From extreme beliefs to actual violence: A mixed-methods study into terrorist suspects

This dissertation addresses the question of what factors and processes explain pathways of individuals with extreme beliefs towards different outcomes, including violent actions (e.g., murder), nonviolent actions (e.g., recruitment), or alternative outcomes (e.g., joining a terrorist organization abroad). The research is based on terrorist suspects in the Netherlands and utilizes a mixed-methods approach. The theoretical background of the research is formed by insights from social control theory, life course criminology and terrorism literature, examining risk and protective factors, triggers (events that accelerate or stop radicalization processes), the concept of “redemption,” and the relationship between terrorism and a criminal past. The aim is to generate more knowledge about terrorist suspects in general and differences between subgroups by using comparison groups. The method for the first section involves analyzing data from the Public Prosecution Service combined with data from Statistics Netherlands and judicial data. The first sub-study quantitatively compares terrorist suspects with regular suspects and siblings, examining various life-course factors one year before the terrorist crime. The next sub-study distinguishes between violent and nonviolent terrorist suspects and addresses demographic characteristics, household composition, socioeconomic status (SES) and criminal background. The second section analyzes probation files from the Dutch Probation Service. Possible signs and triggers leading to the terrorist suspicion, different life domains (socio-demographic characteristics, social network, health, and personality-related variables), criminal history, and online activities are mapped using descriptive statistics and qualitative interpretation. This section first compares violent to nonviolent terrorist suspects, and concludes with a chapter on foreign fighters. Findings in the first sub-study indicate that terrorist suspects share more sim