ABSTRACT
A number of governments and private organizations have developed deradicalization and disengagement programs, but there is no agreed-upon definition of success, or a common method of evaluation. This chapter provides an overview of several of these programs and analogous programs for ordinary criminals, and proposes an approach to measuring their impact. It is concerned with those in prison on terrorism-related charges, there are also examples of ordinary offenders who radicalized in prison or shortly after they were released, and were subsequently convicted of terrorist crimes. The chapter discusses the problem that deradicalization programs aim to address, and also provides a brief survey of scholars’ critiques of existing methods of deradicalization and assessment. It argues that some aspects of existing programs to counter ordinary criminal recidivism and, most importantly, the standard method of evaluation that is in use, may be applicable to decreasing terrorist recidivism.
