Truth or Dare? Exploring the Importance of Factual Accuracy in Different Deradicalization Counseling Approaches

Abstract

Risk mitigation and recidivism reduction are typical goals of deradicalization and disengagement programs (DDPs). Arguably, identifying deception and disguised compliance by clients is key to achieve these goals. However, dissenting opinions among practitioners exist whether it should be a task for DDP counselors to detect deceit by clients. Concerns that placing such a task with DDP counselors might be counter-productive and antithetical to the overall goals and effectiveness of DDPs have been raised. This article makes a theoretical contribution to the debate around this question by exploring literature from psychotherapy, psychology, criminology and terrorism studies using a combination of meta-narrative and integrative literature review methodologies. It is argued that deception detection in the context of DDPs is not “good” or “bad” per se but depends on chronological (past, present, future) and methodological perspectives. Implications for DDP research and practice are discussed.

Keywords:

• Deradicalization and disengagement programs
• truthfulness
• factual accuracy
• counseling
• methods
• deception

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See Adrian Cherney, Amy Templar & Daniel Koehler (2022). "Disguised compliance within CVE programs – how can deception and disguised compliance within CVE programs be understood, recognised and addressed?" Saint Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland.

2 John Horgan and Kurt Braddock, “Rehabilitating the Terrorists? Challenges in Assessing the Effectiveness of De-Radicalization Programs,” Terrorism and Political Violence 22, no. 2 (2010); Daniel Koehler, Understanding Deradicalization. Methods, Tools and Programs for Countering Violent Extremism (Oxon/New York: Routledge, 2016).

3 Gordon Clubb et al., Selling De-Radicalisation: Managing the Media Framing of Countering Violent Extremism (Oxon: Routledge, 2021).

4 For detailed information regarding data gathering, sample characteristics and coding procedures, see: Adrian Cherney, Amy Templar, & Daniel Koehler (2022). "Disguised compliance within CVE programs – how can deception and disguised compliance within CVE programs be understood, recognised and addressed?" Saint Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland.

5 John Morrison et al., A Systematic Review of Post-2017 Research on Disengagement and Deradicalisation (London: Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST), 2021), 29.

6 Daniel Koehler, “Terminology and Definitions,” in Routledge Handbook of Deradicalisation and Disengagement, ed. Stig Jarle Hansen and Stian Lid (London and New York: Routledge, 2020).

7 Horgan and Braddock, “Rehabilitating the Terrorists? Challenges in Assessing the Effectiveness of De-Radicalization Programs,” 152.

8 Kurt Braddock, “The Talking Cure? Communication and Psychological Impact in Prison De-Radicalisation Programmes,” in Prisons, Terrorism and Extremism: Critical Issues in Management, Radicalisation and Reform, ed. Andrew Silke (London: Routledge, 2014), 60.

9 Koehler, Understanding Deradicalization. Methods, Tools and Programs for Countering Violent Extremism.

10 Gerald Caplan, Principles of Preventive Psychiatry (New York,: Basic Books, 1964).

11 Koehler, Understanding Deradicalization. Methods, Tools and Programs for Countering Violent Extremism.

12 Geoff Wong et al., “Rameses Publication Standards: Meta-Narrative Reviews,” BMC Medicine 11, no. 1 (2013).

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16 Wong et al., “Rameses Publication Standards: Meta-Narrative Reviews,” 6.

17 Snyder, “Literature Review as a Research Methodology: An Overview and Guidelines.”

18 Whittemore and Knafl, “The Integrative Review: Updated Methodology.”

19 Snyder, “Literature Review as a Research Methodology: An Overview and Guidelines,” 336.

20 Richard J. Torraco, “Writing Integrative Literature Reviews: Guidelines and Examples,” Human Resource Development Review 4, no. 3 (2005): 365.

21 For detailed information regarding the review, see: Adrian Cherney, Amy Templar, & Daniel Koehler (2022). "Disguised compliance within CVE programs – how can deception and disguised compliance within CVE programs be understood, recognised and addressed?" Saint Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland.

22 Alberto Martín-Martín, Enrique Orduna-Malea, and Emilio Delgado López-Cózar, “Coverage of Highly-Cited Documents in Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus: A Multidisciplinary Comparison,” Scientometrics 116, no. 3 (2018); Alberto Martín-Martín et al., “Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus: A Systematic Comparison of Citations in 252 Subject Categories,” Journal of informetrics 12, no. 4 (2018).

23 For detailed information regarding data gathering, sample characteristics and coding procedures, see: Adrian Cherney, Amy Templar & Daniel Koehler (2022). "Disguised compliance within CVE programs – how can deception and disguised compliance within CVE programs be understood, recognised and addressed?" Saint Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland.

24 Julian Waleciak, “Die Handlungspraxis Der Deradikalisierungsarbeit in Deutschland – Eine Explorative Systematisierung Der Praktischen Ansätze,” in Radikalisierungsprävention in Deutschland. Mapping Und Analyse Von Präventions- Und Distanzierungsprojekten Im Umgang Mit Islamistischer Radikalisierung., ed. MAPEX-Forschungsverbund (Osnabrück/Bielefeld: MAPEX, 2021).

25 See Adrian Cherney, Amy Templar & Daniel Koehler (2022). "Disguised compliance within CVE programs – how can deception and disguised compliance within CVE programs be understood, recognised and addressed?" Saint Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland.

26 Morrison et al., A Systematic Review of Post-2017 Research on Disengagement and Deradicalisation, 5.

27 Tina Wilchen Christensen, “Civil Actors’ Role in Deradicalisation and Disengagement Initiatives: When Trust Is Essential,” in Routledge Handbook of Deradicalisation and Disengagement, ed. Stig Jarle Hansen and Stian Lid (London and New York: Routledge, 2020); Michele Grossman and Vanessa Barolsky, Reintegrating Children, Women and Families Returning to Australia from Foreign Conflict Zones: The Role of Community Support (Geelong, Australia: Deakin University, 2019).

28 Mirra Noor Milla, Joevarian Hudiyana, and Haykal Hafizul Arifin, “Attitude toward Rehabilitation as a Key Predictor for Adopting Alternative Identities in Deradicalization Programs: An Investigation of Terrorist Detainees’ Profiles,” Asian Journal of Social Psychology 23, no. 1 (2020); EJ Van der Heide and Bart W Schuurman, “Reintegrating Terrorists in the Netherlands: Evaluating the Dutch Approach,” Journal for Deradicalization Winter 2018/19, no. 17 (2018).

29 Morrison et al., A Systematic Review of Post-2017 Research on Disengagement and Deradicalisation, 19.

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33 Christoph Flückiger et al., “How Central Is the Alliance in Psychotherapy? A Multilevel Longitudinal Meta-Analysis,” Journal of counseling psychology 59, no. 1 (2012); Daniel J Martin, John P Garske, and M Katherine Davis, “Relation of the Therapeutic Alliance with Outcome and Other Variables: A Meta-Analytic Review,” Journal of consulting and clinical psychology 68, no. 3 (2000); Adam O Horvath and B Dianne Symonds, “Relation between Working Alliance and Outcome in Psychotherapy: A Meta-Analysis,” Journal of counseling psychology 38, no. 2 (1991); Robert L Hatcher and Alex W Barends, “Patients’ View of the Alliance in Psychotherapy: Exploratory Factor Analysis of Three Alliance Measures,” Journal of consulting and clinical psychology 64, no. 6 (1996).

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36 Drew A. Curtis and Christian L. Hart, “Pinocchio’s Nose in Therapy: Therapists’ Beliefs and Attitudes toward Client Deception,” International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling 37, no. 3 (2015); “Deception in Psychotherapy: Frequency, Typology and Relationship,” Counselling and Psychotherapy Research 20, no. 1 (2020).

37 “Pinocchio’s Nose in Therapy: Therapists’ Beliefs and Attitudes toward Client Deception.”; Drew A. Curtis, “Deception Detection and Emotion Recognition: Investigating F.A.C.E. Software,” Psychotherapy Research 31, no. 6 (2021).

38 Curtis and Hart, “Deception in Psychotherapy: Frequency, Typology and Relationship,” 112.

39 Jake Phillips et al., “‘What Does Professional Curiosity Mean to You?’: An Exploration of Professional Curiosity in Probation,” The British Journal of Social Work 52, no. 1 (2022); Lisa Revell and Victoria Burton, “Supervision and the Dynamics of Collusion: A Rule of Optimism?,” British Journal of Social Work 46, no. 6 (2016).

40 Curtis and Hart, “Deception in Psychotherapy: Frequency, Typology and Relationship,” 112.

41 Clubb et al., Selling De-Radicalisation: Managing the Media Framing of Countering Violent Extremism.

42 Christopher Kay, “The Impact of Policy Change on Prisoner Resettlement and Community Integration: A Case of Disproportionate Response,” Critical Social Policy 41, no. 2 (2021).

43 Ian Acheson and Amanda Paul, “Hiding in Plain Sight? Disguised Compliance by Terrorist Offenders,” in EPC Discussion Paper 09 (Brussels: European Policy Centre, 2021); Adrian Cherney, “Working with Radicalised Individuals: Insights from a Secondary and Tertiary Prevention Program,” Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression (2022). Adrian Cherney, Amy Templar & Daniel Koehler (2022). "Disguised compliance within CVE programs – how can deception and disguised compliance within CVE programs be understood, recognised and addressed?" Saint Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland.

44 Di Gursansky, Rosemary Kennedy, and Peter Camilleri, The Practice of Case Management: Effective Strategies for Positive Outcomes (New York: Routledge, 2020); LS Christensen et al., “Understanding What Works in the Police Management of Child Sex Offenders in the Community,” The Police Journal 95, no. 3 (2022); Pär Anders Granhag and Aldert Vrij, “Deception Detection,” in Psychology and Law: An Empirical Perspective (New York, NY: The Guilford Press, 2005); Joanna Nicolas, “Identifying Cases of Disguised Compliance,” Journal of family health 26, no. 6 (2016); Timothy J. Luke et al., “Training in the Strategic Use of Evidence Technique: Improving Deception Detection Accuracy of American Law Enforcement Officers,” Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology 31 (2016); Phillips et al., “‘What Does Professional Curiosity Mean to You?’: An Exploration of Professional Curiosity in Probation.”; D Wilkins, “We Need to Rethink Our Approach to Disguised Compliance,” Community Care 16 (2017).

45 Paul Hart, “Disguised Compliance–or Undisguised Nonsense?,” Family Law Week (2017); Nicolas, “Identifying Cases of Disguised Compliance.”

46 Charles F. Bond Jr. and Bella M. DePaulo, “Accuracy of Deception Judgments,” Personality and social psychology Review 10, no. 3 (2006); Leah Fox, “Detecting Parental Deception in the Child Safeguarding Context,” Child Abuse Review 31, no. 2 (2022); Julia Shaw, Stephen Porter, and Leanne Ten Brinke, “Catching Liars: Training Mental Health and Legal Professionals to Detect High-Stakes Lies,” The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology 24, no. 2 (2013).

47 Adrian Cherney, Amy Templar & Daniel Koehler (2022). "Disguised compliance within CVE programs – how can deception and disguised compliance within CVE programs be understood, recognised and addressed?" Saint Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland.

48 Adrian Cherney, Amy Templar & Daniel Koehler (2022). "Disguised compliance within CVE programs – how can deception and disguised compliance within CVE programs be understood, recognised and addressed?" Saint Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland.

49 Doreen Reinhard, ““Er War Vollkommen Ruhig Und Gelassen”,” Die Zeit, October 23, 2020.

50 ORF, “Deradikalisierungsprogramm Im Fokus,” Österreichischer Rundfunk, November 4, 2020.

51 Andrew Silke and John Morrison, Re-Offending by Released Terrorist Prisoners: Separating Hype from Reality, vol. September 2020, Policy Brief (The Hague: International Centre for Counter-Terrorism The Hague (ICCT), 2020); Andrew Silke, “Risk Assessment of Terrorist and Extremist Prisoners,” in Prisons, Terrorism and Extremism. Critical Issues in Management, Radicalisation and Reform, ed. Andrew Silke (Oxon: Routledge, 2014); Thomas Renard, “Overblown: Exploring the Gap between the Fear of Terrorist Recidivism and the Evidence,” CTC Sentinel 13, no. 4 (2020).

52 Koehler, Understanding Deradicalization. Methods, Tools and Programs for Countering Violent Extremism ; Clubb et al., Selling De-Radicalisation: Managing the Media Framing of Countering Violent Extremism.

53 Sam Mullins, “Rehabilitation of Islamist Terrorists: Lessons from Criminology,” Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict 3, no. 3 (2010); Sigrid Raets, “Desistance, Disengagement, and Deradicalization: A Cross-Field Comparison,” International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 0, no. 0 (2022); Adrian Cherney and Daniel Koehler, “What Does Sustained Desistance from Violent Extremism Entail: A Proposed Theory of Change and Policy Implications,” Terrorism and Policical Violence n/a, no. n/a (2023).

54 Shadd Maruna, Making Good : How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives, 1st ed. (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2001).

55 Ibid.; Shadd Maruna and Kevin Roy, “Amputation or Reconstruction? Notes on the Concept of “Knifing Off” and Desistance from Crime,” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 23, no. 1 (2007).

56 Cherney and Koehler, “What Does Sustained Desistance from Violent Extremism Entail: A Proposed Theory of Change and Policy Implications.”

57 J David Brown, “The Professional Ex-: An Alternative for Exiting the Deviant Career,” Sociological Quarterly 32, no. 2 (1991); Peggy C. Giordano, “Mechanisms Underlying the Desistance Process: Reflections on ‘a Theory of Cognitive Transformation’,” in Global Perspectives on Desistance, ed. Joanna Shapland, Stephen Farrall, and Anthony Bottoms (London: Routledge, 2016); Maruna and Roy, “Amputation or Reconstruction? Notes on the Concept of “Knifing Off” and Desistance from Crime.”

58 Shadd Maruna and Derek Ramsden, “Living to Tell the Tale: Redemption Narratives, Shame Management, and Offender Rehabilitation,” in Healing Plots: The Narrative Basis of Psychotherapy., The Narrative Study of Lives. (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2004); Shadd Maruna et al., “Pygmalion in the Reintegration Process: Desistance from Crime through the Looking Glass,” Psychology, Crime and Law 10, no. 3 (2006).

59 Jonatan Schewe and Daniel Koehler, “When Healing Turns to Activism: Formers and Family Members’ Motivation to Engage in P/CVE.,” Journal for Deradicalization Fall, no. 28 (2021).

60 Adrian Cherney et al., “The Push and Pull of Radicalization and Extremist Disengagement: The Application of Criminological Theory to Indonesian and Australian Cases of Radicalization,” Journal of Criminology 54, no. 4 (2021).

61 Mary Beth Altier et al., “Why They Leave: An Analysis of Terrorist Disengagement Events from Eighty-Seven Autobiographical Accounts,” Security Studies 26, no. 2 (2017).

62 Maria Walsh and Antje Gansewig, “A Former Right-Wing Extremist in School-Based Prevention Work: Research Findings from Germany,” JD Journal for Deradicalization Winter, no. 21 (2019).

63 Schewe and Koehler, “When Healing Turns to Activism: Formers and Family Members’ Motivation to Engage in P/CVE.”

64 Brown, “The Professional Ex-: An Alternative for Exiting the Deviant Career.”; Maruna, Making Good : How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives; William L Dunlop, “The Cycle of Life and Story: Redemptive Autobiographical Narratives and Prosocial Behaviors,” Current Opinion in Psychology 43 (2022).

65 Gordon Bazemore, “Restorative Justice and Earned Redemption: Communities, Victims, and Offender Reintegration,” American Behavioral Scientist 41, no. 6 (1998); David Gadd, “The Role of Recognition in the Desistance Process: A Case Analysis of a Former Far-Right Activist,” Theoretical Criminology 10, no. 2 (2006); Maruna et al., “Pygmalion in the Reintegration Process: Desistance from Crime Through the Looking Glass.”

66 Rodger A. Bates, “Terrorism within the Community Context,” The Journal of Public and Professional Sociology 3, no. 1 (2011).

67 Arie W Kruglanski, David Webber, and Daniel Koehler, The Radical’s Journey: How German Neo-Nazis Voyaged to the Edge and Back (Oxford University Press, USA, 2019), 212–13.

68 Ibid., 212.

69 Pete Simi et al., “Addicted to Hate: Identity Residual among Former White Supremacists,” American Sociological Review 82, no. 6 (2017).

70 Dan P. McAdams, “How Actors, Agents, and Authors Find Meaning in Life,” in The Psychology of Meaning, ed. Keith D. Markman, Travis Proulx, and Matthew J. Lindberg (Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 2013).

71 Ibid., 180; see also: Jefferson A Singer, “Narrative Identity and Meaning Making across the Adult Lifespan: An Introduction,” Journal of personality 72, no. 3 (2004); Jennifer L Pals, “Narrative Identity Processing of Difficult Life Experiences: Pathways of Personality Development and Positive Self-Transformation in Adulthood,” Journal of personality 74, no. 4 (2006).

72 McAdams, “How Actors, Agents, and Authors Find Meaning in Life,” 180.

73 Phillip L Hammack, “Narrative and the Cultural Psychology of Identity,” Personality and social psychology review 12, no. 3 (2008); Dan P. McAdams, The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).

74 “How Actors, Agents, and Authors Find Meaning in Life,” 182.

75 Ibid., 183.

76 Shawn D Bushway and Robert Apel, “A Signaling Perspective on Employment-Based Reentry Programming: Training Completion as a Desistance Signal,” Criminology & Public Policy 11, no. 1 (2012); James A Densley and David C Pyrooz, “A Signaling Perspective on Disengagement from Gangs,” Justice Quarterly 36, no. 1 (2019); Shadd Maruna, “Elements of Successful Desistance Signaling,” Criminology & Pub. Pol’Y 11, no. 1 (2012).

77 Bushway and Apel, “A Signaling Perspective on Employment-Based Reentry Programming: Training Completion as a Desistance Signal.”; Densley and Pyrooz, “A Signaling Perspective on Disengagement from Gangs.”

78 Bushway and Apel, “A Signaling Perspective on Employment-Based Reentry Programming: Training Completion as a Desistance Signal.”

79 Cherney and Koehler, “What Does Sustained Desistance from Violent Extremism Entail: A Proposed Theory of Change and Policy Implications.”

80 Adrian Cherney, Amy Templar & Daniel Koehler (2022). "Disguised compliance within CVE programs – how can deception and disguised compliance within CVE programs be understood, recognised and addressed?" Saint Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland.

81 Cherney and Koehler, “What Does Sustained Desistance from Violent Extremism Entail: A Proposed Theory of Change and Policy Implications.”

82 Andrew Silke et al., “The Phoenix Model of Disengagment and Deradicalisation from Terrorism and Violent Extremism,” Monatsschrift für Kriminologie und Strafrechtsreform (2021).

83 Koehler, Understanding Deradicalization. Methods, Tools and Programs for Countering Violent Extremism.

84 For non-voluntary DDP concepts, see: Adrian Cherney, Kathleen De Rooy, and Elizabeth Eggins, “Mandatory Participation in Programs to Counter Violent Extremism: A Review of Evidence for and Against,” Journal for Deradicalization Summer 2021, no. 27 (2021).

85 Clubb et al., Selling De-Radicalisation: Managing the Media Framing of Countering Violent Extremism.

86 See for example: Charles Hymas, “Islamist Terrorists Taking Psychology Courses to Convince Prison Bosses They Are Deradicalised “ The Telegraph, November 8, 2021.

87 Daniel Koehler and Verena Fiebig, “Knowing What to Do: Academic and Practitioner Understanding of How to Counter Violent Radicalization,” Perspectives on Terrorism 13, no. 3 (2019).

88 Vítor Costa et al., “One Size Does Not Fit All: Exploring the Characteristics of Exit Programmes in Europe,” Journal for Deradicalization Fall 2021, no. 28 (2021); Sébastien Brouillette-Alarie et al., “Systematic Review on the Outcomes of Primary and Secondary Prevention Programs in the Field of Violent Radicalization,” Journal for Deradicalization Spring, no. 30 (2022); Megan K McBride et al., “Evaluating Terrorist and Extremist Reintegration Programming: A Systematic Literature Review,” Journal for Deradicalization Fall 2022, no. 32.