Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons^™

Prosecutorial And Judicial Decision-Making In Federal Sovereign Citizen Cases, Kyle Kaminicki

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how ideology and extralegal factors shape prosecutorial and judicial outcomes among sovereign citizens (“sovereigns”) compared to other terrorists accused of committing non-violent crimes in the United States. This study is informed by focal concerns theory (Steffensmeier et al. 1998), which suggests that perceptions of blameworthiness, risk, and other practical implications shape prosecutorial and judicial decision-making.

Data come from the American Terrorism Study (ATS) where several measures are used including terrorist background and other extralegal factors (age, race, gender) for sovereign citizens and terrorists affiliated with other ideologies. Data on 308 sovereign citizens indicted in 158 federal court …

Extreme Ideologies, Situational Factors, And Terrorists’ Target Selection, Evan Mudgett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study is to examine how ideology and situational factors shape terrorist target selection in the United States. While a growing number of studies have examined target selection by terrorists, the current study is the first to consider how combinations of factors present situated opportunities for terrorists to select particular types of targets as opposed to others. Guided by the situational crime prevention approach, this study relies on data from the American Terrorism Study (ATS) to measure attributes of incidents perpetrated by far-right and Islamic extremists and target selection. The outcomes of interest include government versus …