Narrative Means to Self-Justificatory Ends: Neutralizing Right-Wing and Jihadi Political Violence in Germany

• In Event: Narrative Criminology III: Innovations

Abstract

The exploration of individual drivers and motivations for political violence has come a long way from simplistic accounts of "root causes" and idiosyncratic approaches to radicalization processes. Narrative approaches are a promising avenue to both develop more generally applicable accounts and consider individual specificities and
perceptions, as they reveal how individuals rationalize their actions to themselves and others. Drawing on insights from narrative criminology, we will apply an innovative typology of hegemonic, subversive and radical neutralizations to material narrated by individuals who have engaged in right-wing and jihadi political violence in Germany. In justifying political violence, subversive neutralization techniques (for example) aim to revolutionize dominant beliefs, as individuals project themselves in a counter- culture with regard to both individual lifestyle and the broader political project. Narrative criminology has yet to pay detailed attention to the structural differences between the stories of culturally storied and counter-culturally storied ("ideologically motivated" or "political")
perpetrators: between stories that excuse violence and stories that construct the right to violence. We want to show how specific types of neutralizations might enable specific acts and motivations and further solidify counter-cultural identities and a commitment to engage in violence.

Authors

• Sarah Colvin, University of Cambridge

• Daniela Pisoiu, Institut für Friedensforschung und Sicherheitspolitik