Family abuse is common but not necessary for later violent extremist intent

Evidence

Family Discord and Distress Case narratives often described stressful circumstances in the family, including heavy substance use by other family members, abuse, neglect, and strained or broken family relationships. Several focal individuals experienced alcoholism (four cases) and substance dependence or drug use (two cases) by family members and unpleasant experiences linked with this. For example, one former white supremacist explained, “My father’s drinking made life really difficult for my mom and that hurt me, because I could tell my mom was suffering.” Five focal individuals also experienced physical, emotional, or sexual abuse by a family member. Three of these five cases were categorized as someone with violent intent during their careers as violent extremists. Notably, however, there were also cases in which individuals did not describe abusive experiences, did describe being in loving families, and also had violent intent. — 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, 306

Categorization

• QUESTION: The loving-families-violent-intent cases are exactly what the reader wants to compare against the withdrawal-of-conflict hypothesis. Worth chasing which cases those were.
• XREF: connects to: Extremists show no elevated mental illness rates relative to the general population — 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:…, 150; Violent hatred need not spring from the victim’s power and abuse — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 66; Structural factors alone can produce violence without prior animosity (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Violent hatred need not spring from the victim’s power and abuse #expands (0.86) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 66
• Most maltreated children do not go on to maltreat their own children #corroborates (0.82) — , The Rod and the Child, 6942
• Group violence can erupt without any prior history of animosity #corroborates (0.78) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 655
• Domestic violence history predicts violence better than Muslim identity does. #qualifies (0.76)
• Structural factors alone can produce violence without prior animosity #qualifies (0.74)