A Life-Course Analysis of Engagement in Violent Extremist Groups

Abstract

In this exploratory study, individuals’ processes of engagement in violent extremist groups are analysed by drawing from criminological life-course theory and narrative-based understandings of crime. Based on interviews with individuals who have participated in violent extremism, it is suggested that the process of engagement consists of three steps: (1) a weakening of informal social controls, followed by (2) an interaction with individuals in proximity to the group and (3) a stage of meaning-making in relation to the group and one’s identity, resulting in an individual’s willingness and capacity to engaging in the group’s activities, including violence. In future theorizing about processes of engagement in violent extremism, the meanings of age, and the life-course stages of late adolescence and emerging adulthood in particular, should be given analytic attention.

Understanding youth radicalisation: an analysis of Australian data

“…Criminological theory is utilised to inform our analysis. Given the challenges associated with securing primary data, such as police and correctional case files on convicted terrorists or accessing active and former extremists to interview (Carlsson et al, 2020;Cherney & Belton, 2019;Schuurman, 2018aSchuurman, , 2018b, studies using open-source materials are not uncommon in terrorism studies. Data based on open sources have been shown to provide useful insights (e.g.…”

The push and pull of radicalization and extremist disengagement: The application of criminological theory to Indonesian and Australian cases of radicalization

“…The age crime curve prevalent in criminal cohorts also appears to exist amongst extremist samples (Carlsson et al, 2020;Dalgaard-Nielsen, 2013). Age-related processes have been highlighted by criminal desistance theory (Rocque, 2017), with the push of getting older and doubts over the benefits of ongoing criminality, needing to be understood as linked to the pull of life course changes and exhaustion (Carlsson et al, 2020;Rocque, 2017). These pull factors can act to lure individuals to more conventional social roles and include changed family circumstances, or the desire to (re)establish family relations and connections with children (Farrall & Calverley, 2005;Rocque, 2017).…”

“…Taking account of our findings we end by highlighting how criminology helps to explain patterns across radicalization and deradicalization trajectories in our sample, hence helping to tackle the heterogeneity problem that scholars have argued has beset casual explanations of radicalization and deradicalization (Dawson, 2019a). Applying criminological perspectives to the study of radicalization and violent extremism has provided one way of addressing this theoretical and empirical challenge (Carlsson et al, 2020;Simi et al, 2016).…”

A Biographical Perspective on Processes of Radicalisation

“…Adolescents who do not identify with far-right ideology tend to join more traditional groups, such as sports clubs, compared to adolescents with far-right views (Möller & Schumacher, n.d.;Becker, 2010). Carlsson et al (2020) also emphasise the importance of groups. In interviews with former extremists, they identified three basic conditions for radicalisation: poor social controls, interaction with individuals close to ideological groups as well as a stage of "meaning-making" and finding a sense of purpose within the group.…”