Journal for Deradicalization
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Gender Constructions in the Prevention of and Deradicalization from Islamism in Germany.
Full text linkWomen have always played a key role in modern extremist organizations. Ambivalent propaganda and recruitment strategies also specifically target women. In addition, research findings highlight different gender-specific reasons for radicalization. Nevertheless, radicalization has long been perceived as a male phenomenon and women have been ascribed stereotypical characteristics that portray them as appendages or supporters of men. As a result, there is a risk that a biased image of “female radicalization” will become entrenched and also influence prevention and deradicalization. Following on from this, this article deals not only with the isolated question of possible gender specifics, but also with the (re)construction of gender orders and stereotypes in the field of prevention and deradicalization in the context of Islamism. Through the documentary analysis of eleven interviews with actors involved in prevention and intervention in Germany, three types of gender constructions in the field of prevention and deradicalization from Islamism were reconstructed in which gender orders and gender-specific assumptions about radicalization processes are expressed. The first type emphasizes emotionality and influenceability as stereotypical female characteristics and understands the radicalization of women as a process of assimilation. In contrast, the second type emphasizes recognition and self-determination. Here, the radicalization of women is primarily understood as a functional strategy for liberation from the social gender order. In the third type, the interviewees focus on idealistic and ideological elements and understand radicalization as a process of developing political subjectivity.
Funding
The project “Distanz” has received funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the program “Societal Causes and Effects of Radical Islam in Germany and Europe”
Trial and Terror. Countering violent extremism and promoting disengagement in Belgium
Full text linkEfforts to promote disengagement from violent extremism have become a key ingredient in many counter-terrorism policies around the world. Deradicalisation and disengagement initiatives can also vary considerably from country to country. The following article contributes to the growing literature on countering violent extremism (CVE) by delineating the Belgian CVE landscape. Drawing on 50 semi-structured interviews with frontline practitioners and policy makers, this article offers an overview of the major players, guiding principles, and main challenges that define current efforts in Belgium. In addition, these efforts to support disengagement are examined through the prism of the assisted desistance framework. The fundamental premise behind this analysis is that, while violent extremism is a rather specific type of crime, it is a type of crime nonetheless. As such, this article seeks to juxtapose the current approach vis-à-vis violent extremist offenders with the usual response towards non-extremist offenders. In highlighting the implications for theory and practice, the findings of his article illustrate how lessons from other fields can help inform CVE efforts
Egoistic and fraternalistic relative deprivation in the prediction of support for political violence and violent intentions
Full text linkOutcomes of a recent meta-analysis highlighted the difference in the contribution of egoistic and fraternalistic relative deprivation to the prediction of support for political violence and violent intentions. However, no explanation for this difference was provided. As processual models of aggression contain the "targeting" phase, in which responsibility for the situation is attributed to someone or something, next to testing the relationship between the two types of relative deprivation and support for political violence and violent intentions (intentions to participate in activities of a violent group) as criteria, we also tested if the degree of blame for inequality attributed to the outgroup moderates these relationships. The analysis was conducted on Croatian student (n = 735) and non-student (n = 144) samples of youth. Fraternalistic relative deprivation consistently exhibited stronger relationships with our criteria than egoistic relative deprivation, which predicted only the support for political violence. Despite the shared variance, we also found arguments in favor of the interaction between fraternalistic relative deprivation and blame attribution in the prediction of violent intentions, but not in the prediction of support for political violence. Altogether, the findings confirm the contribution of fraternalistic relative deprivation and blame attribution to understanding attitudes and intentions behind political violence. Implications for deradicalization programs are briefly discussed.
