Young, jobless, and radicalized: Terror attacks tied to European youth crisis?

In the wake of the Belgium terrorist attacks, the world faces the grim task of identifying the cause (or causes) and stopping them, to make sure this all-too-common occurrence never happens again. The motive is clear: ISIS’ vicious brand of radical Islam. The very same motive that caused the horrors in Paris and in San Bernardino. What is not so clear, and what we must direct our attention and efforts to, is how to snuff it out.

Radical Islam does not exist in a vacuum. It grows in certain environments, yet never takes root in others. We can identify the risk factors for radicalization by lining up what the terrorists have in common. Some were immigrants to the West, some had grown up in the West, and all were somehow radicalized. The San Bernardino attackers were husband and wife; two of the Brussels attackers were brothers; two of the Paris attackers were brothers.

Terrorism is sometimes a family affair, sometimes not, sometimes carried out by locals, but sometimes not. These data are important, yet inconclusive.

But there is another characteristic that all of these terrorists share: They were all young adults.

Of the two known Brussels attackers, the 11 Paris attackers, and the two San Bernardino attackers, only two were over the age of 30. Tashfeen Malik and Syed Farook were both in their late twenties. The same is true of the El Bakroui brothers who carried out the Brussels airport attack; little is known about their associate.