Countering Far-Right Anti-Government Extremism in the United States

The far-right anti-government extremist movement poses a significant threat in the United States. The January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol illustrates the capacity of this movement to plan and mount violent attacks against government targets and democratic institutions. In this article, we explore how the organisational and tactical characteristics of the far-right anti- government movement in the United States enable it to thrive despite the dangers it poses to the public. We argue that its deep-seated ideological roots, fluid organisational structure, and mix of violent and nonviolent tactics make the movement difficult for federal and state authorities to proscribe, prosecute, and ultimately eliminate. US policymakers need to develop an informed response that accounts for the fluid, decentralised, and public-facing nature of anti- government extremism, as well as the pervasive distrust of federal authority that it reflects. We suggest that this approach will likely differ from the modern counter-terrorism tools that were initially designed to combat terrorist threats emanating from abroad, such as those posed by Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. We ground our arguments in evidence from cases of anti-government extremist groups and followers active in the United States over the past three decades

Assessing New York City's Youth Gun Violence Crisis: Crews - Volume III - Responding to the Problem: Coordinating a Continuum of Services

The success or failure of community strategies to address the youth gun violence crisis is often attributed in part to how well the problem is understood and diagnosed. With support from The New York Community Trust, the Crime Commission has undertaken an analysis of youth gun violence and crew activity -- violent turf rivalries among less-organized, smaller and normally younger groups than traditional gangs -- in select New York City communities. Our initial findings from available data, existing research and interviews with stakeholders are presented in a series of papers titled, Assessing New York City's Youth Gun Violence Crisis: Crews

Assessing the Forms and Functions of Aggression Using Self-Report: Factor Structure and Invariance of the Peer Conflict Scale in Youths

This study examined the structure of a self-report measure of the forms and functions of aggression in 855 adolescents (582 boys, 266 girls) aged 12 to 19 years recruited from high school, detained, and residential settings. The Peer Conflict Scale (PCS) is a 40-item measure that was developed to improve upon existing measures and provide an efficient, reliable, and valid assessment of four dimensions of aggression (i.e., reactive overt, reactive relational, proactive overt, and proactive relational) in youths. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that a 4-factor model represented a satisfactory solution for the data. The factor structure fit well for both boys and girls and across high school, detained, and residential samples. Internal consistency estimates were good for the 4 factors, and they showed expected associations with externalizing variables (i.e., arrest history, callous-unemotional traits, and delinquency). Reactive and proactive subtypes showed unique associations consistent with previous literature. Implications for the use of the PCS to assess aggression and inform intervention decisions in diverse samples of youths are discussed

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Predicting Aggression in Children, Adolescents, and Adults: Exploring the Role of Cardiovascular Psychophysiology, Neuropsychology, and Psychopathy

This thesis explored the function of biological, personality, and cognitive factors as predictors of violence and aggression in children, adolescents, and adults. Chapter 2 sought to understand biopsychosocial profiles of aggressive groups of children (N = 110). Children who engaged in more severe forms of aggressive behavior were highest in psychopathic traits, and most distinct from other aggressive and nonaggressive children on biological indices of prefrontal functioning. This group of children displayed fewer executive functioning deficits compared to other aggressive children, which may explain their ability to implement planned aggression. Chapter 3 included 60 adolescents from Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties (EBD) schools and 62 adolescents from a stratified community school sample (N = 696). The aim was to test the association between callous-unemotional (CU) traits and fearlessness using cardiovascular measures of sympathetic (pre-ejection period) and parasympathetic reactivity (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) during fear induction, and self-report measures of fear. Adolescents high in CU traits, from both samples, exhibited high levels of conduct problems and aggression. No group differences emerged on self-report of fear, but the high CU group did display a unique autonomic profile when experiencing fear. This pattern of biological reactivity, a coactivation of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity, may suggest adolescents high in CU traits are better able to manage fearful situations by remaining physiologically calm yet alert. This may explain why individuals with CU traits have been previously characterized as fearless. Chapter 4 included 182 female offenders, and aimed to predict misconducts over 9-months. Callous and antisocial psychopathic traits best predicted violence, while impulsivity and antisocial psychopathic traits predicted nonviolent misconducts. The key findings across all chapters show psychopathic traits, regardless of age and population type (forensic, clinical, and community), were related to high levels of aggressive and antisocial behavior, and a host of biological and cognitive differences

A Study of the Effects of Peaceable Schools Curricula on Student Achievement in an Urban Middle School

Given that a review of the available literature suggests links between the problems of school safety (both physical and emotional) and low student achievement, effective school reform needs to address both issues simultaneously. Most education reformers, though doubtless concerned about safety, have, in the wake of the outcomes-based movement in American education, focused mainly on raising student test scores through increasingly standardizing school structures. As well intentioned as outcomes-based reformers may be, they are only seeing part of the puzzle of student achievement. There exists a wealth of programs and curricula that have been shown through research to reduce school violence and to increase feelings of student security; precious little research has been done, however, on the effects of these programs on students\u27 academic attainment. Social Constructivist theory provides a framework to suggest that school environments that encourage peace would also encourage student academic achievement. There exists a wealth of programs and curricula that have been shown through research to reduce school violence and to increase feelings of student security; precious little research has been done, however, on the effects of these programs on students\u27 academic attainment. Social Constructivist theory provides a framework to suggest that school environments that encourage peace would also encourage student academic achievement. This study examined the potential impact of three peaceable schools programs (Get Real About Violence, Teaching Students to Be Peacemakers and Conflict Resolution in the Middle School) on 37 eighth grade students in an urban middle school in Eastern Massachusetts. Both cohorts shared the same Math and English Language Arts teacher; in a pseudo-experimental model, one cohort received the peaceable schools treatment while the other did not. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected via a variety of measures over the full school year. The treatment class, while starting behind the comparison class on all indicators, showed a greater rate of academic attainment and essentially caught up to the comparison class by year\u27s end. Analysis showed that in the Math class, some of these gains were significantly correlated with being in the treatment group, most notably a correlation at the .041 level of significance in regards to percentage gains in bimonthly standardized exams

