Steven Windisch
Biographic Data
| ID | 281869 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Steven Windisch |
| GIVEN NAMES | Steven |
| FAMILY NAME | Windisch |
| SIGNATURE | WINDISCH S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Temple University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6475-6008 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 70 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Trouble with Jokes
How to manage offensive humor is a complex and contentious issue. Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of democratic societies, enabling open discourse and the exchange of diverse ideas. However, when humor crosses into offensiveness, it can harm marginalized groups, perpetuate stereotypes, and incite tension. Finding an equilibrium demands a nuanced understanding of the boundaries of free expression, the potential impact of words, and the responsi…
Bad Things Happen in Philadelphia
In the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. election, the boundary between activism and extremism blurred, with election officials reporting violent threats and false accusations of election fraud. From a symbolic interactionist perspective, these attacks provide a unique lens for examining the consequences of being falsely labeled a criminal. This study utilizes data from in-depth interviews with 15 election officials to explore the nature of informal fal…
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE), Adolescent Misconduct, and Violent Extremism
The current paper compares the prevalence and nature of childhood adversity among twenty former left-wing and right-wing extremists. Findings from the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) questionnaire suggest that exposure to childhood adversity was common in the early lives of both extremist types. For example, 50 percent of LWE and 70 percent of RWE experienced four or more ACE exposures during the first eighteen years of their life. The result…
More than a Joke
We conduct an ethnographic content analysis to examine the social interaction and racial identity constructed through the exchange of white supremacist humor shared on three Stormfront discussion subforums. Overall, white supremacist joke sharing functioned multidimensionally as it simultaneously fostered cohesion and contention among users. By mocking political correctness and non-Whites through the circulation of humorous images and text, white…
And the Last Straw Falls
Relying on interviews with 87 former members of the Viet Cong, we investigate the cumulative role of unmet behavioral and emotional expectations in producing disillusionment. We found that the combination of unmet expectations generated negative emotions, creating distance between participants and their organization. Unlike desistance from conventional crime, which results from a reduction in anger, we found that the emergence of anger provoked d…
Measuring the Extent and Nature of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) among Former White Supremacists
While progress has been made to understand mid-life correlates associated with extremist participation, much less research focuses on adolescent risk factors. The purpose of the current study is to expand upon the focus on individual-level correlates by assessing the extent and nature of childhood adversity among a sample of former white supremacists. The current study relies on in-depth life-history interviews with ninety-one North America-based…
The Culture of Violent Talk
One of the defining characteristics of extremist movements is the adherence to an ideology highly antagonistic to the status quo and one that permits or explicitly promotes the use of violence to achieve stated goals and to address grievances. For members of extremist groups, talk is one of the most concrete manifestations of how adherents communicate their ideas to each other and the general public. These discussions, however, do not necessarily…
Why Radicalization Fails
Few issues have garnered as much attention in recent years as the topic of violent extremism (VE). Although substantial attention has been devoted to investigating the radicalization process, few scholars have examined the obstacles that hinder VE radicalization. Based on in-depth life history interviews, the current study examines five types of barriers that hinder radicalization toward mass casualty violence (MCV): mass casualty violence as cou…
Organizational [Dis]trust
In order to move beyond the existing push/pull framework to understand disengagement, we apply a systematic coding scheme derived from Mayer and colleagues' integrative model of organizational trust to examine why people leave extremist groups. In doing so, we also rely on in-depth life history interviews with twenty former left- and right-wing extremists to examine whether antecedents of distrust vary between the two groups. Findings suggest sub…
Addicted to Hate
The process of leaving deeply meaningful and embodied identities can be experienced as a struggle against addiction, with continuing cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses that are involuntary, unwanted, and triggered by environmental factors. Using data derived from a unique set of in-depth life history interviews with 89 former U.S. white supremacists, as well as theories derived from recent advances in cognitive sociology, we examin…
Addicted to Hate
The process of leaving deeply meaningful and embodied identities can be experienced as a struggle against addiction, with continuing cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses that are involuntary, unwanted, and triggered by environmental factors. Using data derived from a unique set of in-depth life history interviews with 89 former U.S. white supremacists, as well as theories derived from recent advances in cognitive sociology, we examin…
The Culture of Violent Talk
One of the defining characteristics of extremist movements is the adherence to an ideology highly antagonistic to the status quo and one that permits or explicitly promotes the use of violence to achieve stated goals and to address grievances. For members of extremist groups, talk is one of the most concrete manifestations of how adherents communicate their ideas to each other and the general public. These discussions, however, do not necessarily…
Organizational [Dis]trust
In order to move beyond the existing push/pull framework to understand disengagement, we apply a systematic coding scheme derived from Mayer and colleagues' integrative model of organizational trust to examine why people leave extremist groups. In doing so, we also rely on in-depth life history interviews with twenty former left- and right-wing extremists to examine whether antecedents of distrust vary between the two groups. Findings suggest sub…
Why Radicalization Fails
