Researchers borrowed the suicide psychological autopsy method to study deradicalization

Evidence

Using findings and insights from these sources, the team designed a semistructured interview protocol for former extremists, as well as their family members and friends. The structure of these interviews is based on the psychological autopsy approach, which involves systematic interviews with family and friends used to learn about a person who died by suicide and events leading up to the death. To recruit respondents, the team partnered with Parents for Peace and Beyond Barriers, two organizations that work with former members of radical extremist organizations and family members who have assisted with deradicalization efforts. — 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

Categorization

• QUESTION: Psychological autopsy is designed around death — how well does importing it to living former extremists serve retrospective reconstruction of turning points, and what biases might that inherit?
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in testing the withdrawal-of-conflict hypothesis against retrospective life narratives — both are self-report reconstructions subject to hindsight bias. — connects to: No rigorous evidence yet evaluates deradicalization interventions — 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:…, 48; 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; Interview design probes turning points, interventions, and missed chances to test deradicalization causation — 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 (+1 more)

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
• This study generates rather than tests hypotheses about deradicalization. #complicates (0.85)
• Interview design probes turning points, interventions, and missed chances to test deradicalization causation #expands (0.82) — 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
• No rigorous evidence yet evaluates deradicalization interventions #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, 48