The NYPD's program depended on a theory of radicalization elaborated in its 2007 report, Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat. The report spells out four stages of radicalization: preradicalization, self-identification, indoctrination, and jihadization. Descriptions of these stages are telling. For example, Muslims in the preradicalization stage are young (under the age of thirty-five), middle-class men. They are recent converts with little or no criminal history. Oftentimes, they are not particularly devout, at least at this stage. As these men move through the other stages, they become more devout and politically active. They may stop smoking or drinking and grow a beard. At this point, the document assumes, Muslims are clearly on the path toward radicalization.

Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Intro…, loc. 574