How the NVE Tracker Defines NVE

Nihilistic violent extremism (NVE) has become a common label used in government reporting, prosecutions, and research on targeted violence, but there is little agreement on what the concept actually means. Europol acknowledges this in its 2026 Terrorism Situation and Trend Report, noting that there is “no agreed definition of nihilistic violent extremism at [the] EU level” even though member states commonly use the concept. Definitions in use today range from the view that NVE is not a distinct phenomenon at all to ones broad enough to include almost any actor who wants to cause widespread harm. This disagreement makes the task of compiling a database of NVE events challenging. Depending on the definition one adopts, the resulting data could be so limited in scope that they lose any analytic value or so broad that they fail to capture something cohesive and unique.

This explainer details how PERIL's NVE Tracker defines the concept and, more importantly, how it operationalizes that definition in practice to produce a database of criminal events linked to NVE. It describes the range of definitions in circulation, situates the Tracker's definition among them, and shows how the Tracker's inclusion criteria are applied in practice through six inclusion variables, each capturing a type of observable evidence. It concludes by showing how these variables overlap across the 389 incidents in the Tracker as of November 6, 2026.

Definitions of NVE diverge the most on the role that ideology plays in the phenomenon. NVE has a complicated history with ideologically motivated extremism, particularly neo-Nazi accelerationism. Early NVE groups such as CVLT and No Lives Matter drew on Order of Nine Angles occultism and accelerationist texts, and ideological symbols still circulate widely in the online spaces associated with NVE. The perpetrators of NVE attacks have modeled the aesthetics of terrorist groups, co-opted their language, and expressed their hate. Yet, most analysts think NVE falls outside of traditional terrorism, and many downplay the role that ideology plays as a motivating factor for violence. Definitions, therefore, tend to vary on how much or how little ideology is highlighted as a distinguishing characteristic of NVE. Definitions of NVE are typically one of the following four types:

Dismissive

NVE is not a distinct phenomenon

The term is an oxymoron, since nihilism denies purpose while extremism requires goals. Actors are either ideological extremists or criminals.

Clifford (Lawfare, 2026)

Restrictive

No detectable ideology

NVE is defined by the absence of an ideological motive. The presence of ideology disqualifies a case from being NVE.

“Non-ideologically motivated violent extremism.”

UK Home Affairs Committee; ISD; GNET; GPAHE

Conditional

Ideology as aesthetic or rationalization

Ideology may be present, but it is incoherent, modeled as an aesthetic, or used after the fact to justify violence.

“Lack clear and coherent ideological objectives.”

Europol; ADL; RSIS; Argentino & Hart

Inclusive

Ideology is not a bar to inclusion

Any actor pursuing societal collapse qualifies, including those seeking political, social, or religious ends.

“In furtherance of political, social, or religious goals.”

FBI / DOJ; CSIS; RCMP; NCITE; IEP

← NarrowerBroader →

Quotations are from the UK Home Affairs Committee (2026), Europol TE-SAT (2026), and FBI/DOJ charging language (2025). Few definitions are consistent across every issue; the FBI's comes closest to fully inclusive.

PERIL definition

Nihilistic violent extremism is a form of targeted violence characterized by a deep rejection of existing social, political, and moral structures, often accompanied by a desire to accelerate their collapse. NVE actors are frequently driven by a destructive nihilism and misanthropic worldview. They believe that society is irredeemably corrupt and that mass violence, chaos, or societal breakdown are ends worth pursuing even if they do not lead to a fundamental reordering of society that improves their lives.

The Tracker's definition sits between the conditional and inclusive positions described above. Ideology is not disqualifying in the Tracker's definition. Indeed, within NVE spaces, nihilism and misanthropy act as quasi-ideologies that organize a community, create shared beliefs and aesthetics, and even prescribe behaviors, such as violent tactics and targets of attacks. What sets NVE apart according to the Tracker's definition is that the perpetrators of NVE take action whether or not they think those actions will help a broader movement achieve political, economic, religious, or social change. Many NVE perpetrators do not think that type of change is even possible. NVE perpetrators are primarily motivated by the personal meaning, gratification, and notoriety they gain from transgressive behavior.

The goal of this explainer is not to argue that the definition of NVE used in the Tracker is the “right” or “best” one. Rather, the goal is to provide greater clarity on what the Tracker is trying to capture and help users decide the extent to which the database models their own definition of NVE. To that end, the Tracker's definition is operationalized through a set of inclusion rules that make it possible for data collectors to decide whether a given case belongs in the database and help users make informed decisions about how they use the data. As noted above, the NVE Tracker is a database of criminal events, and, as such, its inclusion rules start with a scope condition that outlines what constitutes a crime. The Tracker then looks for at least one of three optional inclusion criteria related to the concept of NVE itself. The Tracker's inclusion criteria are as follows:

1Required

Legal or lethal threshold

The event resulted in criminal charges, a court-approved risk protection order, or an attempted or completed attack the perpetrator did not survive. Online rhetoric or participation that does not lead to prosecution or violence is excluded.

