The mental well-being of youth is influenced by life events, which affects mental health in adulthood. Social support has been shown to have a buffering effect on the impact such events may have on mental health. This research aimed to explore the effect social support has on risk factors, such…
This book tells the stories behind the impact of the growth of violent extremism, acting as an imminent threat to peace, stability and development in Africa. Despite significant investment by the international community to counter the devastating impact of violent extremism, it has further expanded and spread in subSaharan Africa,…
In the aftermath of the fall of ISIS’ so-called “caliphate”, tens of thousands of children, women, and men with alleged ISIS affiliations from some 60 countries fell under the custody of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). As an increasing number of states start to heed…
This study maps the surface web information ecosystem exploited by the Islamic State (IS) and its followers between December 2020 and June 2021. Open-source intelligence investigation allowed a massive online presence of Daesh, manifested by hundreds of communication channels, to be detected. Its propaganda dissemination was founded mainly on one…
Research has explored how the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a wave of conspiratorial thinking and online hate speech, but little is empirically known about how different phases of the pandemic are associated with hate speech against adversaries identified by online conspiracy communities. This study addresses this gap by combining observational methods…
Domestic violent extremists, specifically white supremacist extremists, have long plotted against U.S. democracy. As the United States experiences a period of heightened animosity toward elected officials and other political leaders, the history of WSE assassination — and the context in which these attacks have occurred — suggests a stark outlook for…
In previous studies, multiagency collaboration was identified as a key strategy for early intervention in violent extremism. However, there has been little focus on professionals’ shared communication to support collaboration. The aim of this study was to describe trust in multiagency collaboration teams in the Nordic countries tasked with preventing…
The potential exploitation of video games, gaming (-adjacent) platforms and gaming-related content by extremist actors has become an increasingly debated issue over the last years. International organisations, policymakers, tech companies, researchers and practitioners alike devote a considerable amount of attention to delineating how and why extremist groups of multiple ideological…
State responses to repatriation of Islamic State (ISIS) foreign fighters and their children detained across Syria and Iraq are highly diverse. Repatriation policies implemented between 2018 and 2020 range from denying repatriation of nationals and revocation of citizenship to repatriation and subsequent gender-responsive rehabilitation programmes. What explains the variation in…
In several conflicts worldwide children are recruited as fighters in irregular forces. These children need to be reintegrated into the society after the conflict. However, concurrent to various reservations in the communities, the reintegration of former child soldiers is challenged by the fact that many of the affected children were…
Large-scale linguistic analyses are increasingly applied to the study of extremism, terrorism, and other threats of violence. At the same time, practitioners working in the field of counterterrorism and security are confronted with large-scale linguistic data, and may benefit from computational methods. This article highlights the challenges and opportunities associated…
This report presents bias indicators for the Australian context and discusses their concept, uses, benefits and risks. The bias indicators presented are the result of extensive consultations with local experts, including academics and practitioners working in law enforcement agencies, government and non-government organisations and community organisations. The researchers’ aim was…
