Following the attacks on September 11, 2001, material support of terrorism charges have served as a cornerstone in the U.S. Government’s fight against terrorism. However, empirical research looking at the usage of material support charges is lacking. The primary focus of this study is to determine if material support charges are related to increases in terrorist attack success and scale. Using the American Terrorism Study (ATS), 177 post-9/11 Islamic Extremist-linked court cases including material support charges and 140 terrorist incidents were coded and analyzed using chi-square, logistical regression, and linear regression models. Results revealed that material support charges are related to decreases in the likelihood of incident success due to the presence of human intelligence sources while increasing the potential or actual scale of incidents through the number of participants. In conclusion, the material support of terrorism charge remains to be a highly controversial charge that is often used when human intelligence sources are present in an investigation but is not related to increases in incident success.
","abstract_html":"<p>Following the attacks on September 11, 2001, material support of terrorism charges have served as a cornerstone in the U.S. Government’s fight against terrorism. However, empirical research looking at the usage of material support charges is lacking. The primary focus of this study is to determine if material support charges are related to increases in terrorist attack success and scale. Using the American Terrorism Study (ATS), 177 post-9/11 Islamic Extremist-linked court cases including material support charges and 140 terrorist incidents were coded and analyzed using chi-square, logistical regression, and linear regression models. Results revealed that material support charges are related to decreases in the likelihood of incident success due to the presence of human intelligence sources while increasing the potential or actual scale of incidents through the number of participants. In conclusion, the material support of terrorism charge remains to be a highly controversial charge that is often used when human intelligence sources are present in an investigation but is not related to increases in incident success.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Brecht, Ian David"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts in Sociology (MA)","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Harris, Casey T.","Smith, Brent L."],"advisors":["Shields, Christopher A."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2017-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T00:59:40Z","subjects":["Social sciences","Incident scale and success","Informants","Material support","Terrorism","Terrorism incidents","Terrorism investigations","Criminology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1925","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Harris, Casey T.","Smith, Brent L."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Shields, Christopher A."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Brecht, Ian David"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2017"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2018-05-08T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts in Sociology (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Social sciences","Incident scale and success","Informants","Material support","Terrorism","Terrorism incidents","Terrorism investigations","Criminology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1925"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Following the attacks on September 11, 2001, material support of terrorism charges have served as a cornerstone in the U.S. Government’s fight against terrorism. However, empirical research looking at the usage of material support charges is lacking. The primary focus of this study is to determine if material support charges are related to increases in terrorist attack success and scale. Using the American Terrorism Study (ATS), 177 post-9/11 Islamic Extremist-linked court cases including material support charges and 140 terrorist incidents were coded and analyzed using chi-square, logistical regression, and linear regression models. Results revealed that material support charges are related to decreases in the likelihood of incident success due to the presence of human intelligence sources while increasing the potential or actual scale of incidents through the number of participants. In conclusion, the material support of terrorism charge remains to be a highly controversial charge that is often used when human intelligence sources are present in an investigation but is not related to increases in incident success.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["An Analysis of Material Support of Terrorism and Violent Plots: Scale and Success"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Harris, Casey T.","Smith, Brent L."],"dc:contributor.advisor":["Shields, Christopher A."],"dc:creator":["Brecht, Ian David"],"dc:date":["2017"],"dc:date.available":["2018-05-08T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Following the attacks on September 11, 2001, material support of terrorism charges have served as a cornerstone in the U.S. Government’s fight against terrorism. However, empirical research looking at the usage of material support charges is lacking. The primary focus of this study is to determine if material support charges are related to increases in terrorist attack success and scale. Using the American Terrorism Study (ATS), 177 post-9/11 Islamic Extremist-linked court cases including material support charges and 140 terrorist incidents were coded and analyzed using chi-square, logistical regression, and linear regression models. Results revealed that material support charges are related to decreases in the likelihood of incident success due to the presence of human intelligence sources while increasing the potential or actual scale of incidents through the number of participants. In conclusion, the material support of terrorism charge remains to be a highly controversial charge that is often used when human intelligence sources are present in an investigation but is not related to increases in incident success.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1925"],"dc:subject":["Social sciences","Incident scale and success","Informants","Material support","Terrorism","Terrorism incidents","Terrorism investigations","Criminology"],"dc:title":["An Analysis of Material Support of Terrorism and Violent Plots: Scale and Success"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts in Sociology (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T00:59:40Z"}