The work of this author was funded by the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ) within the DOK-01-2018 programm
Incentivizing P/CVE Research, Evaluation, & Program Participants
Full text linkIncentivizing research or evaluation participants can be crucial toward reducing data collection timeframes and obtaining sufficient sample sizes (i.e., to reduce the risks of obtaining null or misleading findings). Consequently, participant incentives should not be underestimated with respect to their importance both for obtaining quality P/CVE research or evaluation data, and for improving subsequent managerial/programmatic decision-making: no small matter given the high-stakes fields of P/CVE. This research methods brief discusses participant incentives (including potential pitfalls and means to avoid them), in the context of P/CVE program design and evaluation, including: their relevance to statistical power and reducing sample bias, budgeting for incentives, alternatives to monetary incentives, and considerations for planning to upscale a given P/CVE program
Evaluating an online-game intervention to prevent violent extremism
Full text linkAs gaming and gamification play an increasingly important role in recruitment processes and radicalisation, there is an urgent need for evidence-based research in this field. One aspect is the use of games and gamification in prevention work. The article presents a project in which an online-game against extremism was developed and focuses on its evaluation using a pre-post design and a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The aim of the game is to educate young people about radicalisation processes in order to increase their resilience. The pre-post comparison showed that young people changed their attitude towards extremist narratives after playing the game: they agreed significantly less with statements that referred to extremist narratives, e.g. legitimising violence or spreading conspiracy theories. When they played the game in the course of a workshop, they also showed lower approval rates for authoritarian attitudes afterwards. The self-assessment of their learnings was consistently high, whereby even greater effects could be observed for those who had played the game in the course of a workshop. Despite some limitations in data collection due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the evaluation provides interesting insights into the impact of the game on the prevention of radicalisation
Evaluating Terrorist and Extremist Reintegration Programming: A Systematic Literature Review
Full text linkThis systematic literature review focuses on the evaluation of programs or interventions designed to deradicalize, disengage, rehabilitate, and/or reintegrate terrorists and/or extremists. Though a robust literature describing such interventions exists, it has long been recognized that more data are needed on the effectiveness of programs designed to facilitate reintegration. Thus, the objective of this review is to present an overview of academic and grey literature on the evaluation of programming designed to facilitate the deradicalization, disengagement, rehabilitation, and/or reintegration of terrorists and/or extremists. Our initial queries yielded 271 seemingly relevant peer-reviewed and grey literature articles, but after a more robust screening we determined that only 37 of those articles directly related to the evaluation of interventions. These articles are presented by evaluation design (e.g., quantitative, qualitative); we also review the evaluation mechanisms (e.g., survey, interviews, note review), study design (e.g., experimental, quasi-experimental), data types (i.e., quantitative or qualitative), and findings. Finally, we include ten articles discussing theory of program evaluation. Though the review is limited to available data (e.g., not including unpublished evaluations or government evaluations), we conclude by discussing the state of program evaluation relating to interventions designed to deradicalize, disengage, rehabilitate, and/or reintegrate terrorists and/or extremists, and offering several recommendations for how to improve evaluation methods and overcome barriers to evaluation.
AcknowledgementsThis project was made possible by funding and support from the National Institute of Justice (Applying a Developmental Evaluation Approach to Address Community Safety and Health Challenges of Reintegration Programs in the USA - Award Number 2019-ZA-CX-001). The content of this manuscript, as well as the views and discussions expressed, are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of any of the above institutions, nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. government
Is the World Run by Evil Forces? Conspiracy Mentality Among Adolescents in Relation to Right-Wing Extremist Ideology and Discriminatory Behavior
Full text linkIn conspiracy narratives, certain individuals or groups are identified as solely responsible for important social problems. The belief in such narratives shares many similarities with political extremism in general and an integral part of a conspiracy theory— that the world is run by evil forces— is also found in far-right rhetoric. Although conspiracy beliefs have typically been studied in adult populations, adolescents constitute a group that may be particularly susceptible to these ideologies. Therefore, this study aims to examine conspiracy mentality as well as association with a right-wing extremist ideology (RWEI) and discriminatory behaviors toward foreign and homosexual persons among adolescents. The present study uses data from 2,824 students of different educational backgrounds (mean age 15) from Germany to investigate this relationship. Results indicate that adolescents believe in conspiracy theories to a lesser degree than adults in similar studies. It is further established that the higher the conspiracy mentality, the more adolescents share a right-wing extremist ideology. A significant association between conspiracy mentality and discriminatory behavior is also found in the 9th grade, but not in the 7th. Moreover, a conspiracy mentality moderates the established relationship between RWEI and discriminatory behavior at this grade level. Johnson-Neyman plots indicate that a conspiracy mentality already amplifies the effect of RWEI on discriminatory behavior toward foreign persons when adolescents attribute an average probability of 10% or more to the various conspiracy myths (30% for discrimination against homosexual persons). This illustrates that even a rather weakly developed conspiracy mentality can strengthen this attitude-behavior relationship.
The school survey was funded by the Ministry of the Interior in Schleswig-Holstein. No conditions were imposed with the financing
Violent radicalization during the COVID-19 pandemic: at the intersection of gender, conspiracy theories and psychological distress
Full text linkThe COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose a threat to health, economic stability and collective functioning. The related upsurge in psychological distress has fuelled the emergence of conspiracy theories regarding the origins of the virus. Worldwide, there is mounting evidence that these narratives have increased stigma and discrimination against diverse ethnic, age and occupational groups. However, the role of gender in the dynamics weaving together psychological distress, conspiracy theories and legitimation of violence toward other groups is still unknown. This paper addresses this knowledge gap, analysing a Canadian interprovincial survey conducted in November 2020. In total, 6003 individuals aged 18-35 years residing in large Canadian cities responded to an online survey administered in English and French between October 16 and November 17, 2020. A total of 4928 individuals with complete data on support for violent radicalization (VR), psychological distress, and endorsement of COVID-19 conspiracy theories were included in the analysis. This study indicates that for young Canadian adults, gender, endorsement of COVID-19 conspiracy theories and psychological distress, as measured by the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25), have an interaction effect on support for VR, as measured by both the Sympathy for Violent Radicalization Scale (SyfoR) and the Radicalism Intention Scale (RIS) (both p-values <.001). While the magnitude of the association between support for VR and endorsement of COVID-19 conspiracy theories is greatest among individuals with scores of psychological distress above the clinical cut-off, there is a significant association between scores on support for VR and endorsement of COVID-19 conspiracy theories in both women and men, both above and below the psychological distress cut-off of the HSCL-25. Effective strategies to mitigate the relationship between violent radicalization and pandemic-related psychological distress must explicitly address gender differences in expression and management of psychological distress
Why wouldn't you consult us? Reflections on preventing radicalisation among actors in radical(ising) milieus
Full text linkThis article engages the situated knowledge of actors in radical(ising) milieus to enhance our understanding of radicalisation and how to counter it. The article draws on interviews and observations from two ethnographic case studies in the UK – one with young people from an ‘Islamist’ and one from young people in an ‘extreme-right’ milieu – as well as three mediated dialogue events organised with participants from these milieus. The article explores how actors in these two milieus themselves understand what ‘drives’ and what might ‘prevent’ radicalisation and the degree to which such emic understandings concur with, or deviate from, etic (academic, policy, practice) conceptualisations – in particular on actors’ understandings of the role of the state, and its counter-terrorism policies and agencies, in driving radicalisation. We outline the views and experiences of Preventing or Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) interventions among milieu actors, which they encounter through the ‘Prevent’ arm of the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy but also in the form of curtailment of their activity (prevention from attending events and bans on social media). Finally, we consider how these emic understandings and personal experiences are expressed in milieu actors’ own practices of preventing or constraining trajectories into extremism and the openness of research participants themselves to engaging with agencies involved in P/CVE employing dialogic approaches. The article brings new insight to the field by considering the understandings and experiences of counter-extremism policies and practices among those targeted by them and argues for the importance of engaging with individuals as subjects not objects of counter-extremism policy and practice
Olivier Roy and the “Islamization of Radicalism”: Overview and Critique of a Theory of Western Jihadist Radicalization
Full text linkOlivier Roy’s argues that the radicalization of Western jihadists is about the “Islamization of radicalism” and not the “radicalization of Islam.” This argument has exerted a strong influence on terrorism studies, yet received little systematic scrutiny. This article provides an overview of Roy’s views to bring a greater measure of analytic order to his comments and open them to assessment, particularly the contention that religion plays little real role in the radicalization of European jihadists. Roy’s argument draws on an idiosyncratic distinction between the roles of “religion” and “religiosity” in radicalization that is poorly understood and open to question. In the end, while some of Roy’s ideas, such as the influence of second generation identity struggles on the radicalization Muslim youth, warrant further study, others, such as the “generational nihilism” of these youth, are counter-productive. His analysis overall is fecund and intriguing, but largely speculative and unsubstantiated.