No single factor robustly drives radicalization across the sampled extremist cases
Evidence
Our study of 32 cases of extremists was heterogenous and covered a broad range of former white and Islamic extremists who were involved with a range of organizations. We did not ask specifically about hypothesized factors associated with extremism but noted when individual, family, or environmental (including community, social, and cultural) factors were described during extremists’ accounts. Fewer than half the sample explicitly framed personal substance use, trauma, and physical health as drivers of radicalization, and though mental health and financial hardship were mentioned in many cases, they were inconsistently linked directly to 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, 319
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Uncertainty alone rarely drives violent extremist willingness. — Lea Echelmeyer, Anne-Marie Slotboom, and Frank Weerman, The Putative Effect of Identity on…, 231; Predictive radicalization claims rest on only ten cases — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 593; Explaining radicalization, not just identifying terrorists, is the harder task — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race…, 867 (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Predictive radicalization claims rest on only ten cases
#corroborates(0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 593 - Explaining radicalization, not just identifying terrorists, is the harder task
#expands(0.80) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 867 - Heavy-handed state intervention and stigmatization deepen rather than halt radicalization
#complicates(0.80) — 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 - Identity diffusion predicts openness to all three extremist ideologies.
#contradicts(0.75) — Lea Echelmeyer, Anne-Marie Slotboom, and Frank Weerman, The Putative Effect of Identity on…, 224