How can colleges better predict when a person's radical beliefs will turn to violence?

In a new study researchers reviewed numerous cases of extremist violence or terrorism and the published literature to develop a set of tools for colleges to use to assess the risk and reduce the potential for acts of violent extremism. The study, which identifies several risk factors linked to a person's transition from thinking about, planning, and actually implementing violence, is published in Violence and Gender.

The article entitled "An Exploration of the Risk, Protective, and Mobilization Factors Related to Violent Extremism in College Populations," is coauthored by Brian Van Brunt, EdD, The National Behavioral Intervention Team Association (Berwyn, PA), Amy Murphy, PhD, Angelo State University (San Angelo, TX), and Ann Zedginidze, MA, EdM, Columbia University (New York, NY). Among the thoughts and behaviors the researchers associate with mobilization to violence are feelings of injustice, a personal grievance, marginalization and perceived discrimination, and connection to extremists. They suggest that radicalism and extremism be viewed as a continuum. The authors provide a risk assessment model to help college behavioral intervention teams evaluate potential threats.

"This wonderful article on violent extremism in college populations is a classic piece of work for Violence and Gender because it provides both the theory as well as the application of risk, protective, and mobilization factors, allowing professionals in the field to determine where on a continuum the extremists and his/her threatening behavior can be plotted," says Editor-in-Chief Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Forensic Behavioral Consultant and Senior FBI Profiler/Supervisory Special Agent (ret.) and currently, Director of the Forensic Sciences Program, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.