Image Source: Counter Terrorism Policing UK

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How is Extremism Defined?

Holding a particular belief – even actively/vocally supporting one, or opposing a particular group or ideology – isn’t considered extremism in itself by the UK Government.

The UK Government’s definition of extremism was updated in 2024¹. It includes the “promotion of an ideology, violence, hatred or intolerance”, or a pattern of behaviour, that aims to achieve at least one of three things:

Negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others. This includes threats of violence or intimidation towards certain groups so that they don’t use their legal rights or freedoms.
Undermine, overturn or replace the UK’s system of liberal parliamentary democracy and democratic rights. This would include things like supporting a dictatorship, preventing or discouraging people from voting, entryism (joining a group or institution in big numbers to force a change in its ideology), threats towards public servants, or supporting violence to change the political system.
Intentionally creating a permissive environment for others to achieve the results of either of the above. This includes platforming extremists, producing or spreading extremist propaganda, fundraising for extremist causes or attempting to radicalise others.

Why are people driven towards extremism?

There’s no single answer. There’s been some research into this question, with some theories having stronger support behind them than others.

According to a literature review undertaken by the United Services Institute in 2015², the main drivers of extremism, with the strongest evidence supporting them, include:

Organised political and social groups which have failed to achieve any meaningful change through peaceful means, so they turn to violence.
A person wrapping themselves in an identity, group or religion too strongly because they’ve been left behind or are scared about rapid social/cultural changes and are seeking a sense of stability, belonging or purpose.
Religious or ethnic identities which compete with attachment to the country.
A sense of shared grievance – including discrimination or marginalisation.
Failure by the government to provide basic services means extremist groups step in to take advantage of the “gap”.
Poverty and underemployment (not being able to find jobs at a person’s skill level); many extremists are relatively well-educated, and extremist groups tend to recruit from amongst the unemployed and low-paid.

Other common causes³ are said to include bullying, behavioural and mental health issues, social isolation (which may drive people to spend too much time online, which is a fertile ground for extremism and conspiracy theories) and going through sudden major life changes.

What does extremism in Wales look like?

According to statistics tied to the UK Government’s counter-extremism Prevent programme, during 2024-25 in Wales⁴:

There were 398 referrals (4.5% of the EnglandandWales total, roughly in line with our population share).
84 (2.1%) of the Welsh referrals involved a confirmed or unconfirmed mental health or neurodiversity disorder.
Recording of ethnicity/race data isn’t mandatory, but of those who were recorded, the majority of people referred in Wales (83 out of 102) were white.
The age group with the largest number of referrals (115) were 11-15 year olds, and the majority of all referrals were for people aged under 40.
At least 82% of Welsh referrals involved males.
The majority of Welsh referrals come either through the education system or via the police.
Of those referrals which involve the individual having a clear extremist ideology, the most common Welsh referrals were for right-wing extremism (82), Islamist extremism (20) and a general fascination with violence (18). There were only 2 recorded referrals for far-left extremism and 2 for “Incels”/extreme misogynists.
Extreme right-wing extremism is by far the most common single ideological reason for a referral across EnglandandWales (1,778), being more than double the number of Islamist referrals (870) and dwarfing both left-wing and anarchist extremists (34) and Northern Irish dissident Republicans (16).