Community reporting on violent extremism by “intimates”: emergent findings from international evidence

Abstract

To promote early intervention strategies, Countering/Preventing Violent Extremism (C/PVE) policies internationally seek to encourage community reporting by "intimates" about someone close to them engaging in terrorist planning. Yet historically, we have scant evidence around what either helps or hinders "intimates" to share concerns with authorities. We address that deficit here through a "state of the art" assessment of what we currently know about effective related C/PVE approaches to community reporting, based on key findings from a groundbreaking Australian study and its UK replication. The consistency of qualitative findings from nearly 100 respondents offers new paradigms for policy and practice.

Counter-terrorism measures and perceptions of police legitimacy: The importance Muslims place on procedural justice, representative bureaucracy, and bounded-authority concerns

“…Second, it is widely acknowledged that Muslims are crucial to efforts to detect and prevent terrorism (Cherney, 2018). Thomas et al (2017, p. 6) note “the first people to suspect or know about someone becoming involved in planning acts of violent extremism will often be those closest to them: their friends, family and community insiders”.…”

Police programmes that seek to increase community connectedness for reducing violent extremism behaviour, attitudes and beliefs

“…This suggests that police could be well placed to cultivate communities of “intimates” around those that are exhibiting radical characteristics (see Grossman, Stephenson, Street, & Zhang, 2015). Family members, close friends and community insiders are best placed to detect signs of change in thinking and behaviour and as Grossman and her colleagues (Grossman et al, 2016; Thomas, Grossman, Miah, & Christmann, 2017) suggest, there is much to be gained by police doing much more than they presently do to encourage community reporting of violent extremism. Hence, police involvement in efforts to build trust and connectedness within communities through organisations such as places of worship and educational institutions, can inspire trust and promote the willingness of friends, family members or known members of the community to work with police.…”

An inclusive and participatory approach to counter-radicalization? Examining the role of Muslim associations in the Swedish policy process

“…Previous research on counter-radicalization in other countries suggests that citizens may often be merely used instrumentally by the state, on the assumption that they have a ‘moral duty to assist the government in providing services to the public—including security from terrorist threats—in the most efficient way’ (Ragazzi, 2014: 167; see also Lindekilde, 2014). In other words, citizens may be expected to contribute to efficient policing by providing information and other forms of cooperation, while having no influence on practices of counter-radicalization to which they and other members of their communities are subject (see also Grossman, 2019; Thomas et al., 2017). However, the public administration literature suggests a number of ways that citizens can be involved, some of which go far beyond this instrumental perspective (Nabatchi et al., 2017; Torfing, 2019).…”

“…This study’s framework, summarized in Figure 1, combines Cornwall’s classification of types of participatory roles with specific participatory ‘functions’ outlined by Fung (2003) as well as other functions (‘being present’, ‘informing’) that are more specific to the context of counter-radicalization (see Lindekilde, 2014; Ragazzi, 2014; Thomas et al., 2017). As this image suggests, spaces are not necessarily static with regard to the roles given to citizens.…”

“… 5 However, a study by Thomas et al. (2017) found that Prevent practitioners in the UK believed that people ‘within familiar, trusted and localised networks’ were seen as crucial assets in their work by performing the roles of ‘known faces in known places’ (2017: 58).…”