When Extremists Become Violent: Examining the Association Between Social Control, Social Learning, and Engagement in Violent Extremism

Abstract

This research examines the relationship between social control and social learning variables on involvement in violent vs. non-violent extremism. Using data from the Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS) database (n = 1,757), this study presents a series of logistic regressions. Among radicalized individuals, weaker social control and stronger social learning of violence were associated violent over non-violent behavior. These results hold across all models. Taken together, these findings support the role of control and learning theories in identifying correlates of violent and non-violent extremism and suggest the possibility of reciprocal and interaction effects for future work.