A Review of Public Data About Terrorism and Targeted Violence to Meet U.S. Department of Homeland Security Mission Needs

In September 2019, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released Strategic Framework for Countering Terrorism and Targeted Violence, which calls for better data resources to support DHS efforts to understand and prevent terrorism and targeted violence. This report provides an independent review of DHS needs, existing prominent databases, the alignment of existing databases with DHS data needs, and the quality of prominent databases on terrorism and targeted violence. Results indicate that DHS data needs are broad and complex and that many can be addressed by available unclassified databases. However, several gaps remain. Results also show that the current databases are of sufficient quality for DHS analytic needs but that a gap exists in quality assurance practices in that they are applied inconsistently across the field. Finally, the study shows that many of the available databases were developed to respond to the threat and policy environments in which they were created and that evolving strategic needs and emerging issues could require new definitions, significant updates, and, potentially, new construction of databases to meet DHS needs.