Violent Extremism Research Articles

Keeping up appearances: US domestic extremist organizations and the effects of membership on domestic terrorism perpetrators

ABSTRACT Within the broader discussion of US domestic terrorism, the impact of formal extremist groups on the behaviour of perpetrators of ideologically motivated crime stands as a key albeit under examined issue. Radicalization and terrorism have long been understood as group-driven processes, yet the degree and rate of group affiliation among US extremist offenders is highly variable, especially in the context of rising instances of lone actor attacks. This raises the question of the role that group affiliation plays in relation to perpetrators of extremist violence. For while discourse surrounding domestic terrorism has largely classified these organizations as facilitators or enablers of radicalization and extremist violence, patterns in recent years suggest these groups may in fact do the opposite and dampen the violent impulses of their members to preserve their organizational interests. This paper presents an analysis of data adapted from the Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS) dataset as well as original data and finds that membership in formal extremist groups does appear to create a moderating effect on perpetrators of ideologically motivated crime, reducing the probability of group members in engaging in violence.

Case management interventions seeking to counter radicalisation to violence and related forms of violence: A systematic review.

Case management interventions seeking to counter radicalisation to violence and related forms of violence: A systematic review.

Legal Expertise as a Tool of Countering Violent Extremism in the Web 2.0

The paper deals with the results of the study aimed to countermeasure violent extremism in Web 2.0. The paper focuses on the results of the research entitled “Russian Legal Concept of Media Security” and implemented within the framework of the “Priority-2030” Academic Strategic Leadership Program. The increased number of public crimes committed in the new media using telecommunications technologies makes the study relevant. The study is aimed to improve the understanding of current and future global media security challenges and to explain how to resist them based on legal expertise. Legal expertise is characterized as a tool that can contribute to raising the general level of legal culture and, in this regard, the authors highlight that availability of law and language knowledge is relevant in solving criminal law issues regarding implementation of basic rights and freedoms in the digital environment. The authors examine public relations in the field of education, family relations and youth policy related to those who share traditional morality and focus on countering a destructive ideological impact on children, adolescents, and the youth, carried out in order to neutralize inimical inculcation of spiritual values alien to Russian society. The authors scrutinized social networking, a combination of mini web pages, blogs and searchable communities, to detect signs of extremist propaganda shared via internet communication as a key challenge Russian society is facing nowadays. They elucidate the importance of undertaking effective measures to protect the population from harmful effect of destructive extremist ideology and its negative psychological impact. An interdisciplinary study of media security in the paradigm of criminal law sciences was conducted on the basis of legal expertise — a comprehensive criminalistic, criminology, forensic, psychological and linguistic approach to counteracting a destructive ideological impact on adolescents and neutralizing the mechanisms of implanting alien moral values. The authors have systematized threats to traditional Russian spiritual values and proposed to amend legislation and law enforcement practice to improve media security. Deep efforts should be made to encourage zero tolerance for extremist actions in the information sphere among people, to form their competence to ensure media security, including effective recourse to legal (or forensic) experts and authorized entities in case of violations of the law.

Violent extremism in the hinterland of the ‘War on Terror’: comparative studies of Canada and Sweden

Violent extremism in the hinterland of the ‘War on Terror’: comparative studies of Canada and Sweden

Collective resilience in diaspora groups: a study of Kurdish youth in Canada and Sweden

ABSTRACT For decades, oppressive state policies have forced some Kurds to leave Turkey and seek refuge in Western countries, including Sweden and Canada. We conducted semi-structured interviews with Kurdish youth living in Canada and Sweden (N = 15) to explore the role of identity-related grievances in their involvement in the Kurdish movement, a political movement comprised of an array of actors including an armed group, political parties, and civil society organizations. By implementing the Building Resilience Against Violent Extremism (BRAVE) tool, we investigated their collective resilience against calls for violence, extremist views, and challenges caused by repression. Findings indicated that the major factors in their involvement were the restrictions on their language, culture, and identity; the discrimination and injustices against them and their community; the traumatic events that they experienced or witnessed; and the involvement of their family and community members in the movement. The overall resilience scores of the participants were high (M = 58.67 out of a potential 14–70), but they scored lower when their relationship with Turkish authorities is considered (M = 53.13; SD = 5.65) than with their host countries after resettlement (M = 58. 67; SD = 6.25).

