Community, More than Conviction: Understanding Radicalisation Factors for Young People in Australia

The radicalisation of young people has been a noted challenge in security discourse. This study sought to better understand the radicalisation of young Australians. We suggest that the engagement of young Australians with violent extremism can be understood through ideological entitativity, in which extremist communities satisfy unmet needs in the young person’s ecosystem. Further, their experience of extremism has generally been either socialised through permissiveness or the functional normalisation of violence. In some cases, it may be more accurate to refer to the young person’s engagement with violent extremism as indoctrination rather than radicalisation due to disparities in power and agency.