PIRUS holds 2,226 US extremists spanning 1948 to 2018

Evidence

The Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS) database is arguably the most influential and comprehensive database on the topic of domestic radicalization.a It is a database of “2,226 Islamist, far-left, far-right, and single-issue extremists who have radicalized to violent and non-violent extremism in the United States from 1948 through 2018.”b Although the database does not solely contain information from primary sources, it does include information from interviews with radicalized or formerly radicalized individuals and their family, friends, or associates. — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America, 140

Categorization

• QUESTION: The PIRUS database recurs throughout this study’s findings — worth chasing how representative its interviews are.