The Violent Extremist Lifecycle: Lessons from Northern Ireland

4. Sustained involvement can lead to being bound to the group
When people invest so much and suffer great loss for a group and its political goals, they can become fused with the group and fellow members.

This process of encapsulation within the group reduces contact with the world outside and can lead to a risky shift towards greater extremism.

This isolation promotes greater moral certainty about the group’s ambitions, feelings of empowerment and self-efficacy, coupled with increased dehumanization and moral disengagement that allows the justification of violence.

This justification offers psychological protection against the negative mental health consequences related to engaging in organized killing, which is vitally important in the ability of the person to sustain their militant career.

5. Burn out and stress can push people to leave
Engagement in extremist violence creates trauma for both the perpetrators and their victims.

Consequently, burn out and stress are factors which play a role in pushing people to leave armed groups (if they have available routes out).

6. When violence is viewed as counterproductive, support for the alternative grows
Those who sustained their membership in armed groups beyond the Good Friday Agreement viewed contemporaneous and past violence as an effective means to bring about social change for their community.

Accordingly, when violence was viewed as counterproductive, futile or antisocial, support for non-violent or political action grew.

7. Imprisonment maintains extremism…
Twenty to 30,000 Northern Irish loyalist and republican paramilitaries were incarcerated during the Troubles. Even today, issues around imprisonment and prison conditions are key factors in sustaining support among dissident republicans.

For most interviewees, imprisonment involved being concentrated together on segregated wings with members of their particular armed group.

These conditions created the space to develop relationships and strengthen activist identities, which sustained engagement.

8. … but also opens members up to political solutions
Imprisonment also allowed a greater focus on longer-term strategies that shifted the focus away from violent solutions towards political solutions.

This move, from reactive short-term strategies towards more sophisticated long-term political projects, was driven through engagement with education, group discussion, learning negotiation strategies and practical non-violent skills when resisting prison governance, and maintaining safe intergroup encounters within the prison walls.

For many, prison was transformational and reflective of the post-traumatic growth witnessed in other settings.

These findings demonstrate the importance of creating a prison environment which allows groups of extremists the necessary space and resources to be challenged, to reflect and explore their goals, and to imagine different strategies to obtain them.

Once imprisoned exemplars begin to move in this direction, their status and prototypical image make them powerful influencers within the group to promote transformational change.

9. The motivations that lead to involvement in violence can also justify a move away from violence
Some of the key motivations for making the move away from violence towards seeking a political settlement focused on the desire to create a shared future for Northern Ireland – to create an environment in which youth would not have to continue the cycle of violence, death and imprisonment they had endured.

There was also a desire to rest, recuperate, and rebuild links with family, friends and the wider community that had been diminished through the all-pervading nature of being a paramilitary.

Therefore, while kin ties and social networks play an important role in pulling people into paramilitary groups, they can also offer routes out.

10. Strategies aimed at challenging extremist ideologies are not necessary if the aim is to reduce violence
It is unlikely that committed extremists will voluntarily weaken the bonds they have to their comrades and the group, or with the sacred values and associated religious, political, or ethno-nationalist ideologies they identify with.

Therefore, creating strategies aimed at reducing a violent extremist’s identity to their group and ideology is difficult and unlikely to succeed. It is also unnecessary if the aim is to create the conditions for militants to simply desist from violence.

11. Desistance can be fostered by removing barriers to disengagement
Helping an extremist to foster new relationships and identities through education and employment, and by rebuilding family bonds, can moderate the centrality of the extremist self.

Just as an extremist’s identity is embedded within their wider collective or community identity, the strong bonds to the community which initiated their engagement in pro-group antisocial behavior can also support pro-group prosocial behavior.

In other words, there is more you can do to help your community than pick up a rifle.

A continued commitment to the community can therefore be harnessed to promote disengagement from extremist violence.

12. Reducing stigma and providing economic alternatives are key
Many of the paramilitaries, and particularly the loyalist paramilitaries, felt stigmatized in post-agreement Northern Ireland. This stigma can have a negative impact on employment prospects, financial security, and both psychological and physical health.

The relationship with stigma and extremism is complex and stigma may play a role in maintaining engagement, by leaving people with few options to leave.

Likewise, it could make re-engagement more likely for those that have left militant groups if they cannot find legitimate means to support themselves and families.

Alternatively, it could cause some to leave if they have options to join a group or create an identity with a better social status through family, education or employment.

Therefore, reducing stigma, facilitating the rebuilding of relationships outside the organization, and providing opportunities for legal economic activity and self-development are central to desistance.