Caroline Ewing and Anne Speckhard

Abstract

In recent years, adolescents who experience trauma, social marginalization, and other developmental vulnerabilities have been increasingly exposed to online environments that encourage radicalization into fluid, non-ideological forms of nihilistic violent extremism (NVE). Current counter-extremism approaches often rely on ideology-centered frameworks, while overlooking the underlying psychosocial factors that make adolescents particularly vulnerable to NVE. This paper argues that understanding these pathways to violence requires a broader framework that draws from developmental psychology, trauma research, and public health approaches, rather than focusing solely on ideological analysis. We propose a trauma-informed public health model that leverages the primary and secondary levels of prevention to identify at-risk youth through behavioral and psychosocial indicators through supportive intervention strategies and cross-sector collaboration among law enforcement, social services, and mental health professionals.

Introduction

Since the September 11^th attacks in 2001, efforts to counter violent extremism have largely operated under the assumption that extremism and ideology are inherently linked (Heywood, 2017). However, the rapid expansion of digitally interconnected global social environments has increasingly challenged this assumption, indicating that radicalization is a process that may not emerge solely from ideological commitment, but also from broader psychological, social, and behavioral vulnerabilities shaped by contemporary online interactions (Astley, 2025). In this increasingly unstable and hyperconnected environment, patterns of alienation, uncertainty, and emotional distress have intensified, particularly among adolescents navigating identity formation during a period marked by social fragmentation and chronic exposure to conflict and instability.

This phenomenon is not purely theoretical, as these societal issues have coincided with rising rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, substance abuse, and so-called “deaths of despair” (Duffy et al., 2019; Lu & Keyes, 2023), particularly among individuals between the ages of 12 and 25 years old in Western nations (Helighen & Beigi, 2023). For example, Twenge (2020) found that rates of depression, anxiety, and incidence of self-harm in adolescents have doubled in the United States within the last decade. Similarly in a large-scale international survey of young people, 50% of respondents expressed the explicit belief that “humanity is doomed,” (Hickman et al., 2021) reflecting a diminished sense of both meaning and future orientation.

In many ways, the conceptual roots of this phenomenon can be traced to German psychologist Erich Fromm’s alternative conceptualization of the term “necrophilia” (Fromm, 1963). Although necrophilia is typically defined as a sexual attraction to dead bodies, to Fromm, it was best described as the manifestation of “malignant aggression” that reflects a destructive orientation that emerges from a profound alienation, disconnection, and dehumanization among individuals who possess “a pure passion to destroy,” (Fromm, 1963, p. 366). He views this dynamic as the consequence of a capitalist system wherein the necrophile develops the core belief that “the greatest achievement of man is not to give life, but to destroy it,” (Fromm, 1963, p. 9).

This is perhaps most relevant when discussing a rapidly emerging and recently identified form of extremism, known as Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE). Here, the principles of nihilism and accelerationism have evolved into an online ecosystem that views destruction, chaos, and violence not as means to an ideological end, but as ends in themselves (Argentino, 2024). Over time, earlier conceptualizations of accelerationism, an intellectual movement that argues that modern society is destined to collapse and that this collapse should be accelerated and exacerbated through the rejection of all forms of political, social, and economic structure, began to merge with a nebulous, but interconnected online ecosystem of violent and extremist milieus (Kriner et al., 2024; Argentino, 2024; Garreffa, 2022). Thus, NVE holds both the collapse-seeking impulses of the accelerationist with the existential detachment of the nihilist (Garreffa, 2022). In recognition of this evolving threat, we assert that NVE may be better understood as a constellation of behavioral and psychosocial patterns that are shaped by trauma, alienation, identity disruption, and online social reinforcement. Thus, this paper argues that understanding and preventing adolescent radicalization within NVE ecosystems requires moving beyond ideology-centered frameworks toward trauma-informed and public health-oriented approaches that are grounded in developmental psychology and behavioral science.

Nihilism and Radicalization

In its most basic sense, radicalization to violent extremism can be best defined as the process by which individuals, groups, or the larger public increasingly accept violence for a cause (Moskalenko & McCauley, 2020; Yakub, 2023). Numerous models have been proposed to capture this process (e.g.,McCauley & Moskalenko, 2008, 2017; Moghaddam, 2005) and have been leveraged by those engaged in counterterrorism efforts to combat violent extremism.

Ideology is, of course, not always violent and radicalization is not inherently negative, as countless positive societal changes have been the result of “radical ideologies” across different political and cultural contexts, such as feminism and environmentalism, that have resulted in positive changes in society with minimal violence. In its most general sense, ideology can be considered a lens through which individuals share a collective understanding of the world and their place in it (Drake, 1998). However, there are many ideologies which justify the use of violence and chaos in their attempts to force societal change.

The nature of a form of extremism that is not based in a coherent ideology and primarily present online is not purely theoretical and presents significant challenges for counterterrorism efforts. Existing legal frameworks typically rely on ideology to classify extremist groups, and these classifications can be leveraged when considering counterterrorism strategies. However, groups that adhere to what has been referred to as “fringe fluidity,” “salad bar ideologies,” and “composite violent extremism,” (Hoffman & Ware, 2020) reflect the modern-day nihilistic extremist’s ability to “simply add a veneer of extremist ideology on top of their preexisting propensity for violence,” (Ware, 2023, p. 23). As such, members of these nihilistic extremist groups are notably harder to track and prosecute as their behavior is more difficult to predict (Ware, 2023; Thomson, 2025).

