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A conceptual watercolor illustration showing a lone silhouetted human figure standing at the center of a dark, tangled mass of twisted tree branches that fan outward like consuming tendrils against a glowing red-orange background. The dark limbs enveloping the figure symbolize obsessive passion and deliberate engagement with radical ideology, evoking themes of radicalization, entrapment, and the reciprocal pull toward violent extremism.

The radicalization syndrome: Reciprocal dynamics of obsessive passion and deliberate engagement

By Jocelyn J. Bélanger, Daniel W. Snook, Muhammed Rayyan Ahmed, & Jais Adam-Troian

A woodcut-style print showing a dark, foreboding interior with tangled black tree-like branches filling the left side, an open door on the right revealing a pale bleak landscape, and a stark red path winding through the center foreground. The high-contrast black, cream, and red palette evokes trauma, threat, and disturbed childhood environments symbolizing adverse experiences leading toward violence.

Adverse childhood experiences and violent extremism: A scoping review of the literature

By Teja Pammi, Caterina Ceccarelli, Sam Hibbs, Jemima Chase, Nafees Hamid, & Fiona S. McEwen

A conceptual painted illustration showing a solitary dark chess king piece standing on a cracked stone surface, casting a long shadow across a diagonal beam of light. Fractured lines radiate outward while a red glow pools at the base, symbolizing leadership, power orientation, and the destabilizing lethal influence of violent extremist organization leaders across their tenure.

Deadly persuasion: A multilevel analysis of leader influence tactics and lethality in violent extremist organizations

By Mackenzie Harms, Alex Bruens, Justin Jones, & Gina Ligon

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Mackenzie Harms

NCITE, University of Nebraska at Omaha

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Mackenzie Harms is a Senior Research Scientist at the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education (NCITE) Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Harms studies leadership dynamics and organizational behavior within violent extremist organizations, with recent work examining how leader influence tactics relate to group lethality using multilevel modeling approaches.

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Publications in advances.in/psychology

Research Article

Deadly persuasion: A multilevel analysis of leader influence tactics and lethality in violent extremist organizations

By Mackenzie Harms, Alex Bruens, Justin Jones, & Gina Ligon

August 3, 2026

Page last updated: August 20, 2026