Micha de Winter

Neither Villains nor Victims: Towards an Educational Perspective on Radicalisation.

ABSTRACT This study questions whether the perspectives of security and intelligence serve educators well enough in the early stages of radicalisation. Assigned to signal deviant behaviour, educators are unwittingly drawn into a villain-victim imagery of their students. This imagery seems to impede a genuine educational outlook on radicalisation. Key notions of this outlook may be ‘critically addressing ideals’ and ‘forming pedagogical coalitions’.

Ideals adrift: an educational approach to radicalization

These days, the radicalization of young people is above all viewed as a security risk. Almost all research into this phenomenon has been carried out from a legal, criminological or socio-psychological perspective with a focus on detecting and containing the risks posed by radicalization. In the light of the political developments since September 11, 2001, this is entirely understandable but perhaps not altogether wise. Research and theory development from a pedagogical perspective can also make a significant contribution towards a better understanding of radicalization processes and possibly offer new points of departure for intervention strategies. On the basis of five typical cases, the authors examine the role of educators, social workers and teachers, and the problems they face when dealing with young people with extreme ideals. This article attempts to provide insight into the pedagogical conditions for the development of extreme ideals and suggests starting points for developing effective countermeasures.

Assessing a moral panic relating to crime and drugs policy in the Netherlands: Towards a testable theory

Using criteria from recent work by Goode and Ben Yehuda, this article tests the hypothesis that a moral panic relating to (youth) crime has been going on in the Netherlands since 1990. Most of the criteria are met. There is concern about the problem of crime and a consensus on solutions. There are also indications that public disquiet grew out of proportion compared to trends in crime and victimization, and that the panic erupted fairly suddenly. It is not possible to identify a clearer scapegoat than a diffuse image of “the” criminal. It is unclear what caused this panic. It seems unlikely that the panic started as a reaction to public problems, but nor is it possible to state that elites started it or that it was caused by bureaucratic processes at an intermediate level. Several methodological problems connected with the testing of the criteria are discussed. It is recommended that one criterion be added: that of misdirection of reactions to a social problem. It is also recommended that future research should be comparative, either comparing several minor local panics, or comparing panics or non-panics related to equivalent social problems.

The Effects of a Dutch School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Programme (SEL) on Suicidality in Adolescents

The aim of this study was to investigate whether a Dutch social and emotional learning (SEL) programme for adolescents had a positive influence on suicidality and on hypothesised protective factors. The hypothesised protective factors included self-esteem, general belief in self-efficacy, expressing negative emotions, and attitudes to using social and emotional skills for suicidality. The study also explored a mediation model where the effects of the programme on suicidality were mediated by positive effects of the hypothesised protective factors. A quasi-experimental comparison group pre-test/post-test control design was used. An ordinary least squares multiple regression analysis (OLS) was used to test the mediation model. The results of this study show that the programme had a significant short-term effect on suicidality and all the hypothesised protective factors. The programme had no long-term effect on suicidality. The results partly support the mediation model, in that the effects of the programme on suicidality were significant only when mediated by self-esteem.

The Hidden Curriculum of Youth Policy: A Dutch Example

Youth policy is more than a mere response to the actual behavior of children, but it is equally influenced by values and beliefs of policy makers. These values are however rarely made explicit and, therefore, the authors refer to them as “the hidden curriculum” of youth policy. The study investigation explicates this hidden curriculum by empirically analyzing policy reports and interviews with policy makers. The study design is based on an existing theory on the content and structure of values. The results show that Dutch youth policy is most dominantly guided by security values. The results also show that there are differences between the social groups the policy measures target. Policy measures regarding “normal” families are becoming increasingly empowering, for example, by putting an emphasis on the competencies of parents. For families at risk, however, the focus is on control over these families by both professionals and citizens.

Subcortical brain volume differences in participants with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and adults

438 www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Vol 4 June 2017 within-group variation. Consequently, there is no point in conveying that a child with ADHD has a brain disorder. Moreover, brain scans can only differ and never tell which characteristics should count as a disorder. Rather than that it expresses itself through a wide variety of symptoms, ADHD is the medical framing of wide variety of characteristics. For instance, the youngest children in the classroom appear to have the highest probability to receive the diagnosis because their brains are possibly less developed, which can hardly justify the conclusion of a brain disorder. Remarkably, the study by Hoogman and colleagues mostly offered confirmation of these two conclusions. Apart from large within-group variation, their findings showed no significant differences in the brains of adults with ADHD, which suggests that the minor differences in children largely vanish when they grow up. This finding could have been true headline news in view of the claims by commercial pharma companies and sponsored experts that ADHD is a life-long disorder in need of life-long treatment. Diagnosis of a person with a brain disorder appears not to reduce stigma, and characteristics with biological correlates can still be attributed to a person’s own actions. Biological explanations also create pressure to accept pharmacological solutions. Moreover, it appears to feed the public’s aversion if a disliked characteristic is said to be hardwired. To the degree that diagnoses and biological explanations do provide an initial excuse for the kind of person one is, the most urgent question is why increasing numbers of people apparently need such an excuse. The real stigma rests on deviations from particular standards, as the large body of DSM categories shows. If this stigma can be reduced, less people will require a diagnosis such as ADHD, to the benefit of individuals and society.

Transitional Journeys Into and Out of Extremism. A Biographical Approach

ABSTRACT This article describes an empirical study into processes of homegrown radicalization and de-radicalization of young people. Researchers in Denmark and the Netherlands set out to answer the question regarding what pathways in and out of extremism (mainly far-right or Islamist) look like “from the inside.” The analysis is informed by grounded theory, based on interviews (N = 34) with “formers” and their family members on their life courses. The study shows that radicalization often concurs with distinct social–emotional developmental challenges that young people face in the transition between youth and adulthood. A practical implication of the marked transitional sequences in these processes is that each type of radical journey may call for a different type of (re)action.

Participant Recruitment through Social Media : Lessons Learned from a Qualitative Radicalization Study Using Facebook

Social media are useful facilitators when recruiting hidden populations for research. In our research on youth and radicalization, we were able to find and contact young people with extreme ideals through Facebook. In this article, we discuss our experiences using Facebook as a tool for finding respondents who do not trust researchers. Facebook helped us recruit youths with extreme Islamic and extreme left-wing ideals. We conclude by discussing the benefits and limitations of using Facebook when searching for and approaching populations who are difficult to reach.

Parental Reactions towards Radicalization in Young People

This paper focuses on radicalization from a parenting perspective; we propose an approach that sees radicalization as a possibility in adolescent development, and as part of the interaction with the adolescents social environment and socialization. The aim of the study is to discover how parents react when their adolescent develops extreme ideals. Using 55 in-depth interviews with young people who have extreme ideals and their parents, the parental reactions towards these ideals are explored. Subsequently, the reactions are categorized according to two dimensions (control and support). This study shows how parents struggle when confronted with radicalization and shift to less demanding responses due to powerlessness, dissociation and parental uncertainty.

De pedagogische civil society in praktijk: Een studie naar de effecten van de activiteiten binnen het programma Allemaal Opvoeders

Het doel van deze studie was om inzicht te verkrijgen in de resultaten van de activiteiten binnen het programma Allemaal Opvoeders . In dit programma hebben elf pilotgemeenten – in lijn met de transities in het sociale domein– verkend hoe de actieve rol van de civil society bij het grootbrengen van jeugdigen bevorderd kan worden. Kenmerkend hierbij was de bottomup werkwijze: aan de professionals uit de pilotgemeenten is gevraagd zelf activiteiten in deze richting te ontwikkelen en uit te voeren. Zonder definitieve oordelen te kunnen geven over de effectiviteit, laat deze studie zien dat activiteiten gericht op het versterken van het contact tussen (mede)opvoeders, informele steun bij het opgroeien en opvoeden kunnen faciliteren. Met oog op de transformatie van het jeugdstelsel, kunnen gemeenten en professionals de inzichten uit deze studie gebruiken om handen en voeten te geven aan het versterken van de pedagogische civil society.