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Professor of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University

Steven M. Chermak is a professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. Dr. Chermak is also a lead investigator affiliated with the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education (NCITE) Center of Excellence.

Dr. Chermak’s terrorism research has focused on four general areas. First, he studies the criminal and terrorist activities of domestic terrorists. Projects include understanding patterns of violence of far right, far left, and al-Qaeda inspired extremists, documenting how lone wolf attacks are different than group-inspired terrorist attacks, and examining the characteristics of foiled terrorist plots. Second, he studies ideologically-motivated cyberattacks, focusing on efforts to identify warning signals for prevention. Third, he is studying the sources of funding used by terrorist organizations, with a particular emphasis on examining their use of counterfeited products. This research looks at what crimes terrorist organizations commit to fund their activities, how they are networked to other organizations or individuals to commit such acts, and assesses the impacts of these crimes. Finally, he has studied the media’s role in relation to crime and terrorism issues.

Experience

  • –present
    Professor of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University