Organizational-Level Characteristics in Right-Wing Extremist Groups in the United States Over Time

• Published date: 01 June 2020
• Author: Sarah Fitzgerald,Steven M. Chermak,Victor Asal,Joshua D. Freilich
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016815626970
• Date: 01 June 2020
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Organizational-Level

Characteristics in Right-Wing

Extremist Groups in the

United States Over Time

Victor Asal

1

, Steven M. Chermak

2

, Sarah Fitzgerald

2

,

and Joshua D. Freilich

3

Abstract

This study compares the organizational-level variables of violent and nonviolent far-right extremist

groups. This study makes an important contribution by coding for attributes for each specific year

that an organization existed. Prior research has only examined organizational characteristics at a

single point of time. Our strategy here better specifies differences between violent and nonviolent

extremist groups. We used a pooled cross-sectional time series analysis using logistic regression

because our dependent variable is dichotomous (the organization used violence this year vs. it did

not). We clustered on the organization and we included dummy years to control for time series

effects. We also included a lagged variable if the organization used violence in the year before. We

found that organizations were more likely to use violence if they were previously involved in vio-

lence, had multiple alliances with other extremist groups, had a large membership, had weak or

decentralized leadership or a strong ruling council, and advocated for inherent racial or ethnic

superiority. These results have important implications for law enforcement and future research on

extremism and violence.

Keywords

extremism, organizational violence, right wing

Introduction

This study compares the organizational-level variables of violent and nonviolent far-right extremist

groups. This research makes an important contribution by coding for attributes for each specific year

that an organization existed. Prior research has only examined organizational characteristics at a

single point of time.

1

Department of Political Science, University at Albany, Albany, NY, USA

2

School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

3

John Jay College of Criminal Justice, SUNY, New York, NY, USA

Corresponding Author:

Steven M. Chermak, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, 512 Baker Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.

Email: chermak@msu.edu

Criminal Justice Review

2020, Vol. 45(2) 250-266

ª2016 Georgia State University

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0734016815626970

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Organizational variables appear to be related to a group’s use of violence (Decker & Pyrooz,

2011). The current study extends this research by comparing the organizational characteristics

of violent and nonviolent groups using an innovative data coding strategy (Bartlett & Miller,

2012). There are only a few studies that specifically examine the impact of organizational-level

characteristics on violence (Asal & Rethemeyer, 2008; Chermak, Freilich, & Suttmoeller, 2013;

Oots, 1989). Although these studies provide important insights regarding what organizational

variables matter, they code organizational characteristics in a static manner. The organization is

the unit of analysis and each variable examined is given a single code. This is a limitation

because organizations can change dramatically in terms of leadership, structure, size, and other

key variables, which could impact whether the organization chooses to use violence as a tactic.

Our strategy follows the approach used by the Minorities at Risk Organizational Behavior

(MAROB) study (Asal & Wilkenfeld, 2013.]). The MAROB study codes a full suite of inde-

pendent variables for each year that the organization existed. This approach is more accurate in

measuring the organizational characteristics that increase the likelihood that a group commits a

violent action.

Extremist group-level violence is an important topic to examine for several reasons. First, there is

a widespread concern about the threat of terrorism generally and the danger posed by domestic

terrorism specifically. Law enforcement, for example, has expressed concern over lone wolf activity

as well as group-level violence (J. Freilich, Chermak, & Simone, 2009b), and incidents of domestic

terrorism outnumber those of international terrorism by 7-1 in a typical year (LaFree, Dugan, &

Fahey, 2006).

Second, there are a growing number of hate groups in the United States. Several factors may be

related to an increase in hate group recruitment and radicalization, including President Obama’s

victory in 2008 (and 2012), a growing number of returning veterans from the Iraq/Afghanistan wars,

efforts to regulate gun ownership, and the economic recession (Department of Homeland Security,

2009). There has been concomitant growth in hate group activity. The Southern Poverty Law Center

(SPLC) describes a 70%increase in the number of hate groups in the United States between 2000

and 2012 (SPLC, 2013).

Third, although international terrorism databases are prevalent, there are few reliable domestic

terrorism databases (Sanchez-Cuenca & Calle, 2009). Studies that have examined groups typically

use a case study approach (Chermak, Freilich, Parkin, & Lynch, 2012). Moreover, studies exam-

ining far-right extremism rarely use empirical data (Gruenewald, Freilich, & Chermak, 2009).

Importantly, there is also little empirical research comparing violent and nonviolent groups. This

is interesting because although single-actor terrorism is a concern, terrorism is usually (though not

always) a group activity (Crenshaw, 2000; Smith, 1994). Several studies have examined lone

wolves and the relationship between individual-level variables and violence. Individuals, how-

ever, can be impacted by participating in extremist groups, pushing individuals toward or away

from violence.

Fourth, coding organizational characteristics for every year a group is in existence is a unique and

innovative approach to examine group-level violence. Although there is some research comparing

the organizational-level characteristics of violent and nonviolent groups (Asal & Rethemeyer, 2008;

Chermak et al., 2013; Oots, 1989), these studies coded their variables statically. Even if an orga-

nization persisted for 10 years and changed dramatically over time, the researchers only coded one

set of characteristics. Our approach connects the violent activities of an organization to its organiza-

tional attributes at that specific time. This strategy is commonly used in political science studies

examining ethnopolitical organizations. For example, studies using the MAROB data collection

effort adopt this approach. We modeled data collection after this important data collection effort,

and, to our knowledge, this is the first time this approach has been used for extremist and groups in

the United States.

Asal et al. 251