Heavy-handed state intervention and stigmatization deepen rather than halt radicalization

Evidence

Attempts by formal institutions to deradicalize individuals sometimes work but often fail as well. In particular, heavy-handed attempts to derail radical activities and groups by intelligence and law enforcement agencies—while understandable to protect the public in many cases—can sometimes deepen ongoing radicalization processes and push potentially salvageable cases to more-extreme behaviors and involvement. … Stigmatization of groups, whether Islamic, rural white, or otherwise, seems mostly to push individuals with risk for radicalization further down the extremist path. Punitive measures, banned speech, and indignant public discourse can backfire and increase the drive for radicalization. — 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, 579

Categorization

• QUESTION: This synthesis directly tests the withdrawal-of-conflict hypothesis: does coercive confrontation predictably worsen radicalization, and why might it fail despite being a confrontation?
• XREF: Links to the withdrawal-of-conflict therapeutic hypothesis the reader is testing, and to ch6’s finding that individual positive support interventions worked best. — connects to: Anti-terrorist suspicion itself can drive people into extremism. — 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:…, 120; No single factor robustly drives radicalization across the sampled extremist cases — 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:…, 319; State intervention to secure legitimation generates an ever-deepening need for more legitimation — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2697 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• State intervention to secure legitimation generates an ever-deepening need for more legitimation #expands (0.82) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2697
• Totalitarian radicalization accelerates with war and defeat rather than being checked by them #exemplifies (0.80) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 925
• State-imposed structures of Muslim representation impaired groups’ ability to combat Islamophobia #exemplifies (0.80) — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 140
• Radicalization is countered by empathy and resources, not by bans or information alone #complicates (0.78) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 717
• Perceived exclusion and injustice prime society-wide breeding grounds for radicalization #qualifies (0.75) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 716
• Law-and-order ideology legitimizes state intervention in crises #expands (0.72)