Assessing and reporting leaking of violent intent: Influences of perpetrator and witness characteristics
| Published date | 01 May 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14773708221120004 |
| Author | Laura Tampe,Rebecca Bondü |
| Date | 01 May 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Assessing and reporting leaking
of violent intent: Influences
of perpetrator and witness
characteristics
Laura Tampe and Rebecca Bondü
Psychologische Hochschule Berlin, Germany
Abstract
Because the police are reliant on laypersons to report announcements (leaking) of terrorist
attacks, it is crucial to examine potential determinants for their assessment of the seriousness
of leaking and the likelihood to report it. Members of the law enforcement authorities also
need to decide which instances of leaking to prosecute further. We asked 392 laypersons and
188 police students to assess the seriousness and anticipated likelihood to report/prosecute leak-
ing. Using a behavioral process tracing (BPT) task, we examined which further information they
consider important for their decisions. We also assessed participant characteristics that may influ-
ence these decisions. Laypersons rated the seriousness of leaking higher than police students, but
were less likely to report it to the police than police students were likely to have the leaking pro-
secuted. Both groups selected information about the potential perpetrator’s criminal history, pol-
itical attitude, and repetition of leaking most frequently. Accordingly, receiving information about
the potential perpetrator’s criminal past, right-wing attitude, and repetition of leaking in the BPT
task was associated with increases in the seriousness ratings and the likelihood to report/pros-
ecute leaking in both groups. Concerning the participants’characteristics, particularly fear of ter-
rorism (and partly political attitude and news consumption) predicted both the seriousness ratings
and the likelihood to report/prosecute leaking. In conclusion, characteristics of both the potential
perpetrator and the participants drove the decisions. Thus, it seems important to provide more
information about the concept of leaking and to emphasize its importance in preventing terrorist
attacks in order to improve the likelihood to report/prosecute it. Additionally, the developmentof
objective assessment criteria for the police seems essential in order to reduce the influence of
witnesses’characteristics on these decisions.
Keywords
reporting behavior, terrorism, warning signs, fear of terrorism
Corresponding author:
Rebecca Bondü, Psychologische Hochschule Berlin, Am Köllnischen Park 2, 10179 Berlin, Germany.
Email: r.bondue@phb.de
Article
European Journal of Criminology
2023, Vol. 20(3) 1164–1184
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/14773708221120004
journals.sagepub.com/home/euc
Introduction
The number of jihadist and right-wing terrorist attacks in Western societies increased
during the last two decades (Boers et al., 2017; Bondü et al., 2019). This also increased
the need for preventive measures. Prior announcements of such offenses (“leaking”) are
an important starting point for thwarting these attacks, because they were noticed by the
social environment of later perpetrators in all or almost all cases (Bondü, 2012;
Dudenhoefer et al., 2021). Often, however, leaking was neither reported to the police
nor otherwise responded to (Hassan et al., 2021). It is unclear which factors influence
whether witnesses consider leaking to be serious, that is, likely to be put into action,
and are willing to report or prosecute it. Because leaking needs to be recognized and
adequately responded to by both laypersons and police staff, the present study examined
which information about a potential perpetrator and which characteristics of the witnesses
may influence the seriousness assessment of and the likelihood to report/prosecute
leaking. Thus, our study aims to add to the knowledge about leaking by providing
deeper insights into the perception of and responses to leaking by laypersons and
members of the police force, thereby aiding the development of more effective reporting
and prosecuting systems.
Leaking
Leaking was first described in school shootings (O’Toole, 1999). It includes announce-
ments and thematically specific behaviors by which potential perpetrators reveal ideas,
intentions, or plans for an offense prior to its perpetration. Leaking is potentially observ-
able, thematically related to the intended offense, and signals the interest in, occupation
with, and/or planning of an offense (Bondü, 2012). It can take forms of clear or veiled
written or verbal statements (e.g. “I will bomb the airport”); an intense interest in
weapons, prior perpetrators, or prior offenses; gestures; and observable behavior (e.g.
building a bomb). All investigated school shooters showed leaking repeatedly and typic-
ally early in the development toward an offense. In addition, leaking was more common
than most other risk factors in perpetrators of severe public violence, but rarer than most
other risk factors for this behavior in the general population (e.g. violent media consump-
tion, a criminal record; Bondü and Scheithauer, 2014, 2015). Therefore, it provides the
opportunity to more reliably detect and prevent planned offenses than other factors.
However, when confronted with leaking, witnesses first have to recognize it as such
and then assess its seriousness to decide whether they want to inform the law enforcement
authorities. Members of these authorities in turn need to assess the seriousness of leaking
to decide if and how to intervene.
Leaking was observed prior to up to 96% of terrorist attacks (Dudenhoefer et al., 2021;
Tampe and Bondü, 2022). It frequently occurred on the Internet (Capellan and
Lewandowski, 2018), which offers anonymity and the opportunity to connect with
other extremists. In general, witnesses were hesitant to report suspicious behavior to
law enforcement (Grossman, 2019; Pearce et al., 2020; Thomas et al., 2017), whereas-
written leaking was more frequently reported to the police than verbal or behavior-related
leaking because witnesses had evidence for their concerns (Craun et al., 2020). Family
Tampe and Bondü 1165
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