'The Role of Group Identity in Initiating, Sustaining, an Disengaging from Participation in Violent Extremism

The research on violent extremism—both how people become involved and how they leave—has grown over the past two decades, focusing recently on the various “push” and “pull” factors structuring “pathways” into (and out of) violent extremism. Neil Ferguson and James W. McAuley focus on one factor that has found significant support in this body of research—identity—and examine how it contributes not only to initial involvement in and disengagement from violent extremist groups but also to sustained participation in these groups, drawing on interviews with members and former members of loyalist and republican armed groups in Northern Ireland.