News Release

Are we missing the warning signs to prevent lone terrorist attacks?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

<I>Violence and Gender</I>

image: The journal critically examines biological, genetic, behavioral, psychological, racial, ethnic, and cultural factors as they relate to the gender of perpetrators of violence. view more 

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, September 13, 2017-The terrorist who killed 12 people and injured dozens more in the 2016 Berlin Christmas Market attack was removed from the country's surveillance list a month earlier, but he presented five specific warning behaviors prior to the attack according to later analysis. How a better awareness of these warning signs and an understanding of the perpetrator's history of radicalization might help improve future risk and threat assessment is the focus of the article "'Jihad Against the Enemies of Allah': The Berlin Christmas Market Attack from a Threat Assessment Perspective," published in Violence and Gender, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Violence and Gender website.

Authors Nils Böckler and Jens Hoffmann, Institute Psychology and Threat Management, Darmstadt, Germany, and J. Reid Meloy, University of California, La Jolla, present a case study of 24-year-old Anis A., the terrorist responsible for the Berlin attack, noting that German security authorities had a lot of information on him leading up to the attack. In the article, they trace terrorist development in Germany, examine the role of the Internet and the strategy of leaderless resistance, and discuss patterns of radicalization against the background of Islamist ideology and, specifically, ISIS-related radicalization.

"These authors are some of the finest experts in their fields and their dissection of this terrorist act in Berlin will not only be informative, but will also serve as a blueprint to study other cases and to develop models to even prevent these types of cases in the future." says Editor-in-Chief Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Forensic Behavioral Consultant and Senior FBI Profiler/Supervisory Special Agent (ret.) and currently, Director of the Forensic Sciences Program, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.

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About the Journal

Violence and Gender is the only peer-reviewed journal focusing on the understanding, prediction, and prevention of acts of violence. Through research papers, roundtable discussions, case studies, and other original content, the Journal critically examines biological, genetic, behavioral, psychological, racial, ethnic, and cultural factors as they relate to the gender of perpetrators of violence. Led by Editor-in-Chief Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Forensic Behavioral Consultant and Senior FBI Profiler/Criminal Investigative Analyst (ret.), Violence and Gender explores the difficult issues that are vital to threat assessment and prevention of the epidemic of violence. Violence and Gender is published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, and is the official journal of The Avielle Foundation. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Violence and Gender website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking and Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.


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