IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jocore/v70y2026i1p59-89.html

Selling Violent Extremism

Author

Listed:
  • Danny Klinenberg

Abstract

Why do people join domestic violent extremist organizations? This paper examines an understudied reason: organizational outreach. I study how the inflow of new members to the Oath Keepers, until recently America’s largest paramilitary organization, changes when the group’s leadership employs three tactics: showcasing their ideological zeal through armed standoffs with the government, membership discounts, and sports sponsorships. Using a variant of the synthetic control method, I find that standoffs increase new memberships by 150 percent, discounts increase new memberships by over 60 percent, and sports sponsorships decrease new memberships. Membership is less responsive in counties with higher income inequality, but more responsive in politically conservative counties. The findings provide new insights into ways extremist groups attract potential recruits.

Suggested Citation

  • Danny Klinenberg, 2026. "Selling Violent Extremism," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 70(1), pages 59-89, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:70:y:2026:i:1:p:59-89
    DOI: 10.1177/00220027251329598
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00220027251329598
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00220027251329598?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steven T. Berry & Philip A. Haile, 2021. "Foundations of Demand Estimation," NBER Working Papers 29305, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Andreas Steinmayr, 2021. "Contact versus Exposure: Refugee Presence and Voting for the Far Right," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(2), pages 310-327, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Campo, Francesco & Giunti, Sara & Mendola, Mariapia, 2024. "Refugee crisis and right-wing populism: Evidence from the Italian Dispersal Policy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    2. Ajzenman, Nicolás & Aksoy, Cevat Giray & Guriev, Sergei, 2022. "Exposure to transit migration: Public attitudes and entrepreneurship," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    3. Adam Levai & Riccardo Turati, 2021. "The Impact of Immigration on Workers’ Protection," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2021021, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), revised 07 Sep 2021.
    4. Hager, Anselm & Valasek, Justin, 2022. "The Impact of Exposure to Refugees on Prosocial Behavior," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 4/2022, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    5. Mykhailyshyna, Dariia & Zuchowski, David, 2025. "Migration shocks and voting: Evidence from Ukrainian migration to Poland," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1649, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    6. Pascal Achard & Sigrid Suetens, 2023. "The causal effect of ethnic diversity on support for redistribution and the role of discrimination," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(5), pages 1678-1696, December.
    7. Weisser, Reinhard A., 2024. "Shots, sympathy, and societal support: How conflict intensity translates into cooperative behaviour towards the displaced," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    8. Zhou, Yang-Yang & Grossman, Guy & Ge, Shuning, 2023. "Inclusive refugee-hosting can improve local development and prevent public backlash," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    9. Frédéric Docquier & Ariane Gordan & Michel Tenikue & Aleksa Uljarevic, 2024. "Attitudes towards Immigration in a Highly Multicultural Society: The Roles of Foreign Background and Local Exposure," LISER Working Paper Series 2024-08, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    10. Mehic, Adrian, 2024. "Infrastructure Expansion, Tourism, and Electoral Outcomes," Working Paper Series 1490, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    11. Matteo Gamalerio & Massimo Morelli & Margherita Negri, 2025. "Electoral Systems and Immigration Policies," Economics Discussion Papers 2503, Department of Economics, The University of St Andrews Business School.
    12. Betts, Alexander & Flinder Stierna, Maria & Omata, Naohiko & Sterck, Olivier, 2023. "Refugees welcome? Inter-group interaction and host community attitude formation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    13. Lange, Martin & Sommerfeld, Katrin, 2024. "Do refugees impact crime? Causal evidence from large-scale refugee immigration to Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    14. Edward Anthony Koning & Neeraj Kaushal, 2024. "The Role of Politics in Public Views About Immigrants," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 2095-2122, December.
    15. Gagnon, Nickolas, 2024. "On your own side of the fence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    16. Campo, Francesco & Giunti, Sara & Mendola, Mariapia & Tura, Giulia, 2025. "Political backlash to refugee settlement: Cultural and economic drivers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    17. Betts,Alexander Milton Stedman & Stierna,Maria Flinder & Omata,Naohiko & Sterck,Olivier Christian Brigitte, 2022. "Social Cohesion and Refugee-Host Interactions : Evidence from East Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9917, The World Bank.
    18. Sekou Keita & Thomas Renault & Jérôme Valette, 2024. "The Usual Suspects: Offender Origin, Media Reporting and Natives’ Attitudes Towards Immigration," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(657), pages 322-362.
    19. Jacek Białek & Natalia Pawelec & Sylwia Roszkowska, 2024. "Estimating the elasticity of substitution when compiling the CES cost of living index on scanner data," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 58(6), pages 5997-6021, December.
    20. Patrick Dylong & Silke Übelmesser, 2024. "Vorbehalte gegenüber Zuwanderung: Die Rolle von Kontakten und Informationen," ifo Dresden berichtet, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 31(01), pages 17-23, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:70:y:2026:i:1:p:59-89. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://pss.la.psu.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.