Strain theory, resilience, and far-right extremism: The impact of gender, life experiences and the Internet

<p>There has been a notable increase in support for far-right ideologies across the West. The seriousness of this threat has been acknowledged by the UK government who have banned certain far-right groups using terrorism legislation. While criminological theories have been useful in explaining general criminality, it has been under-utilized in explaining extremism and terrorism. Agnew’s General Strain Theory, which hypothesizes that negative life events increase the chance of a turn to criminality, is explored in this article alongside Control Theory. Based on a survey (N 1,138) conducted on Facebook in late 2019, we explore how strain and resilience based on participants gender, economic situations, life events and their use of the internet impacts individuals far-right extremist attitudes and behaviours. We use regression analysis to investigate the impact that strain and resilience, individuals’ gender, economic situations, individual life experiences, and their use of the internet have on their propensity to associate, engage, and support far-right ideologies and linked violence. While strain is not found to be significant, resilience, gender and the use of the internet are.</p>