Do violent extremists have common characteristics and backgrounds? Can we predict who among them will become violent? Patrick James is the project manager for Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS) at the University of Maryland. The PIRUS dataset contains de-identified, individual-level information on the backgrounds, attributes, and radicalisation processes of nearly 1500 violent and non-violent extremists who adhere to far-right, far-left, or single-issue ideologies in the United States, covering the years 1948 to 2013. Maria Armoudian spoke to James about the project and the characteristics that lead to violent extremism.
Podcast:
This interview originally aired on the Scholars’ Circle. To access our archive of episodes and download this interview, click here.
For more of our audio and visual content, check out our YouTube channel, or head to the University of Auckland’s manuscripts and archives collection.
Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the guest and not necessarily the views of The Big Q.
You might also like:
Does Donald Trump Use Nazi-style Rhetoric? 🔊
What Drove the Charlottesville Protests? 🔊
