Pathways into Violence-focused Online Communities: Examining Configurations and Temporal Patterns of Motivational Drivers and Risk Factors

Background: Violence-focused online communities, including networks such as 764 and No Lives Matter, have been linked to a range of harmful behaviours, such as offline violence, cyber offending, and sextortion. Despite increasing concern from law enforcement and policymakers, little empirical research has examined the pathways through which individuals become involved in these communities. Methods: Using data from the Nihilistic Oriented Violent Extremist Life-course (NOVEL) database, we analysed information about 29 individuals charged with or convicted of offences associated with The Com. Pairwise configurational analysis was used to identify combinations of motivational drivers and risk factors associated with four behavioural outcomes: offline violence, cyber offending, sextortion, and taking a leadership role. Proximity coefficient analysis was then employed to examine the temporal sequencing of these factors within individual pathways. Results: Most individuals demonstrated multiple forms of harmful behaviour, indicating substantial overlap across outcomes. Offline violence was linked to configurations of motivational drivers and risk factors involving ideological motivation, although sequence analysis suggested ideology often emerged after indicators of violent propensity. Sextortion demonstrated the most coherent pathways and was associated with social isolation, belonging-, status-, and notoriety-seeking, violence fascination, and mental ill health. Cyber offending pathways were more heterogeneous, tentatively related to notoriety-seeking, status-seeking, and neurodevelopmental conditions; violence fascination occupied a comparatively peripheral role. Leadership pathways combined violent propensity with social isolation and status-seeking. Across outcomes, many of the same vulnerabilities and motivations appeared, but they occupied different temporal positions within pathways, speaking to their differing functional roles. Conclusions: Engagement with The Com is not a single phenomenon. Different harmful behaviours emerge through distinct configurations and temporal arrangements of largely shared vulnerabilities and motivations. Focusing on these underlying patterns may help ensure prevention and intervention efforts remain relevant as new threats emerge.