The numerous fundamental differences between NVE and the prototypical ideology-based forms of extremism (See Table 1) are not solely due to the nature of nihilistic principles but are consequences of its coevolution with the use of novel online methods of radicalization. Defined by Ware (2023) as the third generation of online radicalization that first began in the late 2010s, it differs from prior forms of online radicalization in certain distinct features. Of these features, perhaps the most critical factor in the challenges posed by this form of online radicalization and extremism is the emphasis on decentralization and a diminishing reliance on identifiable ideological influences (Ware, 2023). For these extremists, radicalization is gamified, viral, and self-initiated.

Dimension	Nihilistic/Non-Ideological Extremism	Ideological Extremism
Core Motivation	Destruction, chaos, rejection of meaning; thrill-seeking and notoriety	Advancement of a clear and stated political, religious, or social ideology
Narrative/Belief System	Fluid, typically incoherent and inconsistent	Structured belief system and worldview rooted in historical grievances and political goals
Appeal	Promises of “clout,” and belonging without doctrine; Community through shock value;	Promise of purpose, certainty, and identity; Promotes mission tied to coherent ideology
Targets/Enemies	Mankind, often symbolic; Spans institutions, all forms of authority, and “normies” outside of the group	Clearly defined out-groups on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, political belief systems
Communication Style	Gamified, meme-driven characterized by ironic and nihilistic humor; Lengthy manifestos detailing steps to promote destruction and violence	Serious ideological texts, pseudo-academic content, ideology-based propaganda
Violence Rationale	Violence is a spectacle and performance; Leveraged for validation and as a demonstration of power and loyalty	Violence is instrumental for advancing and defending ideology
Counterterrorism Amenability	Decentralized and harder to track; Lack of clear ideology challenges existing counterterrorism frameworks and approaches	Easier to categorize due to identifiable ideology
Vulnerable Populations	Disaffected adolescents drawn to rebellion and transgression	Individuals seeking certainty, belonging, purpose, and justification for grievances

Unlike earlier generations of online extremism that were often driven by ideological radicalization tactics employed by existing and identifiable leaders and members within a hierarchical structure (Ware, 2023), online extremist groups evolve in a space where ephemerality and anonymity are primary components of their structure (Ware, 2023; Thorlieifsson & Düker, 2021). Instead of requiring recruits to passively absorb ideological content, recruits are encouraged to act as active agents in their own radicalization (Kuncoro & Hasanah, 2024) who navigate encrypted forums and platforms, such as Discord, Telegram, and Reddit, as they descend into the extremist principles that define these online ecosystems (Ware, 2023; Williams et al., 2021). Further, the content disseminated within these ecosystems are characterized by the use of irony, humor, gamification, and promises of notoriety to desensitize users and further entrench them in these communities (Ware, 2023; Steltenpohl et al., 2018).

Similarly, the advent of livestreaming and the increasingly streamlined ability to share content in real time on these platforms has accelerated the spread of violent and extremist content at a startling rate. For example, in 2019, Brenton Tarrant livestreamed his mass killing of 51 individuals in Christchurch, New Zealand and, within 24 hours of the attack, Facebook moderators removed 1.5 million re-uploads of the attack and intercepted another 1.2 million attempts to upload copies (Macklin, 2019). Here, terrorism is perhaps best understood through Hobson’s (2023) conceptualization of the “theater of terrorism” where terrorism is fundamentally performative and not only leveraged for chaos and destruction of the few, but also for media amplification and symbolic impact in society.

The aforementioned features of online radicalization are especially alarming when one considers the well-established prominence of social media use among adolescents, and there is no question that social media plays a substantial and consequential role in adolescents’ neurological and psychosocial development (Somerville, 2013; Nesi et al., 2018). Almost all adolescents regularly use some form of social media and, due to their underdeveloped cognitive capacities, search for identity, and attention to peer relationships, they are inherently vulnerable to exploitation within online extremist ecosystems (Steinberg et al., 2008; Cauffman et al., 2015; Somerville, 2013).

NVE’s rejection of a coherent and collective ideology presents significant barriers to conventional counterterrorism methods. Unlike ideology-based extremism, NVE appears to be the consequence of a psychosocial void created by alienation, disillusionment, and unprocessed trauma. Given these features, it is no surprise that adolescents, particularly those with trauma histories, are especially susceptible to the views espoused by online nihilistic extremist groups. Thus, prevention efforts cannot be limited to ideology-based approaches and must instead consider the developmental and emotional vulnerabilities that are exacerbated by early traumatic experiences (Speckhard, 2007; Danese & Baldwin, 2017) which are exploited by these movements. In the next section, we will explore the manner in which the intersection of adolescent development and trauma provides critical insight into the psychological mechanisms that underlie the radicalization process within the context of nihilistic extremism that can inform effective, adaptive, and proactive prevention frameworks.

Adolescence and Trauma

Adolescence is a developmental period that is characterized by rapid neurological, cognitive, and social change. During this critical time in an individual’s life course, the interplay between brain maturation, identity formation, and social development can be significantly impacted by traumatic experiences and influenced by online interactions. Likewise, adolescence is a time of separation from one’s parents and familial identity, creating deep vulnerabilities to external influences. As a result, online extremist groups are particularly well-positioned to leverage these developmental pathways to exploit and recruit adolescents around the world.

Trauma, in its most basic sense, can be defined as both the experience and impacts of distress caused by situations or events that have the potential to “harm a person’s safety, integrity for life, and are negative in impact and outcome,” (Fink & Galea, 2015, p. 2; Speckhard, 2007). Trauma impacts the brain globally, impacting one’s sense of autonomy, emotional regulation, sense of placement in time, impulse control, behavior, and ability to successfully navigate their world around them (Cloitre et al., 2009, 2014). When specifically considering forms of childhood trauma, Felitti and colleagues (1998) surveyed 17,000 adults who presented for medical exams on their early childhood experiences and developed the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Framework from this data. Initially, ACEs provided a standardized assessment of 10 adverse childhood experiences, including emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, emotional and physical neglect, and five forms of household dysfunction (substance abuse, mental illness, criminal behavior, domestic violence, and parental separation) (Felitti et al., 1998; Petruccelli et al., 2019). Later, there were calls to expand this framework to include other adversities, such as bullying, exposure to community violence, and food scarcity (Finkelhor et al., 2013; Karatekin & Hill, 2018). This is especially relevant given the reported rates of early traumatic experiences among children and adolescents. For example, according to a 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health, 55.7% of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 in the United States reported experiencing at least one abuse or neglect-related adverse childhood experience (Bethell et al., 2017).

One of the core findings associated with ACEs is that exposure to a higher number of ACEs is associated with poor physical and mental health outcomes even decades after childhood (Felitti et al., 1998; Hughes et al., 2017; Shonkoff et al., 2012; Dvir et al., 2014)..For example, numerous studies suggest childhood maltreatment impacts subcortical brain regions that are related to stress and significantly increases an individual’s risk of severe psychopathology later in life (Benarous et al., 2017; Keyes et al., 2012; Sala et al., 2014).

When considering trauma within the context of violent extremism, multiple studies have reported a heightened prevalence of unresolved early childhood trauma among adults who engage in these acts of violence. For example, in a nonrepresentative study of 50 respondents conducted by researchers at the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism, they found that white supremacists and anti-government militia members presented with numerous ACEs in their histories. These same respondents reported that some of their motivations for joining these groups were the result of their search for belonging and sense of personal significance that were absent in their families of origin (Speckhard et al., 2022). Further, in a study of 70 radicalized adolescents, Dugas and Kruglanski (2014), 81.4% of respondents reported having experienced trauma in the forms of neglect, emotional abuse, and physical and/or sexual trauma. It is also clear that the consequences of traumatic experiences in childhood persist across the life course and, as these experiences typically occur before cognitive schemas are fully formed, these children often develop enduring worldviews characterized by danger, unpredictability, and mistrust (Speckhard, 2007). As a result, this overwhelming fear can be later expressed as rage, aggression, and an increased likelihood of violent behavior in adolescence and adulthood (Webb, 2015). The aforementioned examples, when combined with a substantial body of research, make it immensely clear that trauma can play a foundational role in an adolescent’s neurological, cognitive, and social development and, in turn, leaves them especially vulnerable to radicalization.

Understanding adolescents’ vulnerability to nihilistic violent extremism first requires examining the neurological, developmental, and psychosocial processes that shape their emotional regulation, identity formation, social belonging, and behavioral decision-making (See Table 2). A substantial body of developmental research consistently demonstrates that trauma exposure can significantly disrupt these processes and, as a result, increase adolescents’ susceptibility to environments that offer belonging, validation, emotional release, and perceived significance through violence.

Developmental Domain	Developmental Process	Trauma Disruptions	NVE Vulnerability
Neurodevelopment and Cognitive Control	Ongoing maturation of cognitive-control systems, impulse regulation, and decision-making skills	Heightened impulsivity, emotional reactivity, and impaired self-regulation	Increased susceptibility to emotionally charged online content, risk-taking, and impulsive violent behavior
Emotional Regulation	Development of emotional awareness and coping strategies	Emotional dysregulation, hyperarousal, hostile attribution bias, low distress tolerance	Greater vulnerability to outrage-based content, aggression, and violent emotional expression
Identity Formation	Exploration of values, meaning, belonging, and self-concept	Identity diffusion, low self-worth, crisis of meaning, dependence on external validation	Increased attraction to extremist communities that provide certainty, belonging, and significance
Meaning and Significance Seeking	Desire for purpose, dignity, and social recognition	Feelings of insignificance, humiliation, alienation, hopelessness	Increased susceptibility to narratives framing violence as empowerment and status
Social Learning and Trauma Reenactment	Learning behavioral norms through observation and peer modeling	Identification with aggressors, normalization of violence, reenactment of abuse dynamics	Adoption of violent behaviors as perceived strategies for control, dominance, and emotional protection
Peer Relationships and Social Belonging	Increased reliance on peers for validation and identity development	Loneliness, rejection sensitivity, social withdrawal, alienation	Greater dependence on online extremist communities for connection and validation
Online Reinforcement and Gamification	Increased engagement with digital social environments	Desensitization to violence, reduced empathy, moral disengagement	Normalization and escalation of performative violence through social rewards and online reinforcement

