The presentation focuses on the research work on terrorism done by an NIJ-sponsored center that focuses on studying the social and behavioral science understanding of terrorism (the START Center). The START Center has examined the life cycle of terrorism from psychological and sociological perspectives, i.e., how and why individuals join terrorist groups. Topics addressed in the studies include group creation; how they evolve after they have been formed; their trajectories over time, why some groups disappear rapidly and others get more dangerous over time; and if there is a terrorist strike, the best way for the government attacked to manage the situation as quickly as possible, communicate risk to the public, and have the public believe that communication. Attention is also given to building a global terrorism database.