Exit and effective reintegration of violent extremist in Scandinavia

The project develops new knowledge and generates research competence needed by society, public institutions, or the business sector to promote exit processes from violent extremism and reintegration into the society, and the challenge it represents to the society.

Right-wing and Jihadist extremism has been a growing problem over the last decades, also in Scandinavia, and it is expected to increase. 

Extremist activities create fissures in the consensus and trust-based Scandinavian society. Trust erodes through the polarization of public debates, through the creation of internet echo chambers, and the promotion of conspiracy theories, and contributes to marginalization.

Moreover, counter-radicalization programs have, if conducted incorrectly, the possibilities to enhance rather than reduce alienation. 

In this project, we therefore aim to contribute to support (potential) violent extremists’ exit and reintegration processes by exploring how such interventions can be better  implemented.

To counter violent extremism 

The Scandinavian governments’ strategy to counter violent extremism is to make the public institutions accountable for mitigating extremist activities through prevention and reintegration interventions. 

Several welfare actors, across various sectors and levels of governments, are thus in the frontline to counter violent extremism by providing crucial welfare services such as social, health and economic services.

The project

The project studies the welfare actors’ delivered services, including the vertical and horizontal coordination and cooperation between welfare actors and between welfare actors and other actors such as police and intelligence service. 

Additionally, the project studies the clients’, their relatives and practitioners perspectives on the provided interventions and their consideration of the effect of the interventions.

The research is a partnership with three universities and municipalities in Scandinavia, and two external partners, the Salto Oslo og RVTS East.