During this developmental period, adolescents demonstrate heightened sensitivity to reward, social evaluation, and emotionally salient stimuli due to the ongoing maturation of cognitive-control systems responsible for self-regulation and long-term decision-making (Steinberg, 2007, 2008). Although research suggests that adolescents are capable of decision-making under low-emotion conditions, highly arousing environments appear to overwhelm these developing regulatory systems and increase impulsive risk-taking behavior. Traumatic experiences can further disrupt these developmental processes, having been associated with emotional dysregulation, heightened threat sensitivity, hostile attribution bias, and diminished distress tolerance, leaving adolescents more vulnerable to maladaptive coping strategies and externalized aggression (De Bellis & Zisk, 2014; Gruhn & Compas, 2020). Within online environments that are intentionally designed to maximize emotional arousal through outrage and emotionally-charged content, these vulnerabilities become amplified in adolescents.

Adolescence also represents a critical period for identity exploration and an individual’s search for meaning, belonging, and significance (Erikson, 1968; Marcia, 1980). When this process is disrupted by traumatic experiences, adolescents may experience identity diffusion, defined as a fragmented or underdeveloped sense of self that results in the absence of a stable understanding of one’s values, goals, and beliefs. Further, adolescents with trauma histories might also experience a “crisis of meaning”, a process formalized in Kruglanski and colleagues’ (2022, 2019) Significance Quest Theory, that posits that all humans possess a fundamental desire to matter (Schnell, 2018, 2021). During this crisis, the experiences of humiliation, exclusion, and perceived insignificance generate frustration that increases an adolescent’s susceptibility to aggression and violence. Consistent with this theory, Speckhard’s (2016) “Lethal Cocktail of Terrorism” also cites the role of unmet needs for belonging, dignity, and significance, as necessary features of the pathway to violent extremism.

One notable feature of NVE online spaces is the gradual blurring of the boundary between victim and perpetrator as a consequence of identity disruption. When given the freedom to victimize others, adolescents with trauma histories may derive a sense of agency, meaning, and power, through a process conceptualized by Ferenczi (1993, 1932) as identification with the aggressor. Here, victims cope with the negative emotions in the face of overwhelming power asymmetries by internalizing their abusers’ perspective, emotions, and behaviors. As a defensive process, these adolescents are able to transform their victimization into perceived control through imitative and reenacted aggression. NVE ecosystems are well-positioned to exploit these unmet psychosocial needs by offering belonging, recognition, emotional validation, and perceived purpose through narratives centered on nihilism, grievance, and violence.

Peer relationships further intensify these dynamics, as adolescents who experience rejection, loneliness, or social exclusion may become increasingly reliant on online communities for validation and social connection. As a central driving force for adolescent behavior, these relationships shape adolescents’ identity, self-worth, and perceived role in the evolving world around them (Steinberg, 2008; Fiske, 2010; Heaven et al., 2005). Within NVE networks, mechanisms such as memes, ironic detachment, public praise, and performative aggression socially reinforce violent behavior while gradually normalizing dehumanization and moral disengagement. As these group norms and behaviors escalate, online violence shifts from symbolic expression to moralized action that is perceived as justified retaliation and resistance in a hopeless world (Dortkardesler & Magnus, 2025). Thus, over time, repeated exposure to violent content, trauma reenactment, and gamified social reinforcement begins to erode empathy and increase adolescents’ willingness to engage in increasingly aggressive and harmful behaviors.

When taken together, these developmental dynamics highlight the importance of understanding online NVE radicalization among adolescents as a process that emerges through the interaction between psychosocial vulnerability and online environments. Within these ecosystems, developmental immaturity, unresolved trauma, and social marginalization are leveraged by NVE groups through mechanisms that reward emotional dysregulation, aggression, dehumanization, and performative violence. As they further descend into these communities, their emotional responses, coping strategies and relational patterns are all exploited by their fellow community members.

A Proposed Four-Stage NVE Radicalization Process

As discussed throughout this paper, many existing models of radicalization emphasize ideology as the primary driver of extremist violence. However, these approaches do not adequately account for the distinct characteristics of NVE communities (See Table 1; ISD, 2025). Thus, we propose a four-stage framework that conceptualizes NVE radicalization as a progressive psychosocial and behavioral process that is shaped by trauma, developmental vulnerability, and online socialization (See Table 3).

