Deradicalized individuals can be interviewed about their own exit process.

Evidence

We spent the bulk of each interview having formers and family members tell us the story of their or their family members’ radicalization and deradicalization (“in your own words, and from your own perspective”). To guide the narrative of radicalization and deradicalization, we asked respondents to begin with their or their family members’ early lives, then discuss “major warning signals and turning points,” followed by “attempts to intervene” made by family members, friends, or others (e.g., school officials, law enforcement). We went on to briefly discuss the focal individual’s radical activities, then the process of deradicalization. To close out the interview, we asked all respondents about “missed opportunities”—in other words, things they think could have derailed the radicalization process or helped deradicalization occur more quickly. Finally, we asked respondents for any ideas they had for interventions (whether big or small) and whether they had anything else they would like to add. — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America, 270 (#expands, via linked claim)

Family members who agree to be interviewed may be systematically different from those who refuse to participate. Similarly, individuals who have deradicalized and agree to be interviewed may be different from those who refuse to participate and from those who never deradicalize. Among those who are interviewed, respondents might not report truthfully or may recall things incorrectly (i.e., recall bias). — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America, 131 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Interviews probed deradicalization as life-course narrative from early life to exit — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America:…, 270; Interviewed deradicalized extremists differ systematically from those who refuse or never exit. — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America:…, 131; Interventions by individual people helped most sampled extremists exit or deradicalize. — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America:…, 398 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Interviews probed deradicalization as life-course narrative from early life to exit #expands (0.90) — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America, 270
• Interviewed deradicalized extremists differ systematically from those who refuse or never exit. #qualifies (0.85) — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America, 131
• Insiders are best positioned to elucidate their own situation. #corroborates (0.80)
• Interventions by individual people helped most sampled extremists exit or deradicalize. #expands (0.75) — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America, 398