Violent extremism: The journey in and the pathway out

Violent extremism: The journey in and the pathway out

The Complexity of Female Empowerment in India

On a global scale, India ranks very poorly in terms of gender equality. This overall indicator masks important heterogeneities across the separate measures of female empowerment. India scores very highly with regards to equality of civil liberties and the political participation of women. But the country falls well below the global average with respect to equal access to economic resources and protection from gender-based violence. These poorer empowerment indicators have persisted not only in the wake of strong economic progress, but also in the context of an impressive set of government led reforms and policies targeting women. These different initiatives have successfully augmented women’s agency in both the private and public spheres of life, but women and girls still face extreme discrimination and violence. The salience of restrictive local customs appears to be a core hindrance towards transformative change. This paper reviews the economics literature which examines this complexity across the different dimensions of female empowerment in India. It highlights the newly emerging research focused on ameliorating gender biased norms and discusses potential steps forward. JEL Classifications: J12, J16

The Urgency of the Settler Colonialism Framework in Understanding 7 October and the War on Gaza

Abstract The new far-right leadership under Benjamin Netanyahu has deployed the strategy of “conflict management,” which has a clear colonial marker to dismantle the Palestinian cause. This strategy involves the Judaization of the space, the alteration of demography, and the division of Palestinians into isolated communities under Israeli dominance. These policies were pursued under the auspices of international and Arab abandonment of Palestinians. Therefore, Palestinian hopelessness has intensified to an indescribable extent, leading to an intractable organic crisis that culminated in an eruption of extreme violence. Recognizing the colonial character of this dynamics is crucial for confronting it.

우리나라의 폭력적 극단주의 위험성에 따른 대응에 관한 연구

Recently, famous politicians in Korea were attacked by assailants one after another, shocking our society. Moreover, the shock is even greater because the perpetrator who attacked the female member of the National Assembly, A, was a 15-year-old minor. Similar cases are occurring in foreign countries as well. Sudden attacks on politicians shock the general public and lead to a crisis in democracy. This is because in democracy, even if opinions differ from one's own, a point of agreement is found through dialogue, and in this process, concessions and compromises exist. Simply launching a physical attack without using these peaceful solutions does not help anyone. It is simply a personal deviation and a criminal act that vents anger and hatred. In a democratic society, freedom of expression is guaranteed to everyone. There are various systems in place to do that. However, finding a physical solution without following such procedures is not the answer. The problem is the structural environment of our society in which such incidents continue to occur. Therefore, we need to understand the circumstances under which such actions can only be carried out boldly. We must identify the dangers of violent extremism that is deeply rooted and widespread in our society and seek fundamental remedies and countermeasures against it. Efforts to achieve this require integrated efforts from various levels, including not only the political world but also the local community, academia, and the media. The argument that in order to prevent the spread of violent extremism should be recognized as a whole-of-society problem rather than the existing state-centered response and that solutions should be found through integrated efforts of the government, businesses, schools, and civic groups is gaining persuasiveness. Therefore, this study was conducted with the purpose of deriving lessons from this incident, identifying diagnosis and countermeasures for it, and preventing recurrence of similar incidents to protect people's lives and create a safe society. Measures derived from this study include: first, nurturing youth into sound citizens; second, integrated efforts are needed to resolve the hatred and conflict prevalent in our society; and third, strengthening personal protection measures for prominent social figures such as politicians. It has to be done. This study is meaningful in that it diagnosed the cause and proposed countermeasures despite the limitations of understanding the exact facts of the actual incident. It is believed that follow-up research on integrated efforts to prevent violent extremism in local communities should continue in the future.

Do arrests (and killings) deter violent extremism? A comparative analysis

ABSTRACT There is an ever-growing body of evidence that suggests that there exists a significant degree of overlap between violent extremism (VE) and ordinary crime, both at the conceptual level and in terms of patterns and predictors. Countries differ considerably in their approaches to countering violent extremism (CVE). Yet, at least in the west, one common feature is the criminal justice system, whose role is essentially the same for VE as it is for other forms of crime. Despite this, there is little quantitative research on policing and criminal justice system effects on VE. Among the few studies that do exist, most focus on single countries, and examine long observation periods. Our analysis compares two key democratic countries that have received less attention, Canada and Sweden, and finds evidence of heterogeneous effects and patterns concerning how arrests impact the risk of future VE. This suggests that studies focusing on single contexts may have limited generalizability and that current wisdom concerning deterrence-backlash effects is more limited than previously thought.

Foregrounding Affectivity in the Pathways to Extremism

Literature increasingly indicates that affectivity plays a major role in violent extremism. Nevertheless, much of the work on affectivity in the context of violent extremism has so far remained a fragmented background issue. The purpose of this paper is to bring affect to the foreground through philosophical accounts of situated affectivity, while remaining compatible with contributions on emotions and affect from different disciplines in the context of extremism. The situated account explains how environmental structures affect individual affectivity and vice versa. With the help of this framework, we are able to analyze an individual’s affective dynamics simultaneously with multiple elements. By using different analytical vantage points, we can examine how the affectivity of individuals is shaped and regulated by other individuals, materials, spaces, discourses, and behaviors in extremist settings. The approach provides a broader and richer perspective on the complexities and dynamics of affect in extremism. Affect-centric counter- and preventive policies relating to violent extremism can benefit from this approach.