Table 3: Proposed Four-Stage Framework of NVE radicalization in Adolescents

Stage	Core Process	Adolescent Vulnerabilities	NVE Dynamics	Behavioral Outcome
1.     Identity Disruption and the Search for Meaning	Identity fragmentation and search for significance	Trauma, neglect, abuse, social marginalization, identity diffusion	Communities provide belonging, meaning, and “truth narratives” through memes, coded language, and existential messaging	Increased openness to nihilistic worldviews and external validation
2.     Socialization, Belonging, and Identity Fusion	Development of attachment and group loyalty	Need for peer acceptance, recognition, and belonging	Online communities function as surrogate families and reward conformity, loyalty, and violent rhetoric	Identity fusion with extremist networks and normalization of violence
3.     Trauma Reinforcement and Moral Disengagement	Emotional dysregulation and desensitization	Chronic anger, hopelessness, mistrust, trauma reexperiencing	Trauma is reframed as strength; violent content and gamification reinforce dehumanization and aggression	Reduced empathy, moral disengagement, and adoption of aggressor identity
4.     Behavioral Escalation and Action	Transition from online engagement to operationalized violence	Impulsivity, risk-taking, impaired emotional regulation	Violence is incentivized through competition and performative harm	Escalation toward real-world violence and criminal behavior

 

Stage 1: Identity Disruption and the Search for Meaning

Identity exploration represents one of the central developmental tasks of adolescence (Erikson, 1968; Marcia, 1980). However, when disrupted by experiences of abuse, neglect, instability, and social marginalization, adolescents may experience identity diffusion, emotional fragmentation, and chronic, pervasive feelings of insignificance (Bogaerts et al., 2025). In these situation, vulnerable adolescents may increasingly seek external validation to compensate for instability, uncertainty, and unresolved emotional distress.

NVE ecosystems exploit these vulnerabilities by providing adolescents with a maladaptive sense of belonging, recognition, and perceived superiority online that contrasts with their place in a world that rejects them. Through memes, coded language, and existential narratives, these communities promise recruits that they are uniquely capable of “seeing the truth” while portraying outsiders as unaware “sheep” (Dortkardesler & Magnus, 2025). Thus, at this stage, the adolescent’s search for meaning and certainty becomes redirected toward nihilistic and violent worldviews.

Stage 2: Socialization, Belonging, and Identity Fusion

Peer relationships play a significant role in shaping adolescent identity, self-worth, and behavioral norms (Steinberg, 2008; Fiske, 2010). However, when exposed to abuse, neglect, rejection, and isolation, they may become especially susceptible to online communities that fulfill their desire for belonging, status, and emotional validation.

Unlike older forms of radicalization that relied heavily on in-person recruitment, contemporary NVE networks maintain continuous digital access to vulnerable adolescents. They increasingly function as surrogate families that reward conformity, loyalty, and participation in violent discourse. Through narratives that emphasize alienation from outsiders, adolescents become socially reinforced into embracing nihilistic and dehumanizing attitudes. Over time, they may begin redirecting their own experiences of victimization outward, as they rise within the ranks of their communities and adopt the role of aggressor and recruiter.

Stage 3: Trauma Reinforcement and Moral Disengagement

Traumatized adolescents frequently report feelings of chronic anger, hopelessness, mistrust, emotional dysregulation, and trauma reexperiencing symptoms (Doom et al., 2014; Speckhard, 2011). Within NVE ecosystems, these emotional responses are not only normalized, but actively exploited and weaponized. Pain and suffering are reframed as evidence of superiority, strength, and insight, while violent rage toward the outside world becomes socially rewarded (Dortkardesler & Magnus, 2025).

During this stage, repeated exposure to violent and degrading content further contributes to desensitization, reduced empathy, and moral disengagement. Research examining violent media exposure has demonstrated associations with lower empathy and increased aggressive cognition among adolescents (Anderson et al., 2010; Krahé & Möller, 2010). Therefore, for traumatized adolescents lacking effective emotional regulation strategies, participation in these environments may facilitate a psychological shift from victim to aggressor, leaving them more vulnerable to calls for real-world violence.

Stage 4: Behavioral Escalation and Action

As adolescents become further immersed within these ecosystems, NVE communities exploit the developmental tendencies toward impulsivity, sensation-seeking, and risk-taking behavior associated with the temporal gap between the development of their socioemotional and cognitive control systems (Steinberg, 2008; Casey et al., 2008). Within these networks, violence is frequently gamified and rewarded through competition, notoriety, leaderboards, and performative acts of harm (Bhatt & Mantua, 2023). Community members encourage adolescents to emulate prior perpetrators and increasingly blur distinctions between symbolic and operationalized violence. Over time, psychological barriers to offline harm erode as violence becomes normalized, celebrated, and integrated into the adolescent’s developing identity. At this stage, they become increasingly unable to evaluate the long-term consequences of their behavior, placing both themselves and others at significant risk of irreversible harm.

Collectively, this framework suggests that radicalization within NVE ecosystems is primarily driven by developmental vulnerability, trauma exposure, unmet psychosocial needs, and progressive behavioral reinforcement. If participation emerges through processes more closely aligned with trauma, social marginalization, emotional dysregulation, and maladaptive identity formation, we argue that effective prevention efforts must move beyond ideology-centered frameworks toward approaches grounded in public health, early intervention, and trauma-informed care.

Countering Violent Extremism Through Public Health

Unlike typical conceptualizations of counterterrorism, countering violent extremism (CVE) generally focuses on addressing the conditions that most likely contribute to recruitment and radicalization. As defined by the White House in 2016, “CVE efforts aim to address the root causes of violent extremism through community engagement by building awareness, countering violent extremist narratives, and emphasizing community led interventions,” (Maurer, 2017, p. 8). As such, CVE strategies may be more amenable to the features of a public health model that emphasizes early prevention, resilience-building efforts, and systemic intervention.

Due to the unique attributes of NVE and online radicalization, we argue that multidisciplinary efforts that integrate a behaviorally grounded public health approach to radicalization are necessary to augment the existing repertoire of CVE strategies. Further, this approach allows for the consideration of factors outside of those that are inherently linked with ideology and often act as the framework for existing counterextremism efforts (e.g., El-Khoury & Merchant, 2025; Kruglanski et al., 2011).

Public health is defined by the World Health Organization (2016) as encompassing:

“All organized measures (whether public or private) to prevent disease, promote health, and prolong life among the population as a whole… [and] is concerned with the total system and not only the eradication of a particular disease,” (World Health Organization, 2016)

In our context, this approach conceptualizes CVE efforts as strategies that emphasize susceptibility reduction, radicalization pathway disruption, and long-term harm mitigation at the population level. Within the field of public health, there are typically three levels of prevention, with the first two acting as particularly amenable to our approach to CVE. The first, primary prevention, seeks to decrease the incidence of new cases within the general population by addressing underlying individual, interpersonal, community, and societal risk factors (Weine et al., 2017). When applying this concept to CVE, primary prevention methods are best understood as a form of anticipatory counter-radicalization that aims to prevent the radicalization of non-radicalized individuals. Secondary prevention, on the other hand, targets individuals who are already at an elevated risk of radicalization but have not yet been radicalized. Here, the goal is to reduce their progression towards violent extremism (Weine et al., 2017; O’Connell et al., 2009). Finally, tertiary prevention seeks to reduce the harm caused by individuals who have already been radicalized while also supporting deradicalization and reintegration (Khalil et al., 2019).

It follows then that, when viewed through a public health lens, NVE emerges less as an ideological endpoint, but as the consequence of a pathway that is influenced by interrelated behavioral, developmental, and social processes that evolve and unfold over time. We argue that a public health approach to CVE, specifically at primary and secondary prevention levels, that emphasizes trauma exposure, adolescent psychosocial development, and peer-driven reinforcement will allow stakeholders to target risk factors, recruitment pathways, and online dynamics that lead to radicalization and, ultimately, violence.

Primary Prevention: Reducing Population-Level Susceptibility

Here, the primary goal of prevention is to build developmental resilience before vulnerabilities can be exploited. The population of concern is the general adolescent population, and the strategies seek to reduce susceptibility to recruitment by both strengthening protective factors and addressing trauma exposure before it begins to manifest as risk-taking and maladaptive behavior.

As we have discussed, many adolescents who engage with NVE online ecosystems have been left to navigate interpersonal trauma, social marginalization, identity insecurity and emotional dysregulation without adequate supportive frameworks. Thus, it is critical to view trauma as a population-level risk factor that recognizes that these ecosystems are available to leverage social engineering tactics that are specifically designed to target these psychosocial and developmental deficiencies.

Trauma-Informed Strategies

In recognition of the detrimental impact of early traumatic experiences, numerous sectors have increasingly employed the principles of trauma-informed care (TIC) in their policies and programs. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), TIC is best described as any organization, program, or system that “(1) realizes the widespread impact of trauma and understands potential paths for recovery; (2) recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma in clients, families, staff, and others involved in the system; (3) responds by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices; and (4) seeks to actively resist re-traumatization,” (SAMHSA, 2014, p. 9). Overall, the primary goal of TIC is to, as stated by Harris and Fallot (2001), the originators of TIC principles, help individuals “construct a new meaning of themselves,” (Berring, 2024, p. 909).

One of the most critical components of a trauma-informed approach to primary prevention is the understanding of resilience as both a necessary, and multi-level concept. Defined most generally as the capacity to cope with and recover from adversity (Ellis et al., 2016; McEwen et al., 2015), resilience was often understood solely as a reflection of individual traits, skills, capabilities, and attitudes (Stephens et al., 2019). However, resilience is perhaps best presented as a multi-level, multisystemic process that lends the capacity to overcome challenges and adversity that impact the ability to function and develop (Grossman, 2021; Masten, 2015, 2016) at both individual and community levels.

Schools are unquestionably one of the most effective environments to employ resilience-building trauma-informed prevention strategies. Here, the primary goal is to focus on cognitive restructuring, enhancing students’ empathy, developing personal skills such as self-esteem, and encouraging altruistic behavior (Baum et al., 2013; Stein et al., 2003; Wolmer et al., 2016). For example, existing programs across Europe have been designed to help students acquire the socio-cognitive abilities to question others’ motivations and develop the self-esteem that provides them with the ability to confront outside influences (International Center for the Prevention of Crime, 2015). They achieve these goals by emphasizing empathy, agency, and moral engagement as critical components of one’s capacity for resilience.

A growing body of research has supported this approach, with Feddes (2015) finding a curvilinear association between adolescents’ attitudes and self-esteem and their attitudes toward ideology-based violence. This study found that, unlike in children who presented with low self-esteem, there was a positive correlation among children who presented with moderate to high levels of self-esteem and resilience to violent radicalization. However, it was discovered that levels of self-esteem that are too high and border on narcissism that may reflect maladaptive defense mechanisms to overcompensate for low self-esteem can, in fact, “make individuals more susceptible to radicalization,” (Feddes, 2015, p. 407) indicating that these programs must work to strike a balance in their approach and create real enhancement in self-esteem.

When specifically considering NVE radicalization among adolescents, the role that communities play in fostering strong social identities, a sense of belonging, meaning and purpose, and protection from social marginalization cannot be understated. Thus, efforts to combat radicalization from a primary prevention level must focus on strategies that seek to bolster adolescents’ connections to their community before they find themselves searching for this connection within other virtual communities that are well-equipped to exploit their vulnerability and need for social connection.

TIC has also been leveraged to increase youths’ moral engagement and emotion regulation skills (Moltrecht et al., 2021). Moral engagement, generally defined as “a social process through which self-regulatory mechanisms of internal control are disengaged or dismissed,” (Aly et al., 2014, p. 374) is one of the primary mechanisms of radicalization across NVE networks that reframe violence as justified or heroic. Through exposure and subsequent desensitization, NVE groups gradually erode adolescents’ empathy and moral compasses (Sarnoto et al., 2024) and strip them of a sense of moral agency while lowering the emotional barriers that hinder their willingness to conduct acts of violence and exploitation. One existing program, the Beyond Bali Educational Resource (Aly et al., 2014) that has been implemented in some Australian schools is designed to “build social cognitive resilience to violent extremism by engaging in self-sanctions and preparing students to challenge the influence of violent extremism that can lead to moral disengagement,” (Aly et al., 2014, p. 369).

School-based programs can also be leveraged to inoculate students against the false claims of terrorist groups, including NVE, by presenting them in a rational manner that is separated from the evocative emotional imagery and sensationalist content that students may encounter online. Terrorists, including NVE recruiters, are well aware that emotional and sensational content hinders adolescents’ ability to remain rational while they attempt to evaluate how false and costly the claims and offers of belonging, purpose, significance and dignity from these groups may actually be.  Thus, presenting them in a rational manner well before student’s encounter them online can provide the inoculation that saves them from being drawn in by the allure of extremist manipulation.

Although the benefits of TIC have been well-established, universal mental health screening is also critical for the effective application of trauma-informed principles. It is no secret that children who display symptoms of behavioral and emotional problems are often undetected when their symptoms lack severity (Kim et al., 2022). As a result, they are unable to acquire adequate care and these symptoms may gradually develop to the point of becoming mental illness (Burns et al., 1995; Keyes, 2007; Kim et al., 2022). A growing body of research supports the use of early detection and has found a significant positive relationship between early detection of behavioral and emotional problems, improvements in academic performance (Deighton et al., 2018; Gutman et al., 2003) and increased implementation of additional testing to determine formal prevention and intervention protocols for students (Arango et al., 2018; Kim et al., 2022). Thus, numerous existing instruments, such as Child Development Inventories (Ireton & Thwing, 1985) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Muris et al., 2003) have been implemented in school settings and can provide schools with the information required to develop a framework through which strategies to promote and protect a greater number of students’ emotional and behavioral health.

Digital Resilience

One of the most significant challenges regarding preventing NVE radicalization lies in its inherent entanglement with online ecosystems. Social media and online spaces play a substantial role in adolescents’ day-to-day lives and leave them vulnerable to exposure to antisocial and hateful narratives at a level that erode social cohesion and fuel violence (Awan, 2017). As a result, it is necessary for digital competence through the promotion of safe, responsible, mindful, and healthy online behaviors to be at the forefront of NVE prevention efforts (Popat & Tarrant, 2023). These online skills refer to numerous competencies, such as the ability to recognize the adverse effects of excessive social media use (Sala et al., 2024), time management on social media (Shankleman et al., 2021), the ability to distinguish legitimate forms of political and social content, and the ability to recognize grooming, coercion, and manipulation (Wigley, 2015; Miller-Idriss, 2020).  Likewise social media and app providers need to safeguard adolescents by removing recruitment content and policing algorithms that funnel adolescents into dangerous online groups and spaces.

Secondary Prevention: Interrupting Emerging Pathways of Radicalization

As we have discussed, the overall purpose of primary prevention is to effectively reduce the likelihood that these NVE ecosystems can successfully target and exploit vulnerable adolescents’ unmet developmental needs. Nevertheless, upstream risk mitigation through programs that strengthen protective factors and promote developmental resilience is not universally effective. Despite these efforts, certain adolescents will ultimately begin to exhibit early behavioral shifts toward these insular digital communities during periods of identity uncertainty, social strain, or unresolved trauma.

Thus, at this stage, secondary prevention strategies no longer focus on universal capacity-building, but on early identification and trajectory disruption. Here, the goal is to detect the emerging pathways of radicalization and prevent vulnerable adolescents from becoming entrenched in these spaces after exposure.

Trauma-Informed Identification of Risk

Before an adolescent’s pathway to radicalization can be interrupted, it must first be identified. Here, the primary method of identification is through the utilization of threat assessment tools and strategies. Threat assessment refers to the practice of assessing an individual’s risk of targeted violence through the observation of their behavior (Meloy et al., 2012). For our purposes, threat assessment is best conducted by focusing on the presence of warning behaviors that manifest in adolescents who have been exposed to NVE content and have started navigating their online ecosystems. Warning behaviors or, changes in behavior that indicate an individual’s increasing and accelerating risk (Hempel et al., 1999; Gray et al., 2004; Nicholls et al., 2006), can indicate the presence of behavioral, cognitive, and emotional processes that are associated with violent action (Calhoun & Weston, 2003; Mullen, 2004; Meloy et al., 2012). Specifically, warning behaviors are toxic changes in behavioral patterns that are often acute, dynamic, and escalate over time (Meloy et al., 2012; Mullen et al., 2009).

Trauma-Informed Intervention Strategies

One primary lesson to be learned from our discussion regarding warning signs within the context of NVE is that it is essential for professionals to avoid dismissing these warning signs because the adolescent does not appear to be directly associated with well-established ideological extremists. NVE content is characterized by irony, humor, and memes and, as a result, is often shared and consumed outside of the typical conceptualization of online extremist content but the endpoint is the same: destruction of self and others through violent actions. Therefore, secondary prevention efforts might better treat these warning behaviors as distress signals and serious warnings that violence to self and others is likely to ensue if left unaddressed.

This principle is perhaps best captured by the existing Network Against School Shootings (NETWASS) Program in Germany (Leuschner et al., 2017). This program argues that school shootings are not spontaneous acts but are planned over time during an adolescent’s period of psychological distress (Leuschner et al., 2017). According to this model, youth violence is the result of developmental pathways that involve personal and psychosocial crises and are an expected consequence of an adolescent’s inability to cope with these stressors. With this in mind, the program emphasizes that there are identifiable warning behaviors of these psychosocial crises and that they are critical in the prevention of youth violence (Leuschner et al., 2017). In a study of 98 German schools over the course of two years, the NETWASS Program showed significant changes in the school’s approach and attitude towards safety and violence. These changes included increases in school staff expertise and evaluation skills, improved confidence in the schools’ organizational structure, staff cohesion, student-teacher interactions, feelings of safety, and, importantly, improvements in the staff’s self-reported abilities to identify warning behavior of students experiencing psychosocial crises (Leuschner et al., 2017).

As exemplified by the NETWASS Program, secondary prevention strategies must emphasize safety, trustworthiness, and empowerment n adolescents, while carefully avoiding the implementation of shame-oriented and punitive strategies that may, in some cases, reinforce the grievance narratives perpetuated by NVE communities. Training must be designed to recognize warning behavioral indicators without confrontation and should instead emphasize restorative dialogue, opportunities for engagement with non-extremist peer groups, and trauma-informed care that avoids further alienation in the intervention process. Thus, addressing the trauma-related drivers, cognitive and behavioral patterns, and online dynamics is a critical component of secondary prevention strategies that disrupt radicalization trajectories before their commitment and transition to violent action occurs.

Conclusion

Throughout our discussion, it has become clear that NVE challenges traditional counter-extremism paradigms that target ideological and organized forms of extremism. As we have argued, the features of NVE, when compounded by the nature of online radicalization, lead to extremists who exist not under the influence of a coherent political doctrine, but within a psychosocial ecosystem. Here, ideology is replaced by the belief that in this world, one either preys upon others, or is the prey. In short, NVE does not center on political doctrine or goals but on the exploitation of negative emotions expressed by the vulnerable adolescents navigating online platforms that both intentionally and unintentionally accelerate the radicalization process through algorithmic reinforcement, anonymity, and the gradual collapse of social and psychological boundaries.

Therefore, by integrating a public health framework, particularly those seen in primary and secondary levels of prevention and intervention, it is possible to reframe NVE as a complex risk trajectory. The further emphasis is on trauma-informed strategies that target traumatized adolescents and promote trust and empowerment to counteract the very vulnerabilities that these online communities exploit. Through this process, the harm caused by NVE rhetoric is not minimized, but viewed through a broader lens of developmental science, trauma exposure, and online social engineering.

In this sense, responding to NVE is not solely a matter of countering violence, but of confronting the conditions that make this violence meaningful to vulnerable youth in the first place. As we have discussed, the processes through which young people come to understand themselves, others, and their place in the world are at risk of being shaped by environments that reward dehumanization and violence. As such, effective responses will require a fundamental shift in both policy and practice, from those that emphasize disruption and surveillance to strategies that focus on early intervention, relational support, and trauma-informed prevention. Ultimately, the challenge here is not to simply stop acts of harm, but to build systems at individual, community, and societal levels in which harm is no longer viewed as a viable pathway to remedying feelings of mistrust, alienation, and disempowerment. Absent this shift, we risk perpetuating the conditions that allow violence to persist not as an aberration, but as a predictable outcome.

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[1] Author Note

Caroline Ewing, Research Fellow, International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism

Anne Speckhard, Director, International Center for the Study of Violence Extremism

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Caroling Ewing

Email: CarolineAnnaEwing@Gmail.Com

Phone: (301) 655-6508