A Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence led by the University of Maryland

A consortium of researchers dedicated to improving the understanding of the human causes and consequences of terrorism

DHS renews support for the Integrated U.S. Security Database (IUSSD)

Collaborative effort expands empirical data on terrorists and events

February 26, 2013Andres Feijoo

With nearly $820,000 in new grant funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate's Resilient Systems Division, researchers at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) look to further advance the scientific study of terrorism and violent extremism in the United States through the Integrated U.S. Security Database (IUSSD). The IUSSD project, which was initially funded in 2009, is a collaborative effort among START Consortium researchers based at John Jay College, Michigan State University, the University of Arkansas and the University of Maryland.

The goal of the project is to enhance, validate and expand empirical data on terrorism and extremist violence in the United States by integrating existing data sources including the American Terrorism Study (ATS), the Extremist Crime Database (ECDB), the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) and Profiles of Perpetrators of Terrorism in the United States (PPT-US). Over the past three years, the IUSSD team has been working closely to merge data into one integrated database. The framework for the database -- the Terrorism and Extremist Violence in the United States (TEVUS) Database -- has been developed.

The researchers plan to pilot the database later this summer for a small group of potential end users. This year, the research team will continue with the data collection and integration while engaging in collaborative research generating analysis and reports based on the new data.

"The end goal of the project is to create a functional, accessible relational database that will be used by researchers and practitioners to conduct analyses and provide insights into the dynamics of terrorist activity and extremist crime in the United States." said Daniella Fridl, IUSSD Co-Principal Investigator and Assistant Research Director at START.

Integrating the data into a single database will be a significant step towards improving the ability to understand the threats that terrorist and violent extremist activities pose to public safety and towards developing policies to address those threats.