By Marc Sommers

Most youth are peaceful. Even if the field known as “countering violent extremism” (CVE) did not exist, most young people still would not join a violent extremist organization (VEO). At the same time, the overwhelming majority of people who become violent extremists are youth — most of whom are male. The challenge at the center of CVE is thus an unusual one: identifying the fraction of youth populations most likely to enter a VEO and thwarting that option. This paper investigates that challenge, with analysis featuring interviews with 21 experts and over 400 publications on violent extremism, CVE, and youth. Two correlations inform this work: the direct relationship between nations with “youth bulge” populations and state repression, and the connection between state repression and increased violent extremism, with repressive states usually targeting male youth.

Washington, DC: Promundo-US. 2019. 50p.

By B.C.M. van Hazebroek

We know that most persistent offenders who cause considerable damage to society showed delinquent behavior in childhood. However, the long-term development of childhood arrestees is not well understood as longitudinal data are largely lacking. Dothese high-risk children develop long-term offense patterns? Or are even the youngest children with a police contact capable of growing into law abiding adults? Or is it both? And, in case of the latter, which childhood arrestees stop showing delinquent behavior, and which children persist in crime into early adulthood? By providinginsight into the long-term development of offending of childhood arrestees, and uncovering its explanatory factors, the current thesis improves our understanding of the delinquent development in this high-risk offender group.The current thesis reveals that, in contrast to popular belief, childhood arrestees are not predestined to develop persistent delinquent behavior, as most children are not re-arrested between the age of 12 and 25. Recidivists display heterogeneity in their re-offense patterns, with only a small group of children developing into persistent offenders. Accounting for simultaneous risk exposure across life domains proved necessary to explain why childhood arrestees follow one trajectory over another. Problems in multiple life domains were found to predict persistent offense patterns.

Leiden, Netherlands: Leiden University, 2021. 198p.

Edited by Catherine L. Ward, Amelia van der Merwe, Andrew Dawes, Cathy Ward and Andrew Dawes.

Sources and Solutions in South Africa. This book thoroughly and carefully reviews the evidence for risk and protective factors that influence the likelihood of young people acting aggressively. Layers of understanding are built by viewing the problem from a multitude of perspectives, including the current situation in which South African youth are growing up, perspectives from developmental psychology, the influences of race, class and gender, and of the media. The book examines the evidence for effective interventions in the contexts of young people’s lives – their homes, their schools, their leisure activities, with gangs, in the criminal justice system, in cities and neighbourhoods, and with sexual offenders. In doing so, thoughtful suggestions are made for keeping an evidence-based perspective while (necessarily) adapting interventions for developing world contexts, such as South Africa.

Capetown: University of Cape Town Press, 2013. 447p.