How integrated is local prevention of radicalisation and terrorism?

Ponsaers, P.; Devroe, E.; Lemeunier, F.; Duquet, N.; André, S.; Renard, T.; Seron, V.

The implication of Belgium-linked terrorists in the shootings and bombings on November 13, 2015 in Paris — around the Stade de France football stadium, in four pubs and restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall — became more and more obvious during the police investigation that followed these events. Today we know that the bombings at Brussels Airport and the Maalbeek subway station on March 22, 2016 were committed by the same French-Belgian jihadi network.

The consequence has been that many international observers focused on the Belgian police system, wondering why the Belgian police forces had not been able to prevent the radicalisation of these persons. In this paper we examine this question, explaining what happened during the period that preceded these assaults and decoding what the events mean for the Belgian police system today. In other words, this paper doesn’t go into the reaction to radicalisation and the subsequent violence itself, but into...

The implication of Belgium-linked terrorists in the shootings and bombings on November 13, 2015 in Paris — around the Stade de France football stadium, in four pubs and restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall — became more and more obvious during the police investigation that followed these events. Today we know that the bombings at Brussels Airport and the Maalbeek subway station on March 22, 2016 were committed by the same French-Belgian jihadi network.

The consequence has been that many international observers focused on the Belgian police system, wondering why the Belgian police forces had not been able to prevent the radicalisation of these persons. In this paper we examine this question, explaining what happened during the period that preceded these assaults and decoding what the events mean for the Belgian police system today. In other words, this paper doesn’t go into the reaction to radicalisation and the subsequent violence itself, but into the preventive and pro-active actions that had been undertaken earlier to avoid the radicalisation of certain “at-risk” individuals and groups. The main argument we want to develop here is that a targeted prevention agenda was largely present in discourse, but to a great extent absent in practice. Further, we advocate that, if implemented, this kind of preventive approach would have been much more effective than the repressive criminal justice agenda now applied with respect to jihadi terrorism.

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How integrated is local prevention of radicalisation and terrorism?

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