Read on Twitter
The terrorist attacks in #Nice and #Vienna have sparked renewed debate on ‘lone wolves’ or ‘lone actors’. For those interested in learning more about this subject, here are three articles from colleagues and myself. @Prime_FP7
In this groundbreaking 2013 study, @PaulGill @Drjohnhorgan & Paige Deckert look at 119 lone actors from a behavioural and motivational perspective, noting amongst their conclusions that lone actors often engaged in observable and detectable behaviour. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1556-4029.12312
This 2017 paper with @PaulGill, Edwin Bakker and @noemie_bouhana looked specifically at lone actor attack planning and preparation, noting that most did not live up to the ‘solitary super terrorist’ image associated with the lone wolf moniker. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1556-4029.13676@10.1002/(ISSN)1556-4029.2018-editors-choice
While marked by high degrees of isolation, many lone actors still participate in broader extremist movements and even give specific clues to their intent and preparatory activities to others. This led us to argue that 'lone wolf' is not a useful concept: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1057610X.2017.1419554