Crime as Radicalization Catalysts: Composite Case Study Analysis of Escalation Patterns in Multicultural Environments
Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: This study examines how conventional crimes between individuals can escalate into radicalization and ideologically-motivated violence in multicultural environments. The research focuses on cases involving diaspora communities from conflict-affected regions, where normal interpersonal disputes transform into security threats when pre-existing religious, cultural or political tensions intersect with failures in the formal justice report and signalization system.The methodology relies on composite case study analysis using criminal intelligence and criminal psychology frameworks. The investigation synthesizes patterns observed from multiple cases involving foreign nationals in Bulgaria, where primary crimes remained unreported due to intervention from community or religious authorities. The analysis combines operational investigative materials, open-source information and behavioral profiling, based on the author's professional experience as a criminal intelligence officer working directly on cases like this.The key findings identify a four-stage escalation pattern: first, the initial crime gets concealed through informal authority structures instead of official reporting to the government authorities. Second, attempts at vigilante justice trigger secondary violence. Third, ethnic groups mobilize using ideological framing connected to their home country conflicts. Fourth, external radical actors possess the ability to exploit the situation. Religious schisms and active international conflicts between the home countries work as force multipliers that accelerate the radicalization process.The study proposes actionable indicators for early identification of high-risk interpersonal disputes before they escalate into threats to national security. This requires integrated operational procedures between law enforcement, diplomatic services and diaspora community leadership to address critical gaps where conventional policing should connect with preventive diplomacy.
Author: Atanasov, Aleksandar
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7106345620
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