Criminologist Elanie Rodermond has been awarded a Vidi grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for her RADICAL project. The grant will enable her to build a research team to investigate how young people become involved in violent extremism, why some go on to commit violence, and which factors help young people distance themselves again from extremist groups and ideas.
More and more young people are becoming involved in violent extremism. This can range from participating in online extremist networks and sharing extremist messages to committing violent offences and terrorist attacks. “We still know relatively little about how these processes develop during adolescence,” says Elanie Rodermond.
According to Rodermond, who is affiliated with the Faculty of Law, recent developments show that radicalisation among young people does not always unfold in the way it is often assumed to. In some cases, an interest in violence appears to be present before extremist beliefs develop. The online environment is also playing an increasingly important role in radicalisation and recruitment.
RADICAL
In the project Dynamics of Youth Involvement in Contemporary Violent Extremism (RADICAL), Rodermond will investigate how extremist beliefs and behaviour develop and change during adolescence.
Adolescence is an important stage of life in which young people develop their identity and experiment with ideas and behaviour. “That can make it difficult to distinguish between experimental behaviour and signs that a young person is actually moving towards violence.” Much existing research on radicalisation also focuses primarily on adults.
Together with a team of researchers, Rodermond will follow young people over an extended period and analyse data on adolescents in the Netherlands who have been convicted of terrorist offences. She will compare their backgrounds and criminal trajectories with those of other groups. She will also conduct in-depth interviews with young people who are or have been involved in extremist environments. “By studying young people in different ways and over a longer period, I want to better understand how involvement in extremism develops. By also hearing their personal stories, we can better understand which processes can lead to escalation and what helps young people to distance themselves from extremism again.”
More effective prevention and intervention
The findings from the project will be translated into practical tools and guidance for, among others, schools, municipalities, the police and the justice system. These should help professionals make better judgements about when intervention is needed and when it is not. “Not every young person with extremist beliefs goes on to commit violence. That is why it is important to recognize when intervention is needed, without labelling young people too quickly as ‘dangerous’ or ‘criminal’. In this way, we can work towards an approach that takes better account of adolescent development and prevents experimental behaviour from leading too quickly to a lasting stigma.”