Domestic Terrorism Prosecutions Outnumber International

beSpacific 2017-09-21

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse: “While terrorism prosecutions involving extremists affiliated with ISIS grab the headlines, international terrorists make up only a small proportion of all terrorism prosecutions that take place each year in the United States. The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during the first eleven months of FY 2017 less than one in four were classified as international terrorism. Even through defendants born in the United States are counted as international terrorists when they act in support of a foreign terrorist organization, there are still many more cases of domestic as compared with international terrorism prosecuted each year. Over the last five years government documents record 404 prosecutions for domestic terrorism as compared with just 223 for international terrorism. Terrorism prosecutions also fell significantly this past year — down 30.1 percent over FY 2016. The Southern District of Florida (Miami) with 20 prosecutions has been the most active during FY 2017. The District of Washington, D.C. ranked second with 14 prosecutions, followed by the Northern District of Oklahoma (Tulsa) and the Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria) tied for third place with eight prosecutions each. To read the full report, including details on the most common laws prosecuted and the relative role played by various federal investigative agencies, go to: http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/crim/481/