ABSTRACT
An individual’s participation in a terrorist group, the mere act of ‘joining’, does not necessarily lead to their involvement in terrorist attacks. 2 As Taylor and Horgan argue, ‘involvement decisions’ are distinct from ‘event decisions’. 3 As such, any attempt to understand the commission of terrorist acts must go beyond explanations for why people join and remain in terrorist groups to look specifically at how the decision to use violence came about. The previous chapter discussed the group-level factors that initiated and sustained involvement in the Hofstadgroup. The following pages complete the group-level analysis by analyzing whether it offers answers to why some participants became involved in actual terrorist violence or intended to do so.
