The violent extremism represents the greatest threat towards the society of today. The school does not have an explicit assignment in the crime prevention work against violent extremism. The school and education, are important factors in preventing children and young people from being involved in violent extremism. Because of this, the school staff has an important task. The aim of this study was to shed light on school staff need to relate to and manage violent extremism in school. This study is conducted by having a qualitative method with six semistructured interviews, where the empirical information is analysed with a qualitative analysis. Further, the theoretical starting point is the theory of health known as Sense of Coherence (SOC) and Job- demands- control-support-model (JDCS), as well as Norm-critical pedagogy. Three categories could be found from the analysis. The personnel are in need of reducing uncertainty, The personnel are in need of increased support and The personnel are in need of knowledge. The conclusion is that school staff are in need of reducing uncertainty about expressing themselves wrong and dare to engage in dialogue with students. School staff are also in need of increased support in the form of collaboration with actors, access to an action plan and more resources. The school staff is also in need of more knowledge about violent extremism, the democratic mission and what the law says. Finally, they need better information and guidelines on how to act when a student risks being involved in violent extremism. / Våldsbejakande extremism utgör det största hotet mot säkerheten i dagens samhälle. Skolan har inte ett uttalat uppdrag i det brottsförebyggande arbetet mot våldsbejakande extremism. Skolan som arena och utbildning är dock viktiga faktorer för att förebygga att barn och ungdomar involveras i våldsbejakande extremism. Därav har skolpersonalen en betydelsefull uppgift. Studiens syfte var att belysa skolpersonals behov av att förhålla sig till och hantera våldsbejakande extremism i skolan. Studien utgörs av en kvalitativ metod i form av sex semistrukturerade intervjuer, där empirin analyserades via en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt var hälsoteorierna Känsla av Sammanhang (KASAM) och Krav/kontroll/stödmodellen (KKS) samt den pedagogiska utgångspunkten Normkritisk pedagogik. Analysen resulterade i tre kategorier som utgör studiens resultat och speglar studiens syfte; Skolpersonal är i behov av att minska osäkerheten, Skolpersonal är i behov av ökat stöd och Skolpersonal är i behov av kunskap. Studiens slutsats är att skolpersonalen är i behov av att minska osäkerheten över att uttrycka sig fel och våga föra dialog med eleverna. Skolpersonalen är även i behov av ökat stöd i form av samarbete med aktörer, ta del av en handlingsplan och mer resurser. Skolpersonalen är likaså i behov av mer kunskap om våldsbejakande extremism, det demokratiska uppdraget samt vad lagen säger. Slutligen är de i behov av bättre information och riktlinjer om hur de ska agera när en elev riskerar att involveras i våldsbejakande extremism.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: Ronet Bachman, Dept. of Sociology. Includes bibliographical references.

When assessing the risk of violence, increasing interest has been shown in bringing science and practice closer together. Moving from clinical intuition in the first generation of risk assessment via actuarial scales in the second generation to the structured professional judgments where risk assessments are today produces better, more valid results when assessing the risk of violence. One of the best predictors of violence is gender. Approximately 10% of the violent criminality can be attributed to women; even so, it is increasing, especially among young women. It is therefore important to examine risk assessments from a gender perspective. Another important factor when assessing the risk of violence is psychopathy and there are indications that there might be gender differences in this diagnosis. Thus, a special interest has been focused on psychopathy in this thesis. The purpose with this work is to explore the similarities and differences in assessing risk for violence in male and female mentally disordered offenders, while the overall aim is to validate the violence risk assessment instrument HCR-20 for Swedish offender populations. The risk assessments for all six studies in this thesis were made by trained personnel using the HCR-20 instrument, where psychopathy was diagnosed with the screening version of the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL:SV). The study populations were both male and female mentally disordered offenders in either the correctional or the forensic setting. The findings show that both the validity and the reliability of the HCR-20 and the PCL:SV were good and the clinical and risk management subscales were found to have better predictive validity than the historical scale. Another finding was that there were more similarities than differences between genders in the HCR-20, while the opposite applied to the PCL:SV, where the antisocial behavior was performed in a different manner. Moreover, it was found that the gender of the assessor might be a factor to take into account when assessing the risk of violence in women, where the recommendation was that at least one assessor should be female. The conclusions were that the HCR-20 and the PCL:SV can be used In Swedish offender populations with valid results. For female offenders, there are differences in the antisocial behavior that is assessed in order to diagnose psychopathy and these differences tend to underestimate psychopathy among female offenders. Furthermore, the gender of the assessor might be of greater importance than has previously been realized. The overall conclusion was that this thesis supports the structural professional judgment method of making risk assessments in order to prevent violence in the community.

Most studies examine how homeland policies influence the host state and what role the homeland plays for diaspora. In this paper, I will examine the reasons and conditions for why ethnic groups do or do not support violent ethnic groups. This study tests how external threats impact the level of support within the same ethnic groups. I will examine the causal relationship between external pressure and non-cooperation through a structured, comparative study of Kurdish ethnic groups.

Title from title page of PDF (University of Missouri--St. Louis, viewed February 24, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-192).

Efforts to control small arms and light weapons (SALW) in the periods following violent conflict can have positive or negative impacts on peacebuilding efforts. Similarly, peacebuilding activities can both support or endanger efforts to place SALW under greater control. Despite the regular occurrence of SALW control and peacebuilding activities in the same time and space in post violent conflict contexts, there is insignificant analysis of how the two sets of activities interrelate, and how these interelationships can be strengthened to improve the contribution that SALW control efforts make to peacebuilding, and vice-versa. The effects of interrelationships over time (contingency); in the same geographic space (complementarity) and the effects of public perceptions and social construction are particularly important and provide a framework for establishing these interrelationships through analysing a wide universe of cases of SALW control attempted in countries emerging from violent conflict, five mini-cases studies and a major analysis of interrelationships in Kosovo.

The relationship between interpartner abuse (IPA) and criminal offending has received little scholarly attention, despite its important theoretical and practical implications. Two key questions about this relationship require attention. First, to what extent do IPA, violent offending, and property offending represent empirically distinct behavioural domains? Second, to what extent do these offence types share common predictors? The current study addressed these issues, and several additional issues, in a birth cohort of 950 New Zealand adults. Cohort members were questioned at ages 21, 25, and 30 years about the extent which they had engaged in IPA and criminal offending during the previous year. Information was also obtained from birth to late adolescence on a number of potential predictors of IPA and criminal offending, including socio-economic disadvantage, family dysfunction, childhood abuse, conduct disordered behaviours, deviant peer affiliations, substance abuse, academic ability, the obtainment of a high-school qualification, identification with an ethnic or racial minority, and gender. Confirmatory Factor Analysis results indicated that IPA, violent offending, and property offending represent three empirically distinct, albeit related, behavioural domains. Consistent with this finding were those obtained using Structural Equation Modelling techniques, which indicated that these offence types share many common childhood, adolescent, and demographic predictors. In addition, many predictors, but not all, were found to exert similar effects across these offence types. Analyses also indicated that shared predictors accounted for considerable proportions of the relationships between IPA, violent offending, and property offending. Finally, the vast majority of predictors were found to exert similar effects for males and females on each offence type. The current findings are discussed in relation to previous research and theory, and with respect to their implications for prevention-focused interventions for IPA and criminal offending.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 67-83)

The preoccupation in the past decades with theorizing radicalization in order to prevent violent extremism has left deradicalization undertheorized. As the number of returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs) is expected to increase as a result of the anticipated military and intelligence advancement on terrorism, the reintegration imperative stresses the urgency to develop comprehensive reintegration and deradicalization strategies. This study seeks to contribute to filling the research deficit begging for empirical data informed by FTFs’ experiences of, and challenges in, reintegration, through qualitative interviews with returning FTFs in Kwale County, Kenya; a county producing a relative majority of Kenyan recruits to Al Shabaab who are now offered amnesty on return to their county of origin. The Life Psychology framework, which assumes an inherent human strive to obtain a good life, i.e. life embeddedness, is adopted for the analysis. The study finds that returnees commit to reintegration in the absence of other alternatives, due to economic incentives and longing for acceptance. It confirms that the process requires the societal motivation in facilitation, but will fail without the sustained commitment of the returning FTF. The study further establishes that returning FTFs are not able to obtain a flow in life embeddedness, which would indicate inability to reintegrate. Yet, many of the interviewed returning FTFs express the contrary, which challenges the concept of life embeddedness as an indicator for reintegration. The study further challenges the general assumption that deradicalization is a precondition for reintegration, as it finds that radicalized individuals are able to reintegrate into communities of origin without deserting held radical beliefs, if those communities share radical sentiments. This study contributes to filling the deficit in empirical data, which when advanced will work to avert security threats posed by returning FTFs and enable utilizing the potential of the phenomenon to counter violent extremism.