Exploring Resistance Movements in Interstate Conflict and Integrated Deterrence

Despite an increase in interstate conflict, including manipulation of information and civil populations by state actors in gray zone campaigns, the study of resistance has concentrated on intrastate conflict. A detailed literature review of resistance was conducted, revealing researchable gaps in understanding of the topic, including: the resistance movements from a security studies and interstate conflict perspective, the resistance as a form of interstate conflict from the perspective of Russian and Chinese security leaders, and the integrated deterrence options in gray zone campaigns as a strategy of international conflict prevention. Two complementary studies were conducted to explore the identified areas. These studies were based on three theories: 1) resistance theory, 2) combat power theory, and 3) deterrence theory. The first complementary study involved utilizing quantitative methods to analyze the NAVCO 2.0 dataset of global resistance movements from 1945-2006. The positivist analysis explored relationships between resistance movement variables and combat power theory, identifying variables significantly associated with progress and success in resistance campaigns. The quantitative findings informed the second interpretivist complementary study that utilized content analysis of primary sources, scholarly articles, and news sources to explore resistance from the perspective of Russian and Chinese security leaders in the contemporary period of 2006-2022. Overall, the complementary studies described in this dissertation are situated within international conflict resolution studies, exploring resistance movements as a form of strategic interstate conflict and integrated deterrence as a strategy of international conflict prevention

The Dual Voices of the Civil Rights Movement: The Heroic Narratives of Martin Luther King, Jr. And Malcolm X.

Since reconstruction African-American leaders have embodied conflicting aspirations. While some leaders like Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass urged complete assimilation, others like W. E. B. DuBois and Marcus Garvey have preached autonomy and separation. These leaders have tended to serve as icons for rival programs; their rhetoric as authoritative, and their lives as inspired models for future leaders. This dissertation examines the hagiography of the two most famous leaders of the late 20th century, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. It argues that their rhetoric was undergirded by the myth of the heroic quest and that their lives and works embodied variations of this common narrative. A tri-part method was used. First, overt meanings of the texts were explored. Secondly, variants of the mythic quest were isolated. Third, the method explores the moral order of the myths by isolating metaphoric clusters emerging within the discourse. In order to examine the messages of King and Malcolm X, seven speeches of each man were analyzed. The speeches given by King are Give Us the Ballot--We Will Transform the South, I Have a Dream, Eulogy for the Martyred Children, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, Our God Is Marching On! A Time to Break Silence, and I See the Promised Land. The speeches given by Malcolm X are Message to the Grass Roots, The Ballot or the Bullet, The Black Revolution, The Harlem \u27Hate Gang\u27 Scare, At the Audobon on December 13, 1964, With Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, and Prospects for Freedom in 1965. . Examination of the core texts revealed unexpected similarities between the two messages. The moral vision of nonviolence created a sense of difference between groups as they negotiated the terms of assimilation. Disillusionment with integration was a function of King\u27s message at least two years before his death when he began a rhythmic denunciation of Western civilization. Malcolm X made late overtures to integrate. Time and events will further this merger until both icons are nearly emptied of specific content

The Invisible Prison: Pathways and Prevention

In this Article, we propose a new strategy for curbing crime and delinquency and demonstrate the inadequacy of current reform efforts. Our analysis relies on our own, original research involving a large, multigenerational sample of unmarried fathers from a Rust Belt region of the United States, as well as the conclusions of earlier researchers. Our own research data are unusual in that they are holistic and multigenerational: the court-based record system we utilized for data collection provided detailed information on child maltreatment, juvenile status and delinquency charges, child support, parenting time, orders of protection, and residential mobility for focal children (the oldest in the family), their siblings, half-siblings, and all parents who grew up in the relevant county. Using other data sources, we were also able to obtain reliable information about adult crime and other high-risk behaviors. Very few crime researchers have had access to data this comprehensive. Our research findings show the incarcerative state in action. Close to one-third (31.7%) of sample fathers had been incarcerated, at least once, as adults, and almost half (49.5%) of those who lived, as teenagers, in the county we investigated had at least one juvenile arrest. Our findings support recent nonpartisan reforms, such as the federal First Step Act, that reduce mandatory sentences and place increased emphasis on substance-abuse treatment. The vast majority of offenders in our sample committed nonviolent offenses and posed no serious public-safety risk. Seventy percent of those with felony convictions also had a known history of substance abuse. However, our data show that current reforms are incapable of significantly reducing criminal misconduct or the disproportionate impact of incarceration on black Americans and the poor. In our sample, adult paternal crime was linked to other high-risk behaviors, significantly correlated with several of the father’s adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and predicted a number of adverse outcomes in his children. Our data thus contribute to a growing body of research showing that high ACE levels—levels that are typically linked with and reinforced by poverty—significantly increase the risk of criminal behavior as well as physical and mental-health problems, educational and occupational deficits, high-risk behavior, and early death. To successfully reduce the costs of crime, we argue that policymakers must develop a public-health approach. We also argue that, as with virtually all successful public-health campaigns, public policy should focus on prevention programs that reduce risks and shift away from costly and largely ineffective postcrime punishment and rehabilitation strategies