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Radicalization is a global event affecting different countries and present in different historical contexts. Psychiatrists can help in the analysis of radicalization in individuals who operate autonomously from more radicalized groups. These lone actors or lone wolves are more difficult to spot as there is no unique identification because they operate as self-determined women or men. A focus of the current study is on the radicalization of children and women. The use of ethnographic research also using Internet sources has provided satisfactory results in the analysis of radicalization while reducing the risk and difficulties of approaching a sample population (terrorists, lone wolves, and radical groups) that, most of the time, is remote, dangerous and concealed to public scrutiny. Emphasis is also provided to the stages of development of radicalized thought and how radicalization can be understood in terms of cognitive and social development of the lone-wolf terrorist. The authors also explore how a radicalized leader can lever on the vulnerability of some individuals to radicalize them. Besides, the authors approach radicalized thought also as a logical fallacy and as a sign of dualistic thinking. Hence, a mix of cognitive, logical, and psychiatric triggers is analyzed in their potential to radicalize.

Identifying and profiling threat actors are high priority tasks for a number of governmental organizations. These threat actors may operate actively, using the Internet to promote propaganda, recruit new members, or exert command and control over their networks. Alternatively, threat actors may operate passively, demonstrating operational security awareness online while using their Internet presence to gather information they need to pose an offline physical threat. This paper presents a flexible new prototype system that allows analysts to automatically detect, monitor and characterize threat actors and their networks using publicly available information. The proposed prototype system fills a need in the intelligence community for a capability to automate manual construction and analysis of online threat networks. Leveraging graph sampling approaches, we perform targeted data collection of extremist social media accounts and their networks. We design and incorporate new algorithms for role classification and radicalization detection using insights from social science literature of extremism. Additionally, we develop and implement analytics to facilitate monitoring the dynamic social networks over time. The prototype also incorporates several novel machine learning algorithms for threat actor discovery and characterization, such as classification of user posts into discourse categories, user post summaries and gender prediction.

Objectives: In this systematic review and meta analysis we will collate and synthesize the evidence on media‐effects for radicalization, focusing on both cognitive
and behavioral outcomes. The goal is to identify the relative magnitudes of the effects for different mediums, types of content, and elements of human‐media
relationships.
Methodology: Random‐effects meta analysis will be used and the results will be rank‐ordered according to the size of the pooled estimates for the different factors.
Meta‐regressions, moderator analysis, and sub‐group analyses will be used to investigate sources of heterogeneity.
Implications: The results of this review will provide a better understanding of the relative magnitude of the effects of media‐related factors. This information should
help the development of more evidence‐based policies.

This protocol outlines a systematic review that aims to understand the effectiveness of educational programmes, delivered both online and offline, designed to prevent and counter the effects of online violent extremist propaganda in multiple languages. The primary objective is to assess the impact of interventions on reducing violent extremist attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. A secondary objective is to identify key factors that influence the effectiveness of these interventions. Eligible studies will include randomised controlled trials and quasi‐experimental designs that evaluate interventions, such as media literacy initiatives, counter‐narratives, alternative narratives and gamified approaches. The analysis will synthesise outcomes using meta‐analysis and narrative synthesis, concentrating on attitudinal and behavioural extremism measures. By addressing a significant research gap, this review aims to provide actionable insights for developing educational strategies to mitigate online extremist propaganda’s spread, impact and radicalising influence.

VOX-Pol Blog Post.

This paper collection entitled “Protecting the Homeland from International and Domestic Terrorism Threats: Current Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives on Root Causes, the Role of Ideology, and Programs for Counter-radicalization and Disengagement”, seeks to add insights without needlessly repeating what has been heard and read elsewhere. What separates this paper collection from the many others on this topic is the multiplicity of perspectives represented, both domestic and international, that span the spectrum of social sciences. To do this, over forty authors were asked to provide perspectives on various aspects of terrorism: root causes, dynamics of Violent Non-State Actors (VNSAs), the role of ideology in terrorism, and potential solutions for counter-radicalization, deradicalization, and disengagement from terrorism.