scholarly journals Micro and macro-level risk factors for extremism and terrorism: Toward a criminology of extremist violence

2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (3) ◽  
pp. 184-202
Author(s):  
Gary LaFree ◽  
Anina Schwarzenbach
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Theoretical Data ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
The Past ◽  
Criminological Research ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Valid Data ◽  
Micro Level

Abstract Over the past twenty years, research on political extremism and terrorism has become one of the fastest growing sub-fields within criminology. This rapid growth is reminiscent of the early years of criminology itself, characterized by energy, imagination and creativity but at the same time a specialization struggling to collect and analyze valid data, apply appropriate research methods and develop coherent theoretical frameworks. In this paper, we take stock of these developments by considering a basket of micro- and macro-level risk factors that have been frequently linked to the decision to engage in violent extremism. Following a review of risk factors, we consider major definitional, theoretical, data and methodological challenges and also progress made. Prior criminological research on violent extremism has focused especially on micro-level characteristics and few studies to date have integrated micro and macro determinants to explain extremist outcomes. However, with the growing availability of data, including open-source databases, paired with the application of more sophisticated statistical methods, we expect to see more robust results in the years ahead.

Government Policies for Counteracting Violent Extremism

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 383-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary LaFree ◽  
Joshua D. Freilich
Keyword(s):  
Professional Associations ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Political Extremism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Substantial Interest ◽  
Theses And Dissertations

It took the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and, more importantly, the four coordinated attacks of September 11, 2001, to produce substantial interest among criminologists in the empirical study of violent political extremism. In the past two decades, this situation has changed dramatically with research on political extremism now routinely appearing in major criminology outlets, theses and dissertations, and meetings of professional associations. In this review, we track these changes specifically as they relate to government policies on countering violent extremism. What we find is a burgeoning literature. In the past twenty years, we have moved rapidly toward developing a criminology of political extremism. But not surprisingly, given how recent the sustained interest in this area has been, we find research areas where data are weak or nonexistent, rigorous methods are lacking, and results are disconnected from theoretical frameworks. We have divided our review of government responses to violent political extremism along a continuum ranging from the most repressive to the most conciliatory. In general, the trajectory of research on governmental policies to counteract terrorism resembles the early years of criminology itself, characterized by an incredible amount of energy and imagination but at the same time struggling to produce strong empirical data, cutting-edge methods, and sophisticated theoretical explanations.

Understanding violent extremism: Socio-demographic, criminal and psychopathological background characteristics of detainees residing in Dutch terrorism wings

2021 ◽  
pp. 174889582110490
Author(s):  
Gaby Thijssen ◽  
Erik Masthoff ◽  
Jelle Sijtsema ◽  
Stefan Bogaerts
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Background Characteristics ◽  
The Past ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Source Data ◽  
Criminal Background ◽  
Insight Into

In the past decades, Europe has been shocked repeatedly by terrorist crimes. This has led to an influx of suspects and convicts of terrorism in the prison system. The aim of this study is to provide insight into socio-demographic, psychopathological and criminal background characteristics of convicted violent extremists. Retrospective analyses were conducted on primary source data from 82 convicts in Dutch prison terrorism wings. Results showed that violent extremists are a heterogeneous group regarding socio-demographic characteristics. About 60% of the population had previously been convicted of ordinary crimes and a third suffered from a mental disorder. To gain more insight into violent extremists, additional research is needed into motivational and other risk factors. The latter is a necessary step to improve the identification, risk assessment, and effective treatment of violent extremists.

Mechanisms and microfoundations in International Relations theory

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-389
Author(s):  
WILLIAM MCGINLEY
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Central Place ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
Unit Level ◽  
The Past ◽  
Micro Level

AbstractThis article looks at prospects for a mechanism-based research strategy in the study of International Relations. Over the past three decades, the notions of mechanism and microfoundation have taken a central place in discussions of explanation and ‘micro-macro’ problems in social science. The upshot of much of this discussion has been a call for mechanism-based explanations – explanations of macro-level phenomena in terms of micro-level mechanisms. Some work of this kind can already be found in IR theory, including in systemic research. However, a number of IR theorists, including Kenneth Waltz and Alexander Wendt, have argued that micro-oriented strategies like this will not work, pointing to incongruities between system- and unit-level phenomena. This article argues that these pose less hindrance to a fully-developed model of mechanism-based explanation, and that the field has much to gain from further exploration of this strategy. In particular, mechanism-based explanations could help bring structure back to the centre of discussion in IR theory, and might even give us a way out of the field's own micro-macro problems.

scholarly journals Between Global Inequalities and World Ethics. Personal Reflections on Internationalisation of Higher Education over the Past Seventy Years

2021 ◽  
pp. 49-54
Author(s):  
Pavel Zgaga
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
The Past ◽  
Internationalisation Of Higher Education ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Personal Reflections

AbstractWhen the IAU was founded on 9 December 1950, I had just been conceived. We “met” each other only in the 1990s, but I think it is fair to say that the IAU’s seventy years are, in a sense, also my almost seventy years. We both share one aspect of this historical period: the IAU at the macro-level and I at the micro-level. There is no doubt that we are of the same generation.

scholarly journals The importance of the past and relationships in social networks

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-58
Author(s):  
Andzej Szpocinski
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Community Integration ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
The Past ◽  
Micro Level

