Research & Analysis

An ADL Center on Extremism Report Every year, adherents of a variety of extreme movements and causes kill people in the United States; ADL’s Center on Extremism tracks these murders. In 2017, extremists killed at least 34 people in the U.S., a sharp and welcome decline from the much higher totals for 2016 and 2015, but still the fifth deadliest year since 1970. Unlike 2016, a year dominated by the Pulse nightclub shootings in Orlando, Florida, committed by an Islamic extremist, a…

Read ADL's comprehensive report, Despite Internal Turmoil,Klan Groups Persist (PDF). As of June 2017, the organized Ku Klux Klan movement in the United States consists of just over 40 active Klan groups, a slight increase from early 2016. More than half of the current Klans have formed in the last three years — a powerful illustration of just how short-lived Klan groups continue to be. Current TrendsThe organized Ku Klux Klan movement continues to struggle due to several factors,…

Read ADL's comprehensive report, A Dark and Constant Rage:  25 Years of Right-Wing Terrorism in the United States (PDF). In March 2017, a white supremacist from Maryland, James Harris Jackson, traveled to New York City with the alleged intention of launching a series of violent attacks on black men to discourage white women from having relationships with black men. After several days, Jackson chose his first victim, a 66-year old black homeless man, Timothy Caughman.  …

For Law Enforcement The recent tragic shooting spree in June 2015 that took nine lives at Emanuel AME Church, a predominantly African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, starkly revealed the pain and suffering that someone motivated by hate can cause. The suspect in the shootings, Dylann Storm Roof, is a suspected white supremacist. The horrific incident—following earlier deadly shooting sprees by white supremacists in Kansas, Wisconsin, and elsewhere—makes…

An Anti-Defamation League Report Download the whole report Murder and Extremism in the United States in 2016 (PDF). One word looms over the landscape of deadly extremism and terrorism in the United States in 2016: Orlando.   The June 2016 shooting spree at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, by Omar Mateen—who killed 49 people and wounded 53 more—dwarfed in its lethality all other extremist-related murders this past year.  Mateen, who…

For Law Enforcement Download the whole report: Bloodlust: Viral News and Calls for the Death of the President (PDF). Even in the final months of the Obama presidency, an ADL investigation has uncovered, calls on social media for the assassination or execution of President Barack Obama are commonplace.  On a regular basis, angry Americans post sentiments such as "If Obama is captured, I will gladly get the noose ready and pull the lever" to social media websites. These calls for…

ADL continues to receive a troubling number of complaints about children, adolescents and teenagers engaging in anti-Semitic behavior, both on and off school grounds. These incidents include physical assaults, threats of violence, and verbal and written taunts promoting anti-Semitic stereotypes or evoking disturbing Holocaust themes.   The following is a list of selected incidents in 2015 that represent anti-Semitic bullying of children, adolescents and teenagers by their peers: …

For Law Enforcement Read the full comprehensive report, The Sovereign Citizen Movement: Common Documentary Identifiers & Examples (PDF). The sovereign citizen movement is a right-wing anti-government extremist movement that dates back to 1970.  In its nearly half-century history, adherents of the movement have employed a large number of pseudo-legal arguments and concepts and evolved a number of linguistic and other “tics” that make many documents created by…

Read the full report here: Tattered Robes: The State of the Ku Klux Klan in the United States (PDF). Despite a persistent ability to attract media attention, organized Ku Klux Klan groups are actually continuing a long-term trend of decline. They remain a collection of mostly small, disjointed groups that continually change in name and leadership. Down slightly from a year ago, there are currently just over thirty active Klan groups in the United States, most of them very small. However,…

For Law Enforcement Read the full comprehensive report, White Supremacist Prison Gangs in the United States: A Preliminary Inventory (PDF). Read the Anti-Defamation League's letter to Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch (PDF). With rising numbers and an increasing geographical spread, white supremacist prison gangs have been the fastest-growing segment of the white supremacist movement in the United States in recent years, accompanied by a related rise in crime and…

  Read the full comprehensive report, The ISIS Impact on the Domestic Islamic Extremist Threat: Homegrown Islamic Extremism 2009-2015 (PDF). In 2015, 80 U.S. residents were linked to terror plots and other activity motivated by Islamic extremist ideology.  They were either arrested, charged or otherwise publicly identified for their involvement in crimes ranging from providing support, attempting to fund or traveling to join terrorist groups abroad, or planning or assisting…

There was an increase in anti-Israel activity on American college campuses during the latest academic year with students actively working to promote Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns against Israel. Student groups that are well-known for their efforts to isolate the Jewish state advocated for a variety of BDS-related initiatives in an effort to push forward their agenda and punish Israel. The most prevalent BDS initiative on campus involved the introduction of divestment…

Read the full comprehensive report, Anatomy of a Standoff:  The Occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters (PDF). On January 2, a loosely organized group of armed anti-government extremists led by Ammon Bundy seized control of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters buildings located near the town of Burns in remote southeastern Oregon.  They did it because two local ranchers, Dwight and Steven Hammond, had been ordered to report to federal…

The total number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States increased by 21 percent in 2014 in a year marked by a violent anti-Semitic shooting attack targeting Jewish community buildings in Kansas and anti-Jewish expressions linked to the war in Gaza. The Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents counted a total of 912 anti-Semitic incidents across the U.S. during the 2014 calendar year. This represents a 21 percent increase from the 751 incidents…

For Law Enforcement This report was updated on March 21, 2016Eighty-one U.S. residents were linked to Islamic extremist plots and other activity in 2015. This is nearly triple the total of each of the past two years: 28 individuals living in the U.S. were linked to such terrorism in all of 2014 and 22 in 2013. These numbers include individuals arrested and charged, individuals who died abroad allegedly fighting with terrorist organizations, and uncharged minors who allegedly…

The White Power Music Scene in the United States For Law Enforcement Read the full, comprehensive report, The Sounds of Hate: The White Power Music Scene in the United States in 2012 (PDF). The recent tragic shooting spree at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, in which Wade Michael Page killed six people before killing himself after a shootout with police, has drawn attention to the shadowy world of white power music.  Page, a committed white supremacist and member of the…

Anti-Israel activity on American college campuses was largely dominated by Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns in the latest academic year. Student groups that are well-known for their outspoken opposition to Israeli policy advocated for a variety of BDS-related initiatives in an effort to isolate and delegitimize Israel. The most prevalent BDS initiative on campus involved the introduction and debate of divestment resolutions by the campus’s student government. Fifteen…