Research project
Barriers to terrorism: why most extremists never become terrorists
When does radicalization not lead to terrorist attacks?
- Duration
- 2020 - 2023
- Contact
- Bart Schuurman
- Funding
-
Dutch Research Council (NWO) ‘Veni’ grant (#VI. Veni.191R.007); Public Safety Canada. ‘Community Resilience Fund’ (#CRF 8000- 21053).
When does radicalisation not lead to terrorist attacks? A detailed analysis of 206 jihadist and right-wing extremist individuals led to numerous conclusions. Surprisingly, participation in extremist groups or movements often serves to lower the likeliness that radicalized individuals will conduct terrorist violence. This is largely due to such groups' desire for self-preservation, as many of them realise they are too weak to survive a violent confrontation with the state. This also explains why many terrorist attacks are conducted by lone actors, rather than groups. Additional findings point to high degrees of social embeddedness (e.g., through work) as barriers to terrorism.
- Schuurman Bart Carthy Sarah L. (2023), Contextualizing involvement in terrorist violence by considering non-significant findings: Using null results and temporal perspectives to better understand radicalization outcomes, PLoS ONE 18(11): e0292941.
- Schuurman B.W. & Carthy S.L. (2023), Who commits terrorism alone? Comparing the biographical backgrounds and radicalization dynamics of lone-actor and group-based terrorists, Crime & Delinquency : .
- Schuurman B.W. & Carthy S.L. (2023), Understanding (non)involvement in terrorist violence: what sets extremists who use terrorist violence apart from those who do not?, Criminology & Public Policy : 1-33.
- Carthy S.L. & Schuurman B.W. (2023), Researching Extremists and Terrorists: Reflections on Interviewing Hard-to-Reach Populations. In: Díaz-Fernández A.M., Del-Real C. & Molnar L. (red.), Fieldwork Experiences in Criminology and Security Studies: Methods, Ethics, and Emotions. Cham: Springer Cham. 375-398
- Schuurman B.W. & Carthy S.L. (2022), The makings of a terrorist: continuity and change across left-, right- and jihadist extremists and terrorists in Europe and North-America, 1960s-present, Deviant Behavior : .
- Schuurman B.W. (2020), Non-involvement in terrorist violence: understanding the most common outcome of radicalization processes, Perspectives on Terrorism 14(6): 14-26.