History of Risk Assessment.Bureau of Justice Assistance.
The history of risk prediction in criminal justice traces back to the early 1900s, when correctional staff relied on their own professional judgments about whether someone was likely to comply with parole conditions, for example. Modern-day assessments are more comprehensive in scope and systematic in nature. In the current landscape, it is accepted practice to use actuarial calculations to classify individuals and customize the justice response to optimize outcomes. This evolution from educated “guess” to evidence-based prediction occurred over four generations of risk assessment development, described in this section. Understanding this historical context can help practitioners and policymakers contextualize the value and utility of modern risk assessment instruments in increasing consistency, fairness, and effectiveness of the justice system.
Risk assessment and management of group-based violence.
Group-based violence (GBV) may be defined as actual, attempted, or threatened physical injury that is deliberate and nonconsensual, perpetrated by one or more individuals whose decisions and behaviour are influenced by a group to which they currently belong or with which they are affiliated. Although GBV represents a serious challenge to professionals around the world tasked with protecting public safety, there is lack of systematic, evidence-based procedures to aid decision-making. This dissertation reports the development and evaluation of a new set of structured professional judgment (SPJ) guidelines for assessing and managing GBV, called the Multi-level Guidelines (MLG; Cook, Hart, & Kropp, 2013). The first part of the dissertation describes the development of the MLG based on a Campbell Collaboration review and expert feedback. The MLG was structured according to an ecological model of GBV comprising 20 risk factors in four nested domains: Individual, Individual-Group, Group, and Group-Societal. The second part of the dissertation reports on an evaluation of the MLG in two samples of criminal justice and mental health professionals who completed training and rated case studies. Consistent with predictions, the results of the evaluation indicated that professionals who completed the training: (1) reported significant increases in their confidence, competence, and knowledge concerning the assessment and management of GBV significantly: (2) appraised the MLG to be useful for their practice; and (3) made judgments concerning the presence of risk factors, as well as the nature and level of risks posed, with a degree of reliability comparable to that reported in evaluations of other SPJ guidelines. The professionals also provided feedback for improving the MLG. Overall, the findings suggest the MLG may aid decisions about GBV made by professionals working with diverse problems in a wide range of settings.
Tracking narrative change in the context of exstremism and terrorism: adapting the innovative moments coding system. Aggression and Violent Behavior
Existing models of deradicalisation, countering violent extremism (CVE), and counter-terrorism (CT) have lacked a clear theory of change, as well as robust empirical methodologies. This paper proposes an empirically-based systematic and transparent methodology – the Innovative Moments Coding System (IMCS) – which is empirically sensitive, ethically defensible, and can be of use in the context of research to inform practitioner contexts. Through a case study of former violent militants, we explore the adaptation and usage of this instrument to identify and track self-narrative change in the processes of engagement and disengagement, as well as radicalisation and deradicalisation in the context of violent extremism and terrorism. We illustrate how this methodology has the potential to bring benefits to the work of researchers involved in producing guidelines for disengagement, deradicalisation or risk-reduction interventions.
T. E. S. A. T.
It is a privilege for me to present the European Union (EU) Terrorism Situation and Trend report (TE-SAT) 2020, which provides an overview of the incidents and developments with regard to terrorism in the EU in 2019. The attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday 2019 showed that the so-called Islamic State (IS) still looks to conduct large-scale attacks targeting EU citizens. In 2019 such plots have not materialised in the EU, largely due to the effectiveness of our law enforcement and security authorities, our international cooperation mechanisms and the collaboration between public and private actors in security matters.
The gender dimension in extremist and radical propaganda
Relying on case study methodology, it contributes to developing an up-to-date understanding of communicative approaches to prevention and countering of violent extremism and to radicalisation, which is the objective of WP4. Specifically, D4.4 explores how gender features in extremist communication, with a focus on emerging trends (ideological re-casting) and hybridisation processes, thus filling key gaps identified by previous tasks in Participation project.
Methodologies and tools for risk assessment on radicalization and violent extremism
The purpose of this report is to analyse the current panorama of risk assessment tools and methodologies relating to radicalization processes and violent extremism through a critical literature review. The aim is to understand which tools and methodologies are currently most used in the field of contrasting and preventing violent extremism and polarization and, in parallel, to deepen their limits, their output and their field of application.
Religious communities: analyzing and discussing religious polarization and extremism
Over the last twenty years, the European community had to deal with different and changing forms of radicalization, violent extremism and terrorist attacks. The liquid and hybridized form of present radicalization paths seems to indicate that research have to act like a “glow “ able to adapt continuously to this protean phenomenology. This process is more straightforward to say than to do, in fact, a common denominator of the national security and counter-terrorism policies all over the EU was the adoption of specific measures to counteract terrorist attacks in the first place (RAN, 2020). Indeed, violent religious extremism in the global context has helped create fertile ground for the growth of xenophobic and populist movements in several European countries (Marone e Vidino, 2019). In consequence of this, the terrorist attacks on European soil prompted the design and development of a new set of broader policies and strategies to address, or rather prevent, violent extremist radicalisation from its roots. Specifically, due to the nature of terrorist attacks, P/CVE policies have focused primarily on violent Islamic radicalization and jihadist terrorism, which remains perceived as the primary violent extremist threat for several European countries (see PARTICIPATION D3.1 for further details)
Comparative analysis of P/CVE policies and strategies
The purpose of task T3.1 `General framework. Comparative analysis of existing P/CVE policies` is to provide a comparative, in-depth, critical and multi-level analysis of existing policies in the field of prevention and countering of violent extremism (P/CVE) implemented in Europe over the last few years, assessing their aims and breadth, as well and their strengths and weaknesses. The main output of the comparative analysis performed under T3.1 is a collection of cases highlighting the best practices and lessons learned, which constitute a stepping stone for the task 3.2. and address the social lab participatory strategies.