Understanding and targeting risk and protective factors for radicalization to violence: Advancing a public health approach to domestic terrorism prevention

This research involves a mixed method study of risk and protective factors under a public health approach (i.e., strategically targeting risk and protective factors across a whole population) to prevent violent radicalization (VR). The goals of the project are to 1)  Conduct a large-scale cross-sectional survey of risk and protective factors related to attitudes towards VR using population-wide sampling, 2) Conduct a scoping review of evidence-based public health models addressing violence and other outcomes with relevance for the identified VR risk and protective factors (e.g., HIV/AIDS and stigma), and 3) Draw on Community Based Participatory Research and Implementation Science approaches to build local-level partnerships and engage multidisciplinary stakeholder in understanding barriers and opportunities for implementing a public health approach to terrorism prevention. By implementing mixed-methods techniques of data collection (e.g., survey, input from multidisciplinary expert group, in-depth interviews, and community visioning sessions) and rigorous analytical techniques (e.g., Moderated Mediation Path Models, Latent Class Analysis, and conventional qualitative analysis), the proposed study will contribute to an empirical knowledge base for stakeholders to draw on as they seek to mitigate risk and bolster protective factors for VR by identifying empirically-based public health models that address these factors, and engage stakeholders in three states to identify potential barriers and opportunities for implementing a public health model for the prevention of VR. Anticipation outcomes include a large-scale database of risk and protective factors for VR, as well as various publications and presentations.