Extremist Ideology and Terrorist Behaviours: A Review and Good Lives Extension

The Good Lives Model (GLM) is a rehabilitative framework which is gaining increasing attention in informing the prevention and reduction of offending behaviour. The aim of the GLM is to reduce risk and enhance the acquisition of primary goods. This is achieved through improving internal (beliefs and skills) and external (opportunities and avenues of support) capacities, to allow for a fulfilled and prosocial life. This paper is the first to connect the GLM to extremism. This paper explores the general, etiological, and treatment assumptions of the GLM, connecting these to the wider literature surrounding extremism. No one path into extremism has been identified in the literature, with no specific profile of those who engage in radicalisation, extremism and/or terrorism existing. The GLM allows for a focus on individuality and identity, accounting for the variation of individual’s found to hold extremist views. Therefore, the GLM could be applied to extremism, strengthening the current interventions which exist. Keywords: Good Lives Model, Rehabilitation, Extremism, Prevention, Intervention.