Radicalization in Adolescence - Testing a Differentiation Thesis

• In Event: Terrorism Risk and Protective Factors

Abstract

Among young people radical attitudes are not uncommon, without most young people necessarily developing extremist behavior as a result. Existing studies have identified risk factors contributing to the development of extremist behavior via radical attitudes and the approval of norm violations. However, little is known about whether different political-radical positions differentiate with age from initially unspecific rebellious attitudes, merging left-wing and right-wing extremist positions. According to the differentiation thesis, the divergence of left-wing versus right-wing extremist positions, the approval of violence against those who think differently and committing left-wing or right-wing extremist acts should develop with age.
The presentation informs on a simultaneous survey of students in the 7th (N > 7,700) and 9th grades (N > 8,500) in Germany on their political attitudes, approval of violence, and extremist behavior in left-wing and right-wing extremism respectively. The examination of a structural equation model confirms that radical political attitudes and corresponding approvals of norm violations are undifferentiated in the 7th grade and that these extremist positions tend to increasingly differentiate in the 9th grade. The findings support the usefulness of school measures to prevent radicalization, especially in early adolescence when radical orientations are still unspecific.

Authors

• Thomas Bliesener, University of Goettingen

• Daniel Seddig, Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony