When Healing Turns to Activism: Formers and Family Members’ Motivation to Engage in P/CVE.

Former Extremists, Relatives of Extremists, P/CVE, Individual Motivations

The involvement of former extremists or family members of terrorists in measures aimed at preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) has recently gained more attention in research and practice. However, little is yet known about the motivations of these individuals as to why they chose to engage in P/CVE activities. Understanding what drives such engagement could provide a better appreciation of the potential impact of such deployment, whether beneficial or detrimental to both the individuals involved and their respective P/CVE-target audience – and contribute to the evolving discourse regarding the effectiveness and potential risks of such P/CVE interventions. This article draws on eight biographical-narrative interviews with four former right-wing extremists and with four relatives of jihadist foreign fighters, all of whom are currently engaged in P/CVE work. Through qualitative reconstructive methods, a combination of narrative and thematic approaches was used to reconstruct the action-relevant orientations for the interviewees' activism. Results indicate that family members are motivated by coping mechanisms for traumatic stress, by social relatedness derived from a ‘positive marginality’, and in response to situational demands. Motivations of former extremists include finding their way back into society, having their new identity mirrored back to them, or maintaining a sense of self-continuity through ‘role residuals’. The results show that, in the case of family members, motivation is affected by exposure to traumatic stress. They also suggest that a locus of control among former extremists can signify different stages of de-radicalisation in some forms of exit pathways and thus help to identify different risks depending on a former’s P/CVE role