A/77/512 opportunities, technical skills and family support; alienation; and dysfunctional family relationships. 55. In the literature on the psychology of extremism, a broad consensus has emerged that social situational factors – not personal traits – determine extremist behaviour. Factors such as social identity formation, acculturation, social influence and normative pressure from group membership strongly affect psychologically vulnerable individuals. Social networks can determine individual choices, including whether to engage in pro- or antisocial behaviour. Studies show that young people’s motives to join hate groups are not primarily ideological or political. They were linked rather to social and emotional reasons and the search for affiliation, protection, acknowledgement and adventure. 56. In several studies examining non-ideological risk factors, former neo-Nazis or white supremacists who predominantly joined hate groups as children reported experiencing one or more of the following adverse environmental conditions: childhood physical abuse, childhood or adolescent sexual abuse, emotional and physical neglect, parental incarceration, parental abandonment, the witnessing of serious violence (domestic and/or neighbourhood) and/or family disruption (for example, divorced or deceased parents). Several psychological studies have shown that events of this sort may contribute to an increased likelihood of neo-Nazi and related extremist radicalization. 57. The above-mentioned factors help explain the circumstances of youth recruitment, but should by no means be understood to excuse or exonerate extremism and those who participate in neo-Nazi and related supremacist activities. Today, sociologists generally approach neo-Nazi and related movements as social movements that bring together those sharing a common ideology. Movements committed to racist and xenophobic ideology exploit the psychological and socioenvironmental factors described above to successfully target youth. 58. As elucidated in the report of the Special Rapporteur to the forty-first session of the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/41/55), information and data available about the implication of young people in violent extremism mainly focuses on Islamist extremism. Very little information is available about counter-extremism programmes focusing on far-right or neo-Nazi extremism. Despite the rise in neo-Nazi and white supremacist extremism, only a few States in the European region and North America have addressed radicalization and recruitment by hate groups in national strategies to counter terrorism, which are largely focused on Islamist extremism. E. Upsurge in antisemitism in Europe and North America 59. The contemporary strengthening of neo-Nazism, as described above, has had grave social consequences, including violent acts by groups connected to this movement and who share related ideologies of racial superiority and hatred. In Europe and North America especially, there have been dramatic increases in antisemitic incidents tied to neo-Nazi groups and affiliated white supremacist and white nationalist groups. Incidents of violence were perpetrated in countries across Europe and beyond. Contemporary iterations of Nazi ideology have grown in their traditional strongholds and in some cases expanded beyond them, posing a threat to racial equality in different parts of the world. 60. The upsurge in antisemitism preceded the COVID-19 pandemic, but such disturbing patterns intersected with the general trend whereby discussion of the origin and propagation of COVID-19 became a vector for various forms of hatred. As highlighted in the report of the Special Rapporteur to the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly (A/75/329), global antisemitic rhetoric online and offline falsely 12/20 22-22915