Desistance from violent extremism. Testing the theory of cognitive transformation

The discontinuance of violent extremism is a severely undertheorized process, tantamount to a critical missing link in this research domain. The proposed study aims to fill this gap by applying the existing criminal desistance framework, epitomized by the cognitive transformation theory, to the context of violent extremism. By conducting in-depth interviews with violent extremists, the theory will be empirically tested.