+At least
one of

2Optional

Group linkage

The event was linked to a known NVE group, such as 764, No Lives Matter, or Maniac Murder Cult.

3Optional

Legacy motivation

The event was motivated by past NVE perpetrators, as evidenced in statements, manifestos, or other legacy tokens.

4Optional

Professed NVE views

A misanthropic worldview, a belief that society is irredeemably corrupt, and personal or social objectives (gratification, clout) rather than political ones.

Criteria 2 through 4 above describe in broad terms what needs to be present for a case to be considered NVE, but they do not describe what evidence a data collector should look for in a court filing or news report to determine if the criteria are met. The Tracker's inclusion criteria are operationalized through six inclusion variables. Each of the six variables below is a type of observable evidence that maps directly to one or more of the inclusion criteria and is used to determine if an event should be included in the database.

Inclusion variable & coding rule	Crit. 2 Group linkage	What it evidences	Incidents
The Com Documented evidence linking the perpetrators to The Com ecosystem, including SadEx Com, IRL Com, and/or Cyber Com.		Documented ties to The Com ecosystem indicate familiarity with, or links to, named NVE networks (criterion 2), such as 764, No Lives Matter, and Maniac Murder Cult. The Com also promotes transgressive behavior as a means for achieving notoriety (criterion 4).	185
TCC Documented evidence linking the perpetrators to the fringe true crime community that venerates mass killers and encourages violence.		Participation in the TCC can be a direct or indirect indicator of legacy motivation (criterion 3) and often includes explicit references to the desire to emulate past attackers. Activity in online spaces preoccupied with amplifying attackers for notoriety is also one of the main ways criterion 4 is inferred.	130
Gore Documented evidence linking the perpetrators to gore networks, meaning the perpetrator produced, shared, or consumed graphic real-world death or extreme violence imagery.		Producing, sharing, or consuming graphic real-world violence can be a marker of a misanthropic worldview (criterion 4). Gore activity is concentrated in Com networks, indicating that it, too, can be evidence of criterion 2.	135
Tribute/Veneration Documented evidence linking perpetrators to the public veneration of past attackers.		Tributes, legacy tokens, and the veneration of attackers are often direct evidence that criterion 3 has been met. Perpetrators can pay homage to past attackers through fan art, weapon or gear inscriptions, manifestos, attire emulation, aliases or profile imagery, anniversary timing, collections or shrines, documented site visits, body markings, or online tribute posts.	178
Incel Motivation Documented evidence linking the perpetrators to the Involuntarily Celibate (Incel) community.		Black-pill inceldom, with its focus on biological determinism, misogyny, and generalized hate, is a deeply nihilistic and misanthropic worldview (criterion 4). Incel perpetrators also commonly try to emulate past attackers (criterion 3).	49
Labeled NVE Labeled NVE = Yes	Official designation	An official NVE designation by law enforcement or government, where no other confirming evidence is public. The label stands in for evidence of criteria 2 through 4 that authorities have not released.	5

Primary evidence for the criterion Supporting evidence

241

Incidents with overlapping evidence

62% of NVE incidents are coded for two or more variables. Most inclusion decisions, therefore, rest on more than one piece of evidence.

Distinct pathways into NVE

Gore activity is concentrated in Com networks (117 of 135 Gore incidents), and TCC involvement almost always comes with attacker veneration (111 of 130). Only 12 incidents are coded for both The Com and TCC.

148

Incidents coded for one variable only

64 rest on The Com alone, 48 on Tribute/Veneration, 18 on Incel Motivation, 13 on TCC, and 5 on an official label. No incident qualifies through Gore alone.

Given the wide variety of NVE definitions in use, the way the concept is operationalized in the Tracker is unlikely to satisfy every user's needs. While it is not possible to build an NVE database that meets everyone's definition of NVE, the Tracker has been built to allow users to narrow the scope of the data to more closely match their definition of NVE:

The NVE Tracker is built to be flexible

Each inclusion variable appears in the dashboard sidebar as a checkbox, allowing users to model the data after a more restrictive definition of NVE. All six boxes are checked by default, displaying the complete set of NVE incidents in the database. Users who prefer to use a narrower definition of NVE can do so by unchecking one or more of the six variable boxes. For instance, a user who does not consider attacker veneration alone to be sufficient evidence of an NVE event can remove those cases by simply unchecking the “Tribute/Veneration” box.

Unchecking a box removes incidents that are coded for that variable only; an incident stays visible as long as at least one of its variables remains checked. For example, unchecking “TCC” removes all incidents that have evidence of participation in the fringe true crime community but lack evidence for the other five variables, while an incident coded for both TCC and Gore remains visible until both boxes are unchecked. Unchecking all boxes removes every incident from the dashboard's display.