DISPOSITIONAL FORGIVENESS TO CURB RADICALIZATION OF THE YOUTH FROM VIOLENT EXTREMISM: A Case Study of Eastleigh Area, Nairobi County Keny
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Date
2022-08-31
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Tangaza University College
Abstract
Radicalization continues to endanger security in the contemporary world, given the constant
rising numbers of terrorist attacks. Youth are at risk of radicalization and recruitment to militant
groupings that carry out diverse forms of extreme violence. Counterterrorism such as
deradicalization has in the last ten years, become popular in international relations, and comes up
in the news almost every day. This is due to a great degree to the ongoing conflicts in Africa,
Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, which consequently have also given rise to something of a
reaction against such militant or “hard” interventions to de-radicalization. Various methods have
been used by different organizations and governments to curb this vice but recruitment is still
rampant. Some studies have revealed that violent extremism has been happening because
perpetrators of violence have bottled up emotions such as anger, resentment and unresolved
issues. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate whether dispositional forgiveness can
be used as an intervention to curb radicalization in Eastleigh, Nairobi County, Kenya. This
inquiry was led by Relative Deprivation and The Rational Choice Theories. Mixed method
sequential explanatory design was adopted, combining experimental, correlational and
phenomenological methods. The target population was 460 comprising of 450 youths aged 19-
35 years and 10 key informants. The sample size was 222 participants. Heartland Forgiveness
and extremist scales, surveys and interactions were harnessed for data collection. Reliability of
standardized tools were carried out and data was analyzed. Investigations indicated that
interventions with dispositional forgiveness approach of Heartland Forgiveness scale led to
decline in potential revenge. Survey results indicate that dispositional forgiveness is a
phenomenon with many facets and far-reaching implications for intrapersonal, interpersonal and
wider social relationships, whose intervention reduced chances of violence. Findings also
showed that psycho-education in forgiveness significantly improved the levels of forgiveness,
beliefs in radicalization and influences of forgiveness toward self, other and uncontrollable
situations. As such it is recommended that communities should invest in dispositional
Forgiveness which may have enduring effect on the responses of the youth.
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DISPOSITIONAL FORGIVENESS TO CURB RADICALIZATION OF THE YOUTH FROM VIOLENT EXTREMISM:, A Case Study of Eastleigh Area, Nairobi County Keny