Founded in 2002, the Institute for the Study of Violent Groups employs researchers and technical specialists to maintain the ISVG database and develops applications to analyze ISVG data. This institute is unique in that it has the capabilities to “[collect] and [organize] vast amounts of open source data in a highly structured format.” Additionally, ISVG uses highly sophisticated variables to “record tactical/operational details on incidents of terrorism and relational details that tie together individuals, groups, and organizations suspected of involvement in of terrorism, extremism, and related organized crime activities.” Since 2003, ISVG has catalogued more than 130,000 events relating to terrorism and other incidents of violence.

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