Few issues have garnered as much attention in recent years as the topic of violent extremism (VE). Although substantial attention has been devoted to investigating the radicalization process, few scholars have examined the obstacles that hinder VE radicalization. Based on in-depth life history interviews, the current study examines five types of barriers that hinder radicalization toward mass casualty violence (MCV): mass casualty violence as cou…
More than a Joke
We conduct an ethnographic content analysis to examine the social interaction and racial identity constructed through the exchange of white supremacist humor shared on three Stormfront discussion subforums. Overall, white supremacist joke sharing functioned multidimensionally as it simultaneously fostered cohesion and contention among users. By mocking political correctness and non-Whites through the circulation of humorous images and text, white…
Measuring the Extent and Nature of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) among Former White Supremacists
While progress has been made to understand mid-life correlates associated with extremist participation, much less research focuses on adolescent risk factors. The purpose of the current study is to expand upon the focus on individual-level correlates by assessing the extent and nature of childhood adversity among a sample of former white supremacists. The current study relies on in-depth life-history interviews with ninety-one North America-based…
And the Last Straw Falls
Relying on interviews with 87 former members of the Viet Cong, we investigate the cumulative role of unmet behavioral and emotional expectations in producing disillusionment. We found that the combination of unmet expectations generated negative emotions, creating distance between participants and their organization. Unlike desistance from conventional crime, which results from a reduction in anger, we found that the emergence of anger provoked d…
Organizational [Dis]trust
In order to move beyond the existing push/pull framework to understand disengagement, we apply a systematic coding scheme derived from Mayer and colleagues' integrative model of organizational trust to examine why people leave extremist groups. In doing so, we also rely on in-depth life history interviews with twenty former left- and right-wing extremists to examine whether antecedents of distrust vary between the two groups. Findings suggest sub…
Addicted to Hate
The process of leaving deeply meaningful and embodied identities can be experienced as a struggle against addiction, with continuing cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses that are involuntary, unwanted, and triggered by environmental factors. Using data derived from a unique set of in-depth life history interviews with 89 former U.S. white supremacists, as well as theories derived from recent advances in cognitive sociology, we examin…
The Culture of Violent Talk
One of the defining characteristics of extremist movements is the adherence to an ideology highly antagonistic to the status quo and one that permits or explicitly promotes the use of violence to achieve stated goals and to address grievances. For members of extremist groups, talk is one of the most concrete manifestations of how adherents communicate their ideas to each other and the general public. These discussions, however, do not necessarily…
Why Radicalization Fails
Few issues have garnered as much attention in recent years as the topic of violent extremism (VE). Although substantial attention has been devoted to investigating the radicalization process, few scholars have examined the obstacles that hinder VE radicalization. Based on in-depth life history interviews, the current study examines five types of barriers that hinder radicalization toward mass casualty violence (MCV): mass casualty violence as cou…
And the Last Straw Falls
Relying on interviews with 87 former members of the Viet Cong, we investigate the cumulative role of unmet behavioral and emotional expectations in producing disillusionment. We found that the combination of unmet expectations generated negative emotions, creating distance between participants and their organization. Unlike desistance from conventional crime, which results from a reduction in anger, we found that the emergence of anger provoked d…
Measuring the Extent and Nature of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) among Former White Supremacists
While progress has been made to understand mid-life correlates associated with extremist participation, much less research focuses on adolescent risk factors. The purpose of the current study is to expand upon the focus on individual-level correlates by assessing the extent and nature of childhood adversity among a sample of former white supremacists. The current study relies on in-depth life-history interviews with ninety-one North America-based…
More than a Joke
We conduct an ethnographic content analysis to examine the social interaction and racial identity constructed through the exchange of white supremacist humor shared on three Stormfront discussion subforums. Overall, white supremacist joke sharing functioned multidimensionally as it simultaneously fostered cohesion and contention among users. By mocking political correctness and non-Whites through the circulation of humorous images and text, white…
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE), Adolescent Misconduct, and Violent Extremism
The current paper compares the prevalence and nature of childhood adversity among twenty former left-wing and right-wing extremists. Findings from the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) questionnaire suggest that exposure to childhood adversity was common in the early lives of both extremist types. For example, 50 percent of LWE and 70 percent of RWE experienced four or more ACE exposures during the first eighteen years of their life. The result…
The Trouble with Jokes
How to manage offensive humor is a complex and contentious issue. Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of democratic societies, enabling open discourse and the exchange of diverse ideas. However, when humor crosses into offensiveness, it can harm marginalized groups, perpetuate stereotypes, and incite tension. Finding an equilibrium demands a nuanced understanding of the boundaries of free expression, the potential impact of words, and the responsi…
Bad Things Happen in Philadelphia
In the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. election, the boundary between activism and extremism blurred, with election officials reporting violent threats and false accusations of election fraud. From a symbolic interactionist perspective, these attacks provide a unique lens for examining the consequences of being falsely labeled a criminal. This study utilizes data from in-depth interviews with 15 election officials to explore the nature of informal fal…
Psychology (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence (5 works) · Criminology (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Politics (4 works)