Pathways toward Jihadism in Western Europe: An Empirical Exploration of a Comprehensive Model of Terrorist Radicalization

Radicalization and deradicalization: A qualitative analysis of parallels in relevant risk factors and trigger factors.

“…This pattern of results is in line with another recent article which similarly combined data on the early and more advanced stages of radicalization: Pfundmair et al (2019) identified as crucial factors in the process of radicalization the personal needs for transcendence, significance, and control, which correspond to our themes of "seeking out a sense of purpose, existential meaning" and "improving personal status," as well as various group cohesion processes which correspond to our themes of "compensating for exclusion" and "constructing facets of social identity." These parallels are notable as they indicate the robustness of our findings despite the clear limitations of our samples.…”

The Relationship between of Moral Injury and Radicalisation: A Systematic Review

“…The usefulness of this finding is limited as this study did not examine whether these trauma exposure variables were associated with radicalization status following deradicalisation efforts. Finally, compared to non-radical detainees, Pfudamir et al 66 found that radical Islamic detainees were not significantly more likely to report a history of trauma exposure (p > 0.05). Taken together, the evidence of the role of significance motives, including pre-radicalization trauma exposure, in the radicalization process is limited and remains unclear.…”

“…This study also found that being married was significantly associated with poorer outcomes and hypothesize that this may be because partners support and encourage each other's commitment to radicalization. Pfundmair et al 71 found radicalized individuals were more likely to report experiencing higher levels of social exclusion compared to non-radicals (r = 0.21, p < 0.05).…”

Radicalization as Envious Militancy

“…Although envy is absent of much of the expert literature, we often find mentions of other emotional experiences such as outrage and indignation (Bloom, 2006;Sageman, 2017b;Speckhard, 2016), desire for revenge (Bloom, 2006;Ilardi, 2013;Merari et al, 25 Evolutionary models predict that males would benefit more than females from participating in offensive aggression, while there should not be any sex differences when it comes to defense (Lopez, 2017;McDonald et al, 2012;Tooby & Cosmides, 1988). This may partially explain why men are overwhelmingly more likely to get radicalized to the point of committing violent acts; one of the most consistent findings in the radicalization literature (see National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), 2018;Pfundmair et al, 2019).…”

“…Excitement/exhilaration (Ajil, 2019;Bartlett & Miller, 2012;Haggerty & Bucerius, 2018;J. E. Stern, 2014;Wolfowicz et al, 2019), gratitude (Ajil, 2019), pride (Baugut & Neumann, 2019;Cottee & Hayward, 2011;Haggerty & Bucerius, 2018;Ilardi, 2013;Khalil et al, 2019;Meadowcroft & Morrow, 2017;Post et al, 2003), admiration (Ajil, 2019;Baugut & Neumann, 2019), contempt (Milla et al, 2013;Pfundmair et al, 2019;Simi & Futrell, 2009, p. 93), and shame (Lankford, 2014;Sageman, 2008) transpire as essential aspects of the experiences reported by radicalized individuals when they had to deal with those relevant behavioral choices we have highlighted above (cooperation, action alone, skirting, and general passivity).…”