The Non-Effect of Personal Relationships with Radicalized Individuals on an Individual’s Propensity Toward Violent Extremism in the United States

Abstract

Terrorism in the United States is a continuing and evolving threat. Establishing methods to help identify and prevent domestic violent extremists, whether individuals and groups, from completing their objectives is necessary for the continued safety of American citizens. This study examines the personal relationships of individual extremists in the United States and their effect on those individual’s propensity toward violent extremism. My hypothesis is that, in the United States, an individual with a family member, friend, or significant other already involved in radical activities will be more likely to commit a violent act of extremism, also known as a violent act of terror. Using data from Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS, 2018), the effect is measured across three logistic regressions and three associated linear probability models that utilize unchanged PIRUS data, PIRUS data modified via total mean imputation, and PIRUS data altered with multiple imputation by chained equations (MICE), respectively. Across all three regressions, my hypothesis proves to be largely unsupported: a relationship with a radicalized family member, friend, or significant other does not predispose an individual to violent extremism (although there are mixed results for radical significant others).