Birding under fire

AbstractBirding for nature conservation becomes violent in war when foreign states and industry use it to extract value from countries like Iraq. In wartime Iraq, birding became a pathway to multinational resource extraction by producing “eco‐value,” a form of economic value for species life and, by extension, the ecosystems they inhabit. Iraqi marshland conservationists, including private contractors, produced eco‐value in the context of extreme violence for the purposes of environmental rehabilitation. This eco‐value was then leveraged to mine natural resources that were embedded in the same geological field. Compounding the violence of extraction was the violence conservation introduced for Iraqi citizens who alone performed the dangerous labor of birding; they were recruited to do this in order to safeguard the lives of foreign experts, who did not travel to the marshes of Iraq. The result was a form of nature conservation that made Iraqi lives uniquely expendable in the project of building the occupation's lifeforce.

Conspiracies Gone Wild: A Psychiatric Perspective on Conspiracy Theory Belief, Mental Illness, and the Potential for Lone Actor Ideological Violence

ABSTRACT Conspiracy theory belief (CTB) has been increasingly recognized as a driving force of extremist violence. This paper provides a psychiatric perspective on the phenomenon of CTB-driven violence in an effort to bridge the gap between psychiatry and terrorism studies. First, it makes a case for the growing relevance of CTB to ideologically-motivated violence and lone actor violence in particular. Next, acknowledging common themes of shadowy forces, clandestine plots, and malevolent motives, it argues that CTB can be reliably disentangled from delusional belief and examines the association between mental illness and terrorism with a critical and skeptical eye. Finally, after reviewing the association between CTB and terrorist radicalization within existing models from psychiatry and terrorism studies, it outlines five stages of ideological commitment to characterize the link between CTB and the perpetration of ideological violence. Rather than alternately “explaining” terrorism on the basis of mental illness or “blaming” it on ideological extremism depending on biased attributions, modeling ideological commitment through a normalizing cognitive and socio-epistemic framework can facilitate a less stigmatizing understanding of the link between CTB and ideologically-motivated violence.

The Role of Political Leadership in Countering Violent Extremism in Pakistan from 2001 to 2022

Pakistan has been facing internal security threats from extremism, terrorism, and militancy for several decades. These challenges have led to a struggle against different extremist groups, which has severely affected the country's internal security, stability, and progress. These profoundly entrenched phenomena have led individuals and groups to embrace extremist ideologies, undermining the nation's efforts toward stability and progress. The purpose of the study is to recognize the multifaceted nature of extremism and the hard and soft approaches by the government to counter the spread of extremist narratives and ideologies. This research explores the shift from a military approach to soft measures, including deradicalization programs, counter-narrative campaigns, educational reforms, and community-based initiatives. Through extensive secondary data collection and analysis, the impact of Pakistan's soft strategy on different target groups, such as youth, former militants, and vulnerable communities, was examined. The study revealed how drivers like political, social, and religious have been associated with violent extremism and how different extremist groups use these factors as a yardstick to get involved in violence. The analyses provide the basis for a common framework for resisting extremist ideology. It revealed that critical stakeholders, including religious leaders, civil society organizations, and educational institutions, are critical in promoting counter-narratives and fostering an environment of tolerance and moderation. By drawing insights from successful international practices and models, the study provided recommendations for strengthening Pakistan's strategy in countering extremism through community resilience, capacity building initiatives, and a comprehensive national action plan for a coordinated and sustainable approach.

Radical Redemption: Reading Narratives of Violent Extremist Disengagement Through a Criminological Lens

ABSTRACT Research on disengagement from violent extremism has been growing strongly over recent years. At the same time, empirically grounded analyses are few and far between, and the field itself remains rather thinly theorized. In this study, the knowledge base on desistance – a well-developed sub-field within criminology – is used to gain a deeper understanding of this crucial issue. Drawing on narratives of disengagement gleaned from autobiographies and life-history interviews with former extremist offenders, the results of this study suggest that, despite their different manifestations, there may be similar mechanisms underpinning desistance from crime and disengagement from violent extremism. Also discussed are some of the implications for policy and practice, as well as avenues for future research in this area.

The Angry Echo Chamber: A Study of Extremist and Emotional Language Changes in Incel Communities Over Time.

Involuntary celibates, or incels, are part of a growing online subculture. Incels are men who are unable to engage in a sexual relationship with a woman and who experience significant distress and anger as a result. In recent years, high-profile incidents of violence perpetrated by incels or those who share incel ideology have increased research attention. Incels communicate online and share several characteristics with other online extremist groups. While only a fraction of incels engage in such violence, a broader spectrum of violence should be considered, including online harassment or general violence against women. This study sought to examine how ongoing engagement on an online incel forum affects changes in incel comments in terms of expressed anger and sadness and use of incel violent extremist language. We collected comments made on an incel forum over a 3-month period. We then identified prolific users and included their comments in our analysis. To assess how their language changed, we used a text-processing program (LIWC: Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) to assess the extent to which anger, sadness, and incel violent extremist language were expressed in the comments. Our findings indicated that incels express more anger in their comments than users on other platforms such as Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. However, they did not express greater sadness. Further, we found that incels are already quite angry and sad when they join the forum, and they already use a fair amount of incel vocabulary. Initially, these aspects of their language increase, but they flatten over time. This pattern suggests that introduction to and embracing of incel ideology occurs elsewhere on the Internet, and prior to people joining an incel forum. Implications in terms of prevention of online radicalization and future directions are discussed.

Peace Journalism Training for Journalists as a Contribution to PVE in the New Afghanistan

This article presents and discusses results from an exercise in comparative content analysis of news articles about issues of conflict produced by Afghan journalists before and after participating in an internationally sponsored training and mentorship programme in Peace Journalism. The programme was part of a Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) project, intended to create community resources for resilience, in the information sphere, towards conflict issues contributing to recruitment by non-state armed groups such as Islamic State–Khorasan Province (IS–KP). Peace Journalism is familiar as the basis for media development aid in contexts of conflict; however, its use in an intervention aimed specifically at PVE is relatively new. The results showed that the programme was effective, it is argued, in terms of benefits transferred to and applied by participating journalists. A sample of articles after the training showed a markedly higher Peace Journalism quotient than a baseline sample of articles by the same journalists before it. This suggested that the training and mentorship had successfully stimulated and enabled journalistic agency, taking account of constraints imposed by media structures and wider political and social contexts. The latter have become steadily more onerous under the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) government, in power since August 2021, according to international monitoring organisations. Implications are considered, in light of the findings, for future media development aid to Afghanistan.

Building Communities of Generative Interdependence

Since the late 1990’s, colleges and universities have implemented mutually beneficial community engagement as a core dimension of educating students to develop professional skills grounded in working with communities to address pressing issues of social inequality and environmental regeneration. Such community-based learning programs are being expanded to counter rising authoritarianism, white nationalism, and violent extremism and to support generative, interdependent forms of democracy. In this essay, I explore how such programs could benefit by learning from the ethical insights of Indigenous traditions. I give examples of such work in theological education, and in middle school through higher education.

Countering violent extremism through internet intermediaries: A typology for cross-country comparison

This paper examines the counter-violent extremism and anti-terrorism measures in Australia, China, France, the United Kingdom and the United States by investigating how governments leveraged internet intermediaries as their surrogate censors. Particular attention is paid to how political rhetoric led to legislation passed or proposed in each of the countries studied, and their respective restrictive measures are compared against the recommendations specified by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression. A typology for international comparison is proposed, which provides further insights into a country’s policy focus.

Status, and Challenges in Countering Violent Extremism in Patikul, Sulu: Towards Peaceful Resolution Model

This study aims to determine the status and challenges in countering violent extremism practices and challenges in Patikul, Sulu. The research in this study employed a descriptive-qualitative research design because it aims to describe the extent of addressing violent extremism in Patikul, Sulu by Sectoral Group. The study sought to answer the question specifically: To what extent does the Sectoral Group address violent extremism in Patikul, Sulu as expected against as demonstrated in terms of: 1.1. Community participation; 1.2. Youth Development Programs; 1.3. Promotion of peace and development. 2. Based on the Findings, what Peaceful Resolution Model can be proposed? The focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and document analysis are all employed to gather data for the study’s questions. It was found that the extent of the Sectoral Group in addressing violent extremism in terms of community participation was made through strengthening community participation and livelihood programs. It was also found that the extent of the Sectoral Group in addressing violent extremism regarding Youth Development Programs was conducting symposiums and sports activities. It was also found that the extent of the Sectoral Group in addressing violent extremism in terms of Promotion of Peace and Development, communication among adult/ religious leaders was seen to be the route geared towards achieving the goal. The researcher will present the proposed peaceful resolution model in countering violent extremism in Patikul, Sulu, focusing on community engagement; community resilience; economic development, and law enforcement activities: The researcher recommends the peaceful resolution models in countering violent extremism in the region. Keywords: Peaceful Resolution Model, community engagement; community resilience; economic development, and law enforcement