, they draw inspiration from the distributed narratives. Messages can be delegitimized and ideologies used to perpetuate violence may be broken down by the creation of a counter narrative (Bakker & De Graaf, 2011). While a lone wolf operates alone, the planning and other activities typically occur in the shadow of a community environment (Bakker & De Graaf, 2011). Awareness program creation can help to identify suspicious behavior, a lone wolf may be less likely to act or be identified prior to a violent