There has been little empirical research on the spatial relationship of violent far-right extremism. Previous studies have only focused on portions of far-right violent incidents, such as homicides, or amalgamated all far-right extremist activity, including legal incidents. This study uses data from the Extremist Crime Database (ECDB) and Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in a temporal frame of 2000 to 2018 to test the relationship of violent incidents against geographic and social factors. The goal is to explore the relationships between macro-level factors and violent far-right extremist incident. The research determines that the presence of hate groups, higher immigrant populations, higher unemployment rates, higher education levels and higher urbanicity in counties all indicate an increased likelihood a violent extremist far-right incident will take place.
","abstract_html":"<p>There has been little empirical research on the spatial relationship of violent far-right extremism. Previous studies have only focused on portions of far-right violent incidents, such as homicides, or amalgamated all far-right extremist activity, including legal incidents. This study uses data from the Extremist Crime Database (ECDB) and Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in a temporal frame of 2000 to 2018 to test the relationship of violent incidents against geographic and social factors. The goal is to explore the relationships between macro-level factors and violent far-right extremist incident. The research determines that the presence of hate groups, higher immigrant populations, higher unemployment rates, higher education levels and higher urbanicity in counties all indicate an increased likelihood a violent extremist far-right incident will take place.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Lerma, Meredith LeAnn"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science in Geography (MS)","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Gruenewald, Jeffrey A.","Holland, Edward C."],"advisors":["Davidson, Fiona M."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-07-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2020-07-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T00:58:26Z","subjects":["Far-Right Extremism","Geospatial","Hate Groups","Spatial Patterns","Terrorism","United States","Violent Incidents","American Studies","Criminology and Criminal Justice","Critical and Cultural Studies","Human Geography","Spatial Science"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/3768","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Gruenewald, Jeffrey A.","Holland, Edward C."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Davidson, Fiona M."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Lerma, Meredith LeAnn"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2020"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2020-09-25T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science in Geography (MS)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Far-Right Extremism","Geospatial","Hate Groups","Spatial Patterns","Terrorism","United States","Violent Incidents","American Studies","Criminology and Criminal Justice","Critical and Cultural Studies","Human Geography","Spatial Science"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/3768"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["There has been little empirical research on the spatial relationship of violent far-right extremism. Previous studies have only focused on portions of far-right violent incidents, such as homicides, or amalgamated all far-right extremist activity, including legal incidents. This study uses data from the Extremist Crime Database (ECDB) and Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in a temporal frame of 2000 to 2018 to test the relationship of violent incidents against geographic and social factors. The goal is to explore the relationships between macro-level factors and violent far-right extremist incident. The research determines that the presence of hate groups, higher immigrant populations, higher unemployment rates, higher education levels and higher urbanicity in counties all indicate an increased likelihood a violent extremist far-right incident will take place.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Far-Right Extremism in America: A Geospatial Analysis of Incident Distribution"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Gruenewald, Jeffrey A.","Holland, Edward C."],"dc:contributor.advisor":["Davidson, Fiona M."],"dc:creator":["Lerma, Meredith LeAnn"],"dc:date":["2020"],"dc:date.available":["2020-09-25T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["There has been little empirical research on the spatial relationship of violent far-right extremism. Previous studies have only focused on portions of far-right violent incidents, such as homicides, or amalgamated all far-right extremist activity, including legal incidents. This study uses data from the Extremist Crime Database (ECDB) and Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in a temporal frame of 2000 to 2018 to test the relationship of violent incidents against geographic and social factors. The goal is to explore the relationships between macro-level factors and violent far-right extremist incident. The research determines that the presence of hate groups, higher immigrant populations, higher unemployment rates, higher education levels and higher urbanicity in counties all indicate an increased likelihood a violent extremist far-right incident will take place.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/3768"],"dc:subject":["Far-Right Extremism","Geospatial","Hate Groups","Spatial Patterns","Terrorism","United States","Violent Incidents","American Studies","Criminology and Criminal Justice","Critical and Cultural Studies","Human Geography","Spatial Science"],"dc:title":["Far-Right Extremism in America: A Geospatial Analysis of Incident Distribution"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science in Geography (MS)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T00:58:26Z"}