This innovative book examines radicalization from new psychological perspectives by examining the different typologies of radicalizing individuals, what makes individuals resilient against radicalization, and events that can trigger individuals to radicalize or to deradicalize. What is radicalization? Which psychological processes or events in a person's life play a role in radicalization? What determines whether a personal is resilient against radicalization, and is deradicalization something that we can achieve? This book goes beyond previous publications on this topic by identifying concrete key events in the process of radicalization, providing a useful theoretical framework that summarizes the current state-of-the-art research on radicalization and deradicalization. A model is presented in which a distinction is made between different levels of radicalization and deradicalization, with key underlying psychological needs discussed: the need for identity, justice, significance, and sensation. The authors also describe what makes people resilient against messages from "the outside world" when they belong to an extremist group and discuss observable events which may "trigger" a person to radicalize (further) or to deradicalize. Including real-world examples and clear guidelines for interventions aimed at prevention of radicalization and stimulation of deradicalization, this is essential reading for policy makers, researchers, practitioners, and students interested in this crucial societal issue.

This ground-breaking book introduces a new model of extremism that emphasizes motivational imbalance among individual needs, offering a unique multidisciplinary exploration of extreme behaviors relating to terrorism, dieting, sports, love, addictions, and money. In popular discourse, the term ‘extremism’ has come to mean largely ‘violent extremism’, but this is just one of many different types: extreme sports, extreme diets, political and religious extremisms, extreme self-interest, extreme attitudes, extreme devotion to a cause, addiction to substances, or behavioral addiction (to videogames, shopping, pornography, sex, and work). But do these descriptions have a deeper meaning? Do they reveal a common psychological dynamic? Or are they merely a mode of things about phenomena that have little in common? Bringing together world-leading psychologists from a variety of disciplines, the book uses a brand-new model to examine different expressions of extremism, at different levels of analysis (brain, hormones, and behavior), in order not merely to describe such behaviors but also to explain their occurrence, and the conditions under which they may be likely to emerge. Also including suggestions for ways in which extremism could be counteracted, and to what extent it appears to be harmful to individuals and society, this is essential reading for students and academics in psychology and behavioral sciences.

The Handbook of the Criminology of Terrorism features a collection of essays that represent the most recent criminological research relating to the origins and evolution of, along with responses to, terrorism, from a criminological perspective. Offers an authoritative overview of the latest criminological research into the causes of and responses to terrorism in today’s world Covers broad themes that include terrorism’s origins, theories, methodologies, types, relationship to other forms of crime, terrorism and the criminal justice system, ways to counter terrorism, and more Features original contributions from a group of international experts in the field Provides unique insights into the field through an exclusive focus on criminological conceptual frameworks and empirical studies that engage terrorism and responses to it

This book offers an in-depth study of personal accounts of men and women who have at one time entered, participated in and ultimately exited the neo-Nazi movement, with a focus on advanced Western states. Through detailed stories of the movement’s violence, hatred, and ideology, coupled with narratives of the individuals’ life plans and dreams when entering the movement and reintegrating into society, the work provides knowledge, hope and new directions for readers to better understand and react to a reinvigorated extreme right across Western nations. The book provides innovative research on the relationship between the life trajectories of neo-Nazis and their significant others, enabling better and more evidence-based strategies for preventing radicalization and promoting deradicalization. The extensive case studies include the voices of those who returned to the movement, or never left at all, providing a rare opportunity to compare active, former and returned right-wing extremists. The main contribution of the book is to provide an innovative approach to the oral history of young men and women who have participated in different national and local neo-Nazi movements in Western countries, namely Sweden and the United States. In order to understand the current trends within the movement and their relationship to the surrounding society, this shift calls for in-depth analyses based on social-psychological and sociological perspectives. Stressing the importance of having a gender theory, sociocultural, historical and both a national and contextual perspective on the neo-Nazi movement, this book contributes new knowledge to this field of research. This book will be of much interest to students of political extremism, radicalization, terrorism studies and social psychology.

This book explores the psychology of how groups and nations become locked in cycles of mutual radicalization, in which hatred and conflict continually escalate, even to the point of mutual destruction.

In recent times, the phenomenon of lone wolf terrorism has been observed with the social assumption that a radicalized individual is only guided by personal, social, and ethnic reasons to commit an extremist act. Nevertheless, there is still much to understand about this phenomenon and improve the methods of investigation or psychiatric interventions. This handbook attempts to cover gaps in understanding the psychiatric aspects of radicalization and the phenomenon of lone-wolf terrorism. Edited by expert clinical psychologists, the contributors have taken both a qualitative and theoretical route to analyze the phenomenon, prompted by their clinical experience with mental health professionals, being in contact with radicalized people living in local towns and prisons.

This book is a study of American Muslims' perspectives on Muslims who become radicalized and choose to support the Islamic State. Muslim radicalization is a global phenomenon that has affected American Muslims as it has Muslims throughout the world. In 2015, approximately 250 Americans joined the Islamic State (IS), and some still sympathize with it. Based on 51 in-depth interviews conducted in nine states from 2017 to 2021, this book offers a thematic understanding of radicalization, touching on themes such as Islamic history, Muslims' social and political identities, cultural dilemmas, radicalization outlets, mental health, media stereotypes, Islamophobia, security, and the impact of COVID-19 on radicalization. This book differs from previous scholarship on the causes of radicalization by focusing on the perspectives of non-radicalized American Muslims. While some previous scholarship has focused on Muslim radicalization in Europe, this book provides a new spectrum of views from the United States. It also offers pathways to de-radicalization. The interview data is complemented with relevant literature, analysis of media perspectives, and the author's personal observations.