Deradicalizing By Not Intending to Deradicalize: Building Resilience Against Extremism in U.K. and U.S. Prisons

What is the most effective way to deradicalize? Despite decades of investment in counterterrorism, this question remains unresolved. This article introduces a novel Extremism Resilience–Risk Index integrating strengths-based and risk-based approaches to countering extremism. Drawing on original empirical evidence from trials of the PRIMO program in a U.S. and a U.K. prison, it argues that interventions strengthening resilience to extremist worldviews through engagement with religious traditions can generate deradicalizing effects without explicitly intending to do so. By promoting healthy attitudes to rehabilitation and enhancing religious understanding, the program strengthened resilience against the “us-versus-them” extremist worldviews that underpin terrorist offending.