Linguistic analysis of lone offender manifestos

Abstract

The Internet and social media allow people to spread their views rapidly to a large group of people. While the right to freely express one’s ideas and views is a cornerstone in a democratic society, in some cases the Internet can serve as a breeding ground for violent extremism and terrorism. Hence, in order to protect democracy, effective techniques of Internet surveillance are needed. Previous research has shown that there is a connection between word use and psychological states. The text analysis tool Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) counts words in psychologically meaningful categories. Based on the relative frequency of words from the different categories, conclusions can be drawn about the author of for instance a blog text. In this work, we have explored the characteristics of written communication produced by ten different lone offenders prior to their engagement in targeted violence. We found eight possible indicators of the drives and emotions that preceded their attacks.