Toward a Theory of Disengagement From Violent Extremism: A Life-Course Perspective

• In Event: Global Perspectives on Gangs, Violence and Desistance

Abstract

This paper reviews and discusses current theory and empirical data on disengagement from violent extremism (VE), and reinterprets this body of work form a life-course perspective. Despite the fact that participation in and disengagement from VE closely follows the well-known age/crime curve, intriguingly, life-course processes are almost never highlighted, nor are they given explanatory significance by the researcher. Instead, when disengagement from VE is explained, it is commonly done by identifying and listing a number of push- and pull factors, without drawing from any deeper systematic framework. This almost always amounts to an explanation similar to that of a ”shopping list”, where actual mechanisms of disengagement are poorly understood. This paper instead frames the process of disengagement from VE using concepts and principles from a life-course perspective and shows that, while not reducing any of its complexity, disengagement from VE can be understood as a result of the temporal alignment of subjective and social factors, similar to explanations of criminal desistance and disengagement from gangs. By doing so, the so far neglected but important intersectional dimensions of social life – in particular, age, class, gender, and ethnicity as temporal phenomena – are introduced as elements of the disengagement process.

Author

• Christoffer Carlsson, The Institute for Future Studies