Through the lens of the collective memory theory, this article examines issues of community integration, within the context of fostering a sense of affinity and connection in a network society. The author ponders the proportion of significance of the past on a macro- and micro-level. The main goal of the researcher is to display the role of a network in developing individual and collective identity, while focusing on the following problems: if the past plays such a vital role in processes of integration on a macro-level, does it play as crucial a role on the micro-level; does addressing the past develop or sustain itself within a network; can “network proclivity” in collective memory be considered an effective mechanism for developing attitudes. In other words, the significance (or lack thereof) of past experience (collective memory) is brought into question. This article presents certain mechanisms for integrating society by means of using reminders from the past. Also, based on analyzing polls which were conducted throughout the last twenty years, it is revealed how specific events in Poland’s recent history have played out in collective memory. The author presents interpretations, hypotheses, as well as arguments and counterarguments with regard to the connection between the network nature of social life and the development of various forms of connection to the past. The results of the study indicate that participation in a network has an insignificant effect on one’s interpretation of events from the recent past. Also highlighted is the fact that individuals who directly participated in certain events are the most trustworthy source of knowledge of the past. This confirms the hypothesis that modern networks do have an effect on choosing traditions, and therefore on their transformation on a macro-level.

Varieties of non-obvious meaning in CL and CADS: from ‘hindsight post-dictability’ to sweet serendipity

Corpora ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Partington
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Special Relevance

In this paper, I want to examine the special relevance of (non)obviousness in corpus linguistics through drawing on case studies. The research discussion is divided into two parts. The first is an examination of (non)obviousness at the micro-level, that is, in lexico-grammatical analyses, whilst the second looks at the more macro-level of (non)obviousness on the plane of discourse. In the final sections, I will examine various types of non-obvious meaning one can come across in Corpus-assisted Discourse Studies (CADS), which range from: ‘I knew that all along (now)’ to ‘that's interesting’ to ‘I sensed that but didn't know why’ (intuitive impressions and corpus-assisted explanations) to ‘I never even knew I never knew that’ (serendipity or ‘non-obvious non-obviousness’, analogous to ‘unknown unknowns’).

Cardiovascular Risk in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Mechanistic Links: From Pathophysiology to Treatment

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 431-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
George E. Fragoulis ◽  
Ismini Panayotidis ◽  
Elena Nikiphorou
Keyword(s):  
Rheumatoid Arthritis ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Pharmacological Intervention ◽  
Cvd Risk ◽  
The Past ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Cv Disease ◽  
Obesity Hypertension ◽  
Inflammatory Burden

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune inflammatory arthritis. Inflammation, however, can spread beyond the joints to involve other organs. During the past few years, it has been well recognized that RA associates with increased risk for cardiovascular (CV) disease (CVD) compared with the general population. This seems to be due not only to the increased occurrence in RA of classical CVD risk factors and comorbidities like smoking, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and others but also to the inflammatory burden that RA itself carries. This is not unexpected given the strong links between inflammation and atherosclerosis and CVD. It has been shown that inflammatory cytokines which are present in abundance in RA play a significant role in every step of plaque formation and rupture. Most of the therapeutic regimes used in RA treatment seem to offer significant benefits to that end. However, more studies are needed to clarify the effect of these drugs on various parameters, including the lipid profile. Of note, although pharmacological intervention significantly helps reduce the inflammatory burden and therefore the CVD risk, control of the so-called classical risk factors is equally important. Herein, we review the current evidence for the underlying pathogenic mechanisms linking inflammation with CVD in the context of RA and reflect on the possible impact of treatments used in RA.

Panpsychism versus Panprotopsychism and the Subject-Summing Problem

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Goff
Keyword(s):  
Macro Level ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Combination Problem ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Russellian Monism ◽  
Nature Of Matter

This is the first of two chapters discussing the most notorious problem facing Russellian monism: the combination problem. This is actually a family of difficulties, each reflecting the challenge of how to make sense of everyday human and animal experience intelligibly arising from more fundamental conscious or protoconscious features of reality. Key challenges facing panpsychist and panpsychist forms of Russellian monism are considered. With respect to panprotopsychism, there is the worry that it collapses into noumenalism: the view that human beings, by their very nature, are unable to understand the concrete, categorical nature of matter. With respect to panpsychism, there is the subject-summing problem: the difficulty making sense of how micro-level conscious subjects combine to produce macro-level conscious subjects. A solution to the subject-summing problem is proposed, and it is ultimately argued that panpsychist forms of the Russellian monism are to be preferred on grounds of simplicity and elegance.

Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Among Youth

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Bryant Miller ◽  
Maya Massing-Schaffer ◽  
Sarah Owens ◽  
Mitchell J. Prinstein
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Applied Research ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Prevalence Rates ◽  
Evidence Based Treatment ◽  
The Past ◽  
Self Injury ◽  
Assessment Techniques ◽  
Basic And Applied Research ◽  
Nonsuicidal Self Injury

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is direct, intentional harm to one’s own body performed without the intent to die. NSSI has a marked developmental onset reaching peak prevalence in adolescence. NSSI is present in the context of multiple psychological disorders and stands alone as a separate phenomenon. Research has accumulated over the past several decades regarding the course of NSSI. While great advances have been made, there remains a distinct need for basic and applied research in the area of NSSI. This chapter reviews prevalence rates, correlates and risk factors, and leading theories of NSSI. Further, it reviews assessment techniques and provides recommendations. Then, it presents the latest evidence-based treatment recommendations and provides a case example. Finally, cutting edge research and the next frontier of research in this area are outlined.

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