What can open sources learn us about the crime-terror nexus in Belgium?
Few studies have been conducted on the crime-terror nexus in the Belgian context. The current study
therefore examines what open source data could learn us about the crime-terror nexus in Belgium
and which shortcomings need to be addressed. A descriptive view is presented by mapping socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics as well as the criminal history of 52 Belgian nationals,
convicted for terrorism related offenses, on the basis of information that was found in, among others,
digital newspaper articles, blogs, scientific journals and books. A clear overlap with previous criminal
offenses is found in this study, referring to the ‘typical’ profile of what is known as the ‘fourth wave
criminal jihadist’. In 42% of the cases, a criminal past seems to emerge from open source data. Nevertheless the reported results need to be interpreted in the light of the limitations of data availability and the inclusion of an unrepresentative sample of the total population. Primary data sources as well as official data (e.g. police data, judicial data and data from security and intelligence services) can provide more accuracy and are necessary to provide a more complete view of this complex nexus.