Understanding the Roots of Radicalisation on Twitter

In an increasingly digital world, identifying signs of online extremism sits at the top of the priority list for counter-extremist agencies. Researchers and governments are investing in the creation of advanced information technologies to identify and counter extremism through intelligent large-scale analysis of online data. However, to the best of our knowledge, these technologies are neither based on, nor do they take advantage of, the existing theories and studies of radicalisation. In this paper we propose a computational approach for detecting and predicting the radicalisation influence a user is exposed to, grounded on the notion of ’roots of radicalisation’ from social science models. This approach has been applied to analyse and compare the radicalisation level of 112 pro-ISIS vs.112 “general" Twitter users. Our results show the effectiveness of our proposed algorithms in detecting and predicting radicalisation influence, obtaining up to 0.9 F-1 measure for detection and between 0.7 and 0.8 precision for prediction. While this is an initial attempt towards the effective combination of social and computational perspectives, more work is needed to bridge these disciplines, and to build on their strengths to target the problem of online radicalisation

Behavioral Science Guidelines for Assessing Insider Threats

This brochure presents a framework to view threats made by an insider that are targeted or intentional (as opposed to negligent or unintentional) and that involve some degree of deliberation (as opposed to those that may be considered impulsive). The framework was developed with the assumption that it must: Be applicable for both anonymous and known subjects Recognize interactions and patterns of behavior Allow for investigation with whatever information is immediately available Recognize that behaviors or warning activity may shift, decrease, or be emboldened by protective or organizational actions Insider attacks are often handled internal to an organization and are under-reported to law enforcement agencies. This has limited the sample of insider threats available for research in this area. Most of the available literature related to insider threats exists in areas outside of behavioral science. It is generally conceptual in nature rather than data driven and often focuses on threats to information systems. The field of threat assessment represents a blending of behavioral science, intelligence, and law enforcement strategies. It evolved from practices used to assess and manage dangerousness (potential risk for violence)

Behavioral Science Guidelines for Assessing Insider Threats

This brochure presents a framework to view threats made by an insider that are targeted or intentional (as opposed to negligent or unintentional) and that involve some degree of deliberation (as opposed to those that may be considered impulsive). The framework was developed with the assumption that it must: Be applicable for both anonymous and known subjects Recognize interactions and patterns of behavior Allow for investigation with whatever information is immediately available Recognize that behaviors or warning activity may shift, decrease, or be emboldened by protective or organizational actions Insider attacks are often handled internal to an organization and are under-reported to law enforcement agencies. This has limited the sample of insider threats available for research in this area. Most of the available literature related to insider threats exists in areas outside of behavioral science. It is generally conceptual in nature rather than data driven and often focuses on threats to information systems. The field of threat assessment represents a blending of behavioral science, intelligence, and law enforcement strategies. It evolved from practices used to assess and manage dangerousness (potential risk for violence)

Assessing Violence Risk Among Youth

Despite recent declines in the reported rate of juvenile violence, there appears to be increasing public and professional concern about violent behavior among children and adolescents. Media accounts of school shootings and juvenile homicides have prompted a need to develop approaches for systematically assessing violence risk. This article describes the task of assessing general violence risk among youth, and argues that a somewhat different approach is required to assess cases where an identified or identifiable young person may pose a risk to a specifically identified or identifiable target (also referred to as “targeted violence”). Key risk factors for violent behavior among children and adolescents are identified, fundamental principles for conducting an assessment of violence potential in clinical and juvenile justice contexts are outlined, and an approach to assessment when an identified person engages in some communication or behavior of concern that brings him or her to official attention is briefly described