Interview design probes turning points, interventions, and missed chances to test deradicalization causation

Evidence

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. — 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

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Researchers borrowed the suicide psychological autopsy method to study deradicalization — 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:…, 30; Interview protocol probed turning points and exit processes in chronological order — 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:…, 32; 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

Broader Connections

• Interviews probed deradicalization as life-course narrative from early life to exit #expands (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, 270