Commentary on language variables found within lone actor terrorist manifestos and the directions for future research

Abstract

Investigating lone actor terrorism presents many challenges, not only in the discourse surrounding the appropriate terminology to use when discussing the phenomenon, but also within counter terrorism investigations and identifying perpetrators. With identifying lone actor terrorists online seen as a needle in a haystack, research needs to identify new ways to investigate lone actor terrorism. The creation of a manifesto by a lone actor terrorist provides researchers with the opportunity to analyse criminal narratives within terrorism. Previous research has used surface methods such as computer software to analyse manifestos, however, a deeper psychological analysis is needed to overcome some of the issues generated with automated software. Current literature on language within lone actor manifestos is discussed and examines some of the currently identified commonalities in language between manifestos. Areas for future research to develop are also discussed indicating how future research could be used to investigate lone actor terrorism through the implementation of a language variable dictionary.

Keywords

• Lone Actor terrorism
• Terrorist manifestos
• Counter terrorism
• Criminal narratives
• Language variables
• Linguistic features