Description
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. Such individuals are ideally placed to notice any changes or early warning signs that someone is considering violent action to harm others, as well as being able to influence vulnerable younger people away from violent extremist beliefs and settings. However, whilst these ‘intimates’ have a vital role to play against potential terrorist threats and offer a first line of defence, very little is known about what reporting of the potential violent extremist involvement of an ‘intimate’ means for community members, particularly their views, experiences and concerns about approaching authorities, especially the police, when they have suspicions or knowledge to report. ‘Intimates’ reporting is a critical blind spot in current Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) thinking and strategy internationally. This paper presents key findings from a recent UK study (Thomas, Grossman, Miah and Christmann, 2017; funded by CREST), which replicated and developed the original Australian pilot study (Grossman et al, 2015) on this issue. These UK findings highlight both important issues regarding the framing, tone and content of public messaging about the prevention of terrorism, and clear respondent preferences around how, where and when they would be willing to communicate and share concerns with authorities regarding an ‘intimate’.| Period | 19 Apr 2018 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Preventing, Interdicting and Mitigating the Impact of Mass Violence through Pre-event Risk Communication workshop. |
| Event type | Workshop |
| Location | United StatesShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |