The media have influenced domestic extremists who are targeting the police, and this is related to negative emotions among the police. These extremists are targeting police officers based on how events are framed by the media. In this way, the media have influenced domestic extremists' target selection and caused negative emotions among police officers because they are now the targets. The purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to understand the perceptions of police officers about how the media have influenced domestic extremists to target them. The narrative of this qualitative inquiry was guided by a semistructured interview sample consisting of 15 patrol officers discussing their views and opinions of the media's effect on domestic extremism and negative emotions among the police. Coding and themes facilitated the analyses of the data. By examining the narratives of police officers, 5 themes developed which include: having a positive attitude, motivational factors, meaning of responsibility, media effects and having a support system and fourteen subthemes were extracted and valuable insights were gained on how patrol officers handled different situations like the media, extremists, and their emotions. Involving the opinions of police officers in developing more efficient response training is critical for social change. These results will promote positive social change by providing a better understanding of police perceptions and the potential to educate the public about the actual work of police officers, to create understanding between the police and the public; and by identifying strategies to update future training programs for the police.

I cover three topics in empirical microeconomics. In the first chapter, titled Investor Attention to Firm versus Market-wide Information Shocks: Evidence from North Korean Missile Tests, I study whether attention towards salient political events leads to underutilization of firm-specific information in the South Korean stock market. I find that companies with earnings surprises in the top quartile experience a 1.6% increase in the abnormal return on the announcement day, but a same-day missile test takes away 70% of the positive response. In the second chapter, titled Does Cultural Proximity Mitigate the Effect of Immigration on Electoral Outcomes? (with Gerard Domènech), we study the effect of immigration on electoral outcomes using individual-level administrative data in Spain. In a multiple instrumentations framework, we find that recent immigrants who arrived within two years are associated with an increase in the vote share of the extremist parties. Such an effect persists for additional two years but dissipates in the long-term. When split by regions of origin, African immigrants have the greatest impact, followed by Latin American immigrants. European immigrants do not affect the extremist vote shares. An analysis of the unemployment rate and the number of children suggests that immigrants tend to assimilate over time. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that cultural proximity mitigates the political reaction to immigrants. In the third chapter, titled The Effect of Daddy Quota on Gender Labor Market Outcomes (with Petra Niedermeyerova), we study the impact of a father-specific parental leave policy on labor market outcomes in Quebec, Canada. Using a province-level difference-in-difference approach, we find that the so-called daddy quota increases the probability of employment for women and decreases the wage of younger men. The results suggest that the daddy quota promoted equal opportunities for women in the labor market. In a theoretical framework, we show that policy-driven changes in gender norms are consistent with our findings.

This study assesses the problem of youth radicalization and violent extremism in the northeast region of Nigeria. The study aimed to identify and explain the major factors that make these youths in the region vulnerable to the radical ideologies of Boko Haram, how these factors have interacted and resulted in them being sympathetic to terrorism in the region or being actively involved in the act. With these factors in mind, the study also aimed to critically access the government’s non-militarized response to violent extremism in order to ascertain whether or not these factors that have lured the youths into violent extremism in the first place have been taken into consideration in the design and implementation of such programs. Designed as a case study, the study relies on secondary data for its analysis and finds that poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, the almajeri system of Islamic education, and strong religious beliefs have been major risk factors for radicalization in the region. Also, findings show that the government’s deradicalization programs are flawed in their design and implementation, do not aim to address the root causes of radicalization into extremism, and give preferential treatment to repentant terrorists at the expense of the actual victims. I conclude by arguing that deradicalization in the region is in some way having a counter-effect (serving as an incentive for people to get radicalized into extremism) and also recommend further research on this with a possible comparative focus on other deradicalization programs in the country, past and present.

Syfte med denna magisteruppsats är att överskådligt undersöka hur polisprogrammen förlagda vid de fem olika lärosäten och högskolorna/universiteten i Sverige: Högskolan i Borås, Linnéuniversitetet i Växjö, Malmöuniversitetet, Södertörns högskola samt Umeå universitet utbildar polisstuderande inom diskriminering, extremism, fanatism, fundamentalism, hatbrott, hedersbrott, våldsbejakande grupperingar och terrorism. Vidare syftar denna magisteruppsats till att utreda hur utbildningarna för polisprogrammen skiljer sig åt när det gäller det valda områden. En enkätundersökning sändes till lärarna vid respektive lärosäte. Resultaten visar på varierande svar bland lärosäten men huvudresultat är att utbildning inom diskriminering, extremism, fanatism, fundamentalism, hatbrott, hedersbrott, våldsbejakande grupperingar och terrorism är bristfällig, mer utbildning behövs inom området. / The purpose of this master's thesis is to clearly examine how the police educations located at the five different universities in Sweden: The University of Borås, Linnaeus University in Växjö, Malmö University, Södertörn University and Umeå University educate police students in discrimination, extremism, fanaticism, fundamentalism, hate crimes, honor crimes, violent groups and terrorism. Furthermore, this master's thesis aims to demonstrate how much the education for the police programs differs for the selected subject areas where a survey aimed at the teachers at the respective higher education institution was sent out and where it could be made visible to a large extent the varying answers together with the comparison of the course content from the respective higher education institution. The overall results of both my survey and also previous related research show that education in discrimination, extremism, fanaticism, fundamentalism, hate crimes, honor crimes, violent groups and terrorism is poor in the public sector in general and that more education is generally needed due to Sweden's changed demographics over time.

abstract: In the artificial intelligence literature, three forms of reasoning are commonly employed to understand agent behavior: inductive, deductive, and abductive.  More recently, data-driven approaches leveraging ideas such as machine learning, data mining, and social network analysis have gained popularity. While data-driven variants of the aforementioned forms of reasoning have been applied separately, there is little work on how data-driven approaches across all three forms relate and lend themselves to practical applications. Given an agent behavior and the percept sequence, how one can identify a specific outcome such as the likeliest explanation? To address real-world problems, it is vital to understand the different types of reasonings which can lead to better data-driven inference.   This dissertation has laid the groundwork for studying these relationships and applying them to three real-world problems. In criminal modeling, inductive and deductive reasonings are applied to early prediction of violent criminal gang members. To address this problem the features derived from the co-arrestee social network as well as geographical and temporal features are leveraged. Then, a data-driven variant of geospatial abductive inference is studied in missing person problem to locate the missing person. Finally, induction and abduction reasonings are studied for identifying pathogenic accounts of a cascade in social networks. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Computer Science 2019

THE EXTREMIST ORGANISATION'S POTENTIAL IN ADDRESSING TEENAGERS IN CZECH REPUBLIC Theses MIROSLAVA PAPAJIKOVÁ Abstract This paper is engaged in teenagers and their attitude towards the extremist organisation. The author sums up basic connotations of terms used in connection with the extremism. She acquaints readers with the best known extremist organisation in Czech republic and their methods how to address other people, namely teenagers. However, the text is focused especially on the real situation and that s why it contains an empirical part dedicated to research, where she submits and evaluates the dates obtained from questionnaires. The aim of this text is an analyse of the attitude of teenagers (without the right to vote) to the extremist organisation and vice versa the attitude of this organisation to the teenagers. The hypothesis is based on the notion that teenagers join the extremist organisation because of their dissatisfaction with the political situation and even as the absence of the right to vote.

La notion de terrorisme international relève de deux critères, l’un emprunté à des actes qui constituent l’assise de l’action terroriste, l’autre tiré de circonstances particulières, qui tiennent à une relation avec une entreprise individuelle ou collective ayant pour but de troubler gravement l’ordre public par l’intimidation ou la terreur. La communauté internationale est confrontée depuis la fin de l’effondrement de l’Union soviétique à l’internationalisation d’un mouvement radical extrémiste l’organisation wahhabite Al-Qaïda. Les attaques terroristes organisées par cette mouvance menacent aujourd’hui la sécurité mondiale. Ses actes extrémistes, criminels et terroristes visent à tuer les gens sans distinction entre les enfants et les femmes, car ils ne considèrent pas comme interdits de tels actes. La scène internationale est devenue de plus en plus menacée par l’idéologie wahhabite d’origine saoudienne à laquelle appartenaient quinze des dix-neuf kamikazes de New York et Washington. Face au problème que pose le terrorisme, les Etats ont réagi, mais chacun à sa manière, en prenant des mesures nécessaires en fonction de leur propre système juridique. Leurs objectifs sont de renforcer la répression, de faciliter le travail des enquêteurs et de rendre les jugements plus rapides. Le plus souvent, de nouvelles lois pénales ou de nouveaux textes ont été adoptés par les Parlements dans plusieurs Etats pour lutter contre ce phénomène international. Les réponses juridiques des droits nationaux restent jusqu’à présent les véritables instruments de lutte contre les actions terroristes. Elles sont l’occasion d’approfondir les réflexions sur les motivations profondes des terroristes, leurs méthodes et leurs objectifs. Elles permettent de réprimer le financement des mouvements terroristes et le blanchiment d’argent, en se basant sur les directives internationales du GAFI et du Comité Contre le terrorisme (CCT). Mots clefs en français : Lutte antiterroriste, légitime défense, agression armée, coopération européenne, menace terroriste, approches et lacunes juridiques / The notion of international terrorism is based on two criteria: one borrowed from actions that constitute the foundation of terrorist acts, the other drawn from particular circumstances coming from a relationship with an individual or collective organization whose objective is to seriously damage public security by intimidation or terror. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the international community is confronted by a radical extremist organization wahhabite Al-Qaïda. The terrorist attacks organized by this movement threaten global security today. These extremist criminal terrorist acts target civilians without distinction - women and children included - because they do not consider such acts as forbidden. The international scene has become more and more threatened today by wahhabite ideology whose Saudi origins included fifteen of the nineteen suicide-bombers responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Faced with the problem posed by terrorism, the international community reacted, each in their own way, by taking necessary measures that conform to their own legal system. Their objectives are to reinforce repression, facilitate the work of investigators and speed up court decisions. New penal laws or new texts have been introduced by several countries in order to confront this international phenomenon. The legal responses of national laws remain until today veritable instruments of confrontation against terrorist acts. These laws serve to deepen the understanding of terrorist motivations, their methods and their goals. By basing these laws on the international directives of the GAFI (Groupe d'Action financière) and the Committee Against Terrorism (CCT), they also serve to combat the financing of terrorist movements as well as money laundering. Keywords : anti-terrorist struggle, international law, European cooperation, extremist criminal terrorist acts

Acts of lone extremism are on the rise, yet little is known about who commits these acts. Research in this area has failed to delineate by extremist subtype. This has led to the misconception these acts and actors present with such variance psychosocially that they cannot be predicted. The purpose of this research was to assess whether statistically significant relationships exist between lone extremist subtypes on the psychosocial variables of mental illness, substance use, and having radicalized friends or family members. The conceptual framework for this study was De La Corte's psychosocial principles of terrorism, which addressed the social and political influences of terrorism with the complex psychosocial constructs that may exist. The Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States was chosen as the dataset and includes de-identified individual-level information on 1,865 extremists. The research questions that guided this study sought to determine if significant differences exist between 4 lone extremist subtypes across 4 psychosocial variables. Crosstabulation analysis and multiple chi-square tests for independence were used to test the relationship between categorical variables. Statistically significant relationships were found among each lone extremist subtype and having radicalized family members and friends (p=.00). In terms of mental illness, far left extremists were the only extremist subtype that yielded a significant relationship (p=.00). Also, a significant relationship was found between substance use and far right (p=.00), far left (p=.01), and single issue (p=.04) extremists. In terms of social change, this research presented support for studying lone extremism by subtype and also provided a foundation towards constructing a predictive model.

Diploma thesis "Constitutional aspects of protection of democratic principles in EU countries", examines the occurrence of aspects in EU constitutions, which protect constitutions from paradox of democracy. Paradox of democracy is an attribute of democracy, when democracy itself within its own democratic processes can transform to an undemocratic regime. The thesis aims to the occurrence of constitutional aspects, which can provide protection against the paradox of democracy. The research is based on created model situation, which provides a base for observation of relevancy of individual aspects of constitutional protections of democratic principles. From conducted research the diploma thesis provides evaluation of potential strength of each aspect of constitutional protection of democratic principles, and also provides ranking of EU countries in this area. The end of the thesis deals with three countries, which ended last in the ranking and tries to evaluate the risk of change to undemocratic regime, on base on occurrence of extremist parties in parliaments of these countries

The barbaric and targeted killings of police officers have become a growing epidemic facing the nation. An immediate consequence has created the monumental task in protecting the men and women who daily put their lives on the line on behalf of the public. Staggering national numbers over these last ten years has indicated a strong surge in the number of law enforcement officers being ambushed by domestic extremists. The purpose of the current research study was to present an overall awareness and threat picture to the law enforcement and academic communities to better educate men and women in law enforcement and to explain who exactly are these domestic extremist groups and/or individuals carrying out this violence and their ideologies and traits that make them crave such an outcome. The current research study utilized a strong exploratory qualitative focus by interviewing several law enforcement members and intelligence personnel in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area to (a) gauge their jurisdictional domestic extremist threat picture; (b) to understand what policing tactics were being employed currently to produce effective “officer safety” protocols while embracing community relationships (if any); and (c) what recommendations they may have for other jurisdictions that will keep safe law enforcement men and women. If one law enforcement life can be saved from the current research study, then every second spent on the research was well worth it.