Reading time: 2 minutes, 34 seconds
Research shows mental health can both increase susceptibility to terrorist radicalization and decrease the risk of terrorism offences. At the same time, the most concerning offence characteristics of terrorism — potential violence and attack planning — are independent of mental health status. It neither increases nor decreases the risk assessments of individuals convicted of terrorism.
However, in the context of online radicalization, mental health and transitory life periods were identified as factors that contributed to ideological engagement risk. And mental health is part of an offender profile with more online radicalization, more online-only offending, and fewer social connections.
Those were just some of the findings Dr. Jens Binder shared during his December 19, 2024, presentation for the International Forensic Psychiatry Lecture Series. (You can watch a recording of Mental Health, Radicalization, and Terrorist Offending: Facilitating and Inhibiting Dynamics online.)
The Extremism Risk Guidelines
Dr. Binder and his colleagues reviewed Extremism Risk Guidelines (ERG22+) reports conducted after individuals were sentenced for terrorism and connected offences in parts of the United Kingdom. The ERG22+ is a structured professional judgment tool that also assesses mental health in a broad sense, including diagnoses of severe cognitive and intellectual impairments, psychotic disorders, major mood disorders, and personality disorders. At its core, it assesses 22 risk indicators in three domains:
- Engagement (with a cause or ideology),
- Intent (to commit further offences), and
- Capability (to commit further offences).
Mental health is one of the 13 engagement indicators.
Since 2010, the ERG22+ and an earlier version have been mandatory in England and Wales to assess the risk of people convicted under the 2000 Terrorism Act and related offences. Among the 490 reports from October 2010 to December 2021, the researchers focused on the 437 individuals who entered prison already radicalized.
The Relationship Between Mental Illness and Terrorism Activities
The ERG22+ reports showed that about a third (32%) of the individuals had a mental health diagnosis either partly or strongly present. There were neither age nor sex differences, although individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and its traits were all male. There were also no significant differences in whether people convicted of terrorism would be at risk of further engagement, intent, or capability.
The researchers were interested in pathways to terrorism, specifically whether individuals were radicalized online only, face to face only, or a hybrid of the two. Individuals who were radicalized online only had the highest rate of mental health issues. The most prevalent diagnoses were ASD and its traits, followed closely by depression, then personality disorder or difficulties, and anxiety. Also, when looking at only the individuals who had mental health issues, more than half were partly or strongly influenced by online radicalization.
Among individuals convicted of online-only offences (e.g., propaganda), mental health issues were strongly present. However, such differences disappear when focusing on individuals who assumed an attacker role and engaged in attack planning and implementation.
Lack of social connectedness and isolation are often used to define individuals convicted of lone-actor terrorism. It is also associated with online radicalization and mental health issues. The most recent data shows online radicalization accounted for more than 50% of all cases.
Risk of Terrorism
However, when comparing levels of mental health difficulties and risk, the researchers found no significant differences — an unexpected result given the offender profile is otherwise associated with mental health.
Dr. Binder said he was surprised that the quantitative analysis showed mental health to be both a driver and inhibitor of terrorist offending and related risk. Mental health is associated with radicalization pathway, online and offline offending patterns, and social isolation, all of which come with different levels of assessed risk.
“I wouldn’t be able to tell you whether mental health really contributes to risk or reduces it,” he said. “Many findings show mental health to be an inhibitor of dangerous offending, but this does not show when looking at professional risk ratings. Part of the reason for this is that even when mental health symptoms are present, this does not prevent individuals from assuming an attacker role.”
His research team’s future work includes updating the database with mental health status coding from later assessment reports (not just the initial report) and triangulating with qualitative case studies. He also hopes to be able to obtain international comparison data as well as investigate associations between mental health and online radicalization in non-offending populations.
Written by Virginia St-Denis and approved by Dr. Jens Binder.
