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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Medical Sociology
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1500774
This article is part of the Research Topic The Cost of War: Sociological Approaches to the Societal and Individual Wounds of Combat View all 11 articles
3T Model Risk Factors and Protective Factors Strategies 1 The 3T Model of Military Veteran Radicalization and Extremism: Exploring Risk Factors and Protective StrategiesFactors
Provisionally accepted- University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States
In the aftermath of several wars within the last century, seminal research forewarned against the rising tide of radicalization and violent extremism (VE) among military veterans.Building on the pioneering work, the current study explores risk and protective factors related to military veteran extremism. Utilizing the retrospective thick description approach (Geertz, 2008), the study utilized both primary (e.g., interviews) and open-source (e.g., court transcripts) data to examine and contextualize the VE trajectory across the military lifecycle (premilitary, military, postmilitary), as informed by people from various social networks (e.g., family, civilian/premilitary). The select sample comprised 30 VE veterans and 30 VE civilians who committed/planned a VE act between 2003-2019, and a comparison group of 10 non-VE veterans (i.e., veterans who resisted radicalization and VE). Directed content analyses results yielded a conceptual model reflecting three general risk factors (Transmission of Prejudice, Trauma and Adversity, and Transition) common among civilian and veterans alike. In addition, behavioral and cognitive strategies related to three general protective factors strategies (Resistance against Transmission of Prejudice, Addressing Trauma and Overcoming Adversity, Navigating Transitions) were found to steer veterans away from radicalization and VE across the military lifecycle. Implications for future research are discussed.
Keywords: Radicalization, Violent extremism, Military veterans, Risk factors, protective factorsstrategies
Received: 23 Sep 2024; Accepted: 12 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Atuel and Castro. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Hazel R. Atuel, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States
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