A scoping review of risk and protective factors for right-wing extremist violence

Right-wing extremism poses a significant threat to democratic societies and values in western countries. Although the research of violent extremism has vastly grown in recent years, right-wing extremism remains a niche topic compared to Islamism and violent extremism in general. In this scoping review, we summarize 1206 risk and protective factors reported in 130 empirical and theoretical articles about violent right-wing extremism and violent extremism in general. Risk and protective factors were clustered and reported narratively within a theoretical framework. The results yield an extensive overview of different risk and protective factors applicable for violent right-wing extremism. The findings illustrate that violent right-wing extremism cannot be explained by a singular factor, but rather factors at the individual, social, and macro level have to be taken into account. The inclusion and comparison of risk factors identified in articles focusing on violent right-wing extremism and articles focusing on violent extremism in general indicate that the majority of the reviewed risk factors are not specific for violent right-wing extremism, although empirical comparisons were scarce. However, the already existing comparison studies indicate promising results to identify specific risk factors and differences between violent right-wing extremists and other kinds of violent extremisms.