PROTOCOL: Psychosocial processes and intervention strategies behind islamist deradicalisation: A scoping review

Centre of Psychology of University of Porto, Centre of Deviant Behaviour Sciences, Center for Health Technology and Services Research (CINTESIS), Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of University of Porto, Porto, Portugal Centre of Psychology of University of Porto, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of University of Porto, Porto, Portugal Department of Community Medicine, Information and Health Decision Science (MECIDS) & Center for Health Technology and Services Research (CINTESIS) & Cochrane Portugal, Faculty of Medicine of University of Porto, Porto, Portugal School of Law, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal Centre of Deviant Behaviour Sciences, Fauclty of Psychology and Education Sciences of University of Porto, Porto, Portugal Center for Studies in Human Development, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Catholic University of Portugal, Porto, Portugal Centre of Deviant Behaviour Sciences, Center for Health Technology and Services Research (CINTESIS), Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of University of Porto, Porto, Portugal


| BACKGROUND
Since 1980, the world has witnessed an increase of Islamist terrorism attacks and these occurrences are proved to be the most lethal in comparison to other forms of terrorism (Piazza, 2009). Currently, this type of terrorism is also the most violent form of terrorism (Schmid, 2017) and it can be defined as terrorist activity perpetrated by terrorist groups that are inspired by radical and political interpretation of Islam, which involves spreading and imposing Islamic law through violence (Piazza, 2009;Schmid, 2017).
In a report written by Interpol in 2016, 15,000 foreign terrorist fighters (FTF) were deemed to be in Syria and in Iraq to join Islamist inspired terrorist groups, namely the Islamic State. In the beginning of the same year several countries in the European Union (EU) have reported a rising number of returning FTFs from Syria and Iraq due to the loss of Islamic State's (IS) occupied territory (Mehra, 2016;Reed, Pohl, & Jegerings, 2017;United Nations Security Council, 2016). A study commissioned by The Netherlands National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (2016) found that 30% of FTFs who have left the EU are estimated to have returned and to be involved in planning, recruiting, or carrying out attacks. This clearly demonstrates the ability of terrorist organisations, such as IS, to mobilise returned FTFs and to involve homegrown extremists (Mehra, 2016). In addition, the wave of radicalisation rising across the globe and the effective dangers it poses to the world's security and stability is a clear sign of the urgency of counterradicalisation and deradicalisation measures (Kruglanski et al., 2014).
Generally, deradicalisation can be defined as the "methods and techniques used to undermine and reverse the completed radicalisation process, thereby reducing the potential risk to society from terrorism" (Clutterbuck, 2015). However, deradicalisation programmes are an under-researched field of work (e.g., Bjorgo, 2011;Horgan & Braddock, 2010;Neumann, 2010), in need of exploration of their underlying principles, and scientific scrutiny about the main strategies and outcomes, so that they can be assessed, adapted and implemented in other countries.
2009; Horgan & Braddock, 2010;Kropiunigg, 2013;Porges, 2010;Williams & Lindsey, 2014). For example, Yemen was the first country in the Middle East to develop deradicalisation efforts in its prisons (Porges, 2010). It started in 2002 and it aimed to change the ideological beliefs of terrorists through religious dialogue (Porges, 2010). In the case of Saudi Arabia, clerics, psychologists, and security officers work towards extremists' rehabilitation, through education and training in order to reintegrate them into society (Kropiunigg, 2013;Porges, 2010;Williams & Lindsey, 2014). Another example comes from Egypt, where selfderadicalisation occurred among Islamic militants in prisons (Drevon, 2015;Gunaratna & Ali, 2009). After this event, the efforts being implemented involve the process of persuading people to disengage from violence, through the creation of an environment that discourages the growth of extremism (Drevon, 2015;Gunaratna & Ali, 2009).
Regardless of all these programmes and strategies, there is no consensus on what constitutes success in a deradicalisation process (Horgan & Braddock, 2010;Porges, 2010) and this can only be achieved through a full consideration of the assessment of the differences among all programmes, taking into account their objectives, aims, targets, methods, and context (Clutterbuck, 2015). Similarly, there is no consensus on what triggers an individual to abandon terrorism (Horgan, 2009). Consequently, there is no available knowledge that may inform policy-makers on how to critically think about what could be developed to facilitate or promote deradicalisation (Horgan, 2009).
Thus, this scoping review assesses studies related to Islamic deradicalisation and its main dynamics, programmes and strategies. In a context of uncertainty and lack of consensus, it is very important to map, gather, analyze and critically appraise knowledge produced on this topic in order to understand which are the main deradicalisation processes and practices, results achieved (positive or negative) and actors involved. This way, the results will inform policy-makers and professionals working on this field about strategic decisions to approach the phenomenon, and identify gaps and future research needs.
The main objectives of this scoping review are to critically assess programmes being implemented to deradicalise Islamic extremists, to describe the contextual, economic and social factors underlying these programmes, and to describe the psychosocial characteristics of those being subjected to interventions. Thus, understanding these aspects will be valuable to inform policy-makers and professionals working on this field, in order to develop and implement key strategies to deradicalise extremists and to contribute to counterradicalisation. Because this is a scoping review and not a systematic review, we do not specifically aim to assess the effectiveness of these programmes, but instead we will focus on critically and systematically mapping programmes being implemented and the psychosocial characteristics of those being subjected to interventions. If we manage to find primary studies with methodological features, we will address them as well. This way, we will also include opinion papers, reports, guidelines, systematic reviews, dissertations, conference proceedings, and other sources of information, as long as they target working proposals or already established Islamic deradicalisation programmes.

| Types of participants
Because this is a scoping review that aims to include as many studies as possible, the participants taken into consideration are the Islamic extremists that were subjected to any type of deradicalisation programmes deemed relevant. Typically, deradicalisation programmes target Muslim males, but in this study, we will address participants of any age, any country and both genders, as long as they have been involved with Islamic inspired terrorism and identify themselves as Muslims. This way, we will exclude studies that target deradicalisation programmes aimed at radicals with other background than Islamic-inspired terrorism, for example, separatist terrorism.

| Types of interventions
As stated by Williams and Lindsey (2014), the deradicalisation interventions vary from country to country, are imposed by Governments and depend on the objectives of the programmes, as to whether they are aimed at changing behaviour or to change both behaviour and beliefs. These interventions are implemented in conjunction or separately by religious authorities, social workers, psychologists, and law enforcement personnel. Since this is a scoping review we will consider any type of intervention aiming at deradicalise and or disengage individuals from Islamic terrorism.
Moreover, we will also consider any type of deradicalisation measures, even if it is not included in a deradicalisation programme, and also individual deradicalisation strategies.

| Types of outcomes
The principal outcome that we will look at in eligible studies will be the end of extremist violence and terrorist attacks. This is also the ultimate aim of implementing deradicalisation interventions, but in most cases, there are no sufficient follow-up, or none at all, to know if this really happens. Another important outcome is the deradicalisation of beliefs. Although this is possible, this is something hard to assess and follow up. So, we will look for self-reports and other records of deradicalisation statements. However, as this is a scoping review, a study not intended to pursue effectiveness assessment, we will not strictly focus on outcomes, since not every deradicalisation study presents results of their programmes.

| Types of settings
The most part of the deradicalisation programmes takes place in prisons (e.g., Ganor & Falk, 2013;Porges, 2010;Williams & Lindsey, 2014), nevertheless, we will include any type of setting, as long as it relates to deradicalisation concerning Islamic extremists.

| Search strategy
In order to identify relevant studies, we established a comprehensive and broad search strategy combining published and unpublished literature. We do not plan to have geographical constraints, since we will consider literature from any country, and we will also include literature published until January 2018. Regarding language, we will include any study written in other language than English, by asking partners to help us with the review.
As recommended by Levac, Colquhoun, and O'Brien (2010), reviewers will meet at the beginning, midpoint and final stages of the process to discuss appropriateness and uncertainty of the study selection, to take decisions, and to refine the search strategy, taking into account the research question.  Justice Abstracts and PsycINFO. After an analysis of the words in the titles and the abstracts of the relevant papers, we found that the relevant keywords are: deradicalisation, deradicalization, disengagement, counterterrorism, terrorism, rehabilitation, psychosocial, strategies, programmes, programmes. The search query will include three sets of keywords separated by AND Boolean operators corresponding to each of the three main search concepts (1-deradicalisation, 2-programmes/strategies, and 3counterterrorism) and within each concept keywords will be separated by OR Boolean operators.
2. Second search: A second search using all identified keywords will be conducted through important databases. Some of them are described as follows:

Campbell Library
United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism 3. Reference list:The process of searching and screening each study will be carefully reported and the details will be documented in a flow chart proposed by PRISMA (Liberati et al., 2009).

| Description of methods used in primary research
The primary research that we have previously viewed have descriptive or theoretical features. This means that the studies found describe the main characteristics of the deradicalisation programmes, from the approaches and steps used in these interventions, the actors involved, to the expected or actual changes on radicals, without providing additional information about assessment, effectiveness and follow-up (e.g., Drevon, 2015;Ganor & Falk, 2013;Williams & Lindsey, 2014

| Details of study coding categories
The literature collected in eligible studies will be analysed in a meaningful manner to answer the research question, through a descriptive analytical method, proposed by Arksey and O'Malley (2005). To accomplish this method, the information will be analysed following Content Analysis (Bardin, 1977) and will be coded by two reviewers into the following categories: General study features • Author(s) • Title • Source/ Database In order to answer to the ultimate aim of performing this scoping review-inform policy-makers and professionals working on this field about strategic decisions to approach the phenomenon, and identify gaps and future research needs-the results will be presented in  -Lye et al. 2016). In this scoping review, the results will be presented in a cross-tabular format and will be categorised in the following themes: deradicalisation interventions, setting, providers, methods, and outcomes.

| Treatment of qualitative research
If we find qualitative studies, we will address them following the Content Analysis method proposed by Bardin (1977), which involves an objective, systematic, and quantitative description of manifested content in communications in order to interpret them. This means that eligible studies will be analysed thematically according to the scoping's objectives and coding categories, through immersion in the content and text dismemberment. If there is disagreement, another researcher will be consulted to decide the appropriateness of the content assigned to categories.

SOURCES OF SUPPORT
There are no sources of support to undertake this scoping review.

Publication in the Campbell Library
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