Does context matter? European-specific risk factors for radicalization

Abstract

In this study we sought to identify whether risk and protective factors for radicalization can be classed as ‘universal’ factors or whether they have heterogeneous cross-regional effects. Specifically, we sought to identify whether there were factors which displayed significantly different effects in European contexts compared to other democratic countries. We conduct a confirmatory meta-analysis based on a recent Campbell Collaboration systematic review and meta-analysis (Wolfowicz, Litmanovitz, Weisburd and Hasisi, 2021). Studies were classified as being from either EU or non-EU countries and moderator analysis was used to identify between-region heterogeneity. The analysis was possible for 23 factors pertaining to radical attitudes, 13 pertaining to radical intentions and 4 for radical behaviours. For radical attitudes, the estimates for European studies were significantly larger for Gender, Socio-economic status, and Parental involvement, whereas the estimates for Religiosity, Institutional trust, Integration, and Moral neutralizations were significantly smaller compared to other democratic countries in other regions. For radical intentions, the estimates for Self-esteem was significantly larger for European studies. For radical behaviours, the estimate for Unemployment was significantly larger for European studies than for democratic countries in other regions. Overall, most risk and protective factors for radicalization appear to have ‘universal’ effects across democratic countries, but there are some factors that may be more relevant for targeting by counter-radicalization in certain contexts. Although European counter-radicalization has often focused on factors such as integration and institutional trust, these factors have relatively small relationships with radicalization, and these relationships are even smaller in the European context compared to democratic countries in other regions. The findings suggest that mitigation strategies, and interventions providing employment opportunities in particular, may be well suited to the European context if the goal is to develop locally-oriented approaches to counter-radicalization.

What is the best approach for preventing recruitment to terrorism? Findings from ABM experiments in social and situational prevention

“…Our ABM experiments are enacted in a European context both because the European Union has taken a leadership role in the development of programs to reduce recruitment to terrorism (European Commission, 2014 and because funding for the development of our ABM was provided by the Horizon 2020 grant program of the European Union. At the same time, research on radicalization and terrorism more generally suggests that similar risk and protective factors are found in Europe and North America (Ozer et al, 2020;Vergani et al, 2020;Wolfowicz et al, 2021a). In line with current approaches being undertaken in major European cities, we test the effects of three different interventions for reducing radicalization and recruitment in a prototypical European city borough.…”

Online-Aktivitäten und rechtsextreme Einstellungen im Jugendalter

“…Ferner wird postuliert, dass soziale Kontakte, insbesondere mit Gleichaltrigen, Einfluss auf abweichendes Verhalten haben. Ursprünglich sollte die Theorie nur abweichendes Verhalten erklären, doch eine Vielzahl von Studien hat sie auch auf den Bereich des Extremismus angewandt (Akins und Winfree 2016;Becker 2019;Goede und Lopez Trillo 2020;Lafree et al 2018;Pauwels und Schils 2016;Wolfowicz, Weisburd, und Hasisi 2021). Das Internet und insbesondere soziale Medien kann bzw.…”