Homegrown

Meleagrou-Hitchens, Alexander; Hughes, Seamus; Clifford, Bennett

doi:10.5040/9780755602100

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Studies investigating the socio-demographic characteristics of violent extremists showed that there is no typical profile of “the violent extremist” (e.g. Bakker, 2006; Horgan, 2014; Meleagrou-Hitchens et al, 2020; Sageman, 2004). Violent extremists vary in social, psychopathological, historical and cultural characteristics (Bakker, 2006; Corner et al, 2018; Corner and Gill, 2015; Gill and Corner, 2017; Monahan, 2012; Mondani et al, 2021; Pressman and Flockton, 2012; Weenink, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding violent extremism: Socio-demographic, criminal and psychopathological background characteristics of detainees residing in Dutch terrorism wings

Thijssen¹,

Masthoff²,

Sijtsema

et al. 2021

Criminology & Criminal Justice

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In the past decades, Europe has been shocked repeatedly by terrorist crimes. This has led to an influx of suspects and convicts of terrorism in the prison system. The aim of this study is to provide insight into socio-demographic, psychopathological and criminal background characteristics of convicted violent extremists. Retrospective analyses were conducted on primary source data from 82 convicts in Dutch prison terrorism wings. Results showed that violent extremists are a heterogeneous group regarding socio-demographic characteristics. About 60% of the population had previously been convicted of ordinary crimes and a third suffered from a mental disorder. To gain more insight into violent extremists, additional research is needed into motivational and other risk factors. The latter is a necessary step to improve the identification, risk assessment, and effective treatment of violent extremists.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding violent extremism: Socio-demographic, criminal and psychopathological background characteristics of detainees residing in Dutch terrorism wings

Thijssen¹,

Masthoff²,

Sijtsema

et al. 2021

Criminology & Criminal Justice

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“…3.1. www.nature.com/scientificreports/ different in their ideology, origins, and goals, so a comprehensive description of them requires both a quantitative and a qualitative discussion. The sociological reasons for why and how social movements grow, offline and online, can likely be explained in part by individual-level factors, such as poverty and personality traits, as well as movement-level factors such as ideology, culture, and political aims [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] . Yet system-level factors are also crucial, and recent work suggests that these play important roles in the development and countering of online extremism 22,28,29 .…”

Section: Figure 5 (Abmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Youngblood recently provided an analysis of 416 far-right extremists exposed in the United States between 2005 and 2017, discussing how social media usage and group membership enhance the spread of extremist ideology and concluding that online and physical organizing remain primary recruitment tools 9 . Online extremism and its recruitment activities pose a significant threat that could lead to real world terror threats [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] and hence needs to be understood and mitigated 10-29 -regardless of whether the underlying movements are far-right, farleft, or occupy some other place in the political space.Social media platforms are struggling to contain the growth of online extremist movements. Platforms often adopt a combination of content moderation and actively providing (or promoting users who provide) countermessaging 23 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Hidden order across online extremist movements can be disrupted by nudging collective chemistry

Velásquez

Manrique²,

Sear

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Disrupting the emergence and evolution of potentially violent online extremist movements is a crucial challenge. Extremism research has analyzed such movements in detail, focusing on individual- and movement-level characteristics. But are there system-level commonalities in the ways these movements emerge and grow? Here we compare the growth of the Boogaloos, a new and increasingly prominent U.S. extremist movement, to the growth of online support for ISIS, a militant, terrorist organization based in the Middle East that follows a radical version of Islam. We show that the early dynamics of these two online movements follow the same mathematical order despite their stark ideological, geographical, and cultural differences. The evolution of both movements, across scales, follows a single shockwave equation that accounts for heterogeneity in online interactions. These scientific properties suggest specific policies to address online extremism and radicalization. We show how actions by social media platforms could disrupt the onset and ‘flatten the curve’ of such online extremism by nudging its collective chemistry. Our results provide a system-level understanding of the emergence of extremist movements that yields fresh insight into their evolution and possible interventions to limit their growth.

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Understanding violent extremism: Risk and protective factors in a jihadi male detainee population in the Netherlands

Thijssen

Masthoff

Sijtsema

et al. 2022

European Journal of Criminology

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In recent years, the number of detainees confined for terrorism-related offenses has increased worldwide and across Europe. To understand the factors related to terrorism and its underlying motives, this study provides insights into violent extremism by assessing risk- and protective factors based on the Violent Extremism Risk Assessment-2R (VERA-2R) in 121 male jihadist residents in Dutch terrorism wings. Retrospective analyses of primary source data showed that one-third of the target group is strongly connected to ideologies justifying violence. The social context of the study sample was also related to violent extremism, whereas support from family members emerged as the most often observed protective factor. The current findings suggest that including meaningful risk and protective factors of detained male jihadists may benefit risk management strategies in prevention, intervention, and policy practices related to violent extremism.

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Homegrown

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Understanding violent extremism: Socio-demographic, criminal and psychopathological background characteristics of detainees residing in Dutch terrorism wings

Understanding violent extremism: Socio-demographic, criminal and psychopathological background characteristics of detainees residing in Dutch terrorism wings

Hidden order across online extremist movements can be disrupted by nudging collective chemistry

Understanding violent extremism: Risk and protective factors in a jihadi male detainee population in the Netherlands

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