At the Intersection of Violence and Violent Extremism: Gangs and Immigrant Groups

• In Event: Somali Immigrants and Refugees: Societal Treatment and Youth Behavior

Abstract

: In recent years, incidences of radicalization to violent extremism have drawn significant attention. These concerns have led to an urgent call for increased efforts to prevent radicalization to violent extremism within the United States. With little empirical evidence and few guidelines for effective prevention, law enforcement has increasingly sought to understand whether other types of offending and responses could provide useful analogies to draw on. In particular, decades of research on gang involvement and prevention have been identified as a potential knowledge base that could be used to jump-start efforts to address violent extremism (Decker and Pyrooz, 2011, 2015). However, little research to date has addressed this potential overlap. The aim of this study, therefore, is to empirically examine convergences and divergences among individual-level factors associated with self-reported gang involvement and openness to violent extremism. Analyses draw on quantitative interviews with 542 Somali youth in four North American cities who participated in a longitudinal study assessing key experiences and attitudes, including social bonds, adversity, gang involvement, and openness to violent extremism. Findings suggest that there is more difference than similarity in terms of factors associated with gang involvement and openness to violent extremism.

Authors

• Heidi B. Ellis, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School

• Emma Cardeli, Boston Children’s Hospital

• Alisa Miller, Boston Children’s Hospital, Psychiatry Department

• Saida M. Abdi, Boston Children’s Hospital

• Ineke Haen Marshall, Northeastern University

• Scott Decker, Arizona State University

• Georgios D. Sideridis, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School