Existing counterterrorism policy is mostly focused on preventing violent extremism. The problem is violent extremism is rare. Most extremists will never engage in violence. Some extremists will commit nonviolent crimes to advance their cause, such as fraud or vandalism, and others will be involved in legal activities, such as protesting or advocacy. However, little is known about the factors that distinguish violent extremists from their nonviolent and noncriminal counterparts, and prior research in this area has been methodologically limited. To address this gap, this study leverages a multifactor criminological approach by considering how a sample of (n=739) violent, nonviolent criminal, and nonoffending extremists drawn from the Risk and Protective Factors Dataset (RPFD) may differ in the criminogenic risk and protective factors they demonstrate. Latent class analysis is used to derive distinct classes of criminogenic risk, and the LTB method of distal outcome prediction is employed to estimate the relationship between classes of criminogenic risk and the type of action extremists engaged in. Classes with a high probability of strain-related risk factors were most likely to engage in extremist violence. Alternatively, classes with a high probability of protective factors were most likely to be involved in nonviolent or nonoffending extremism. Broadly, these findings reiterate the equifinality and multifinality of extremist violence. Findings from this dissertation have numerous theoretical, methodological, and practical implications. Specifically, this dissertation contributes to the development of criminological theory and advances methods of scientific inquiry into this area of study. Further, this dissertation highlights the importance of considering criminogenic factors in ongoing counterterrorism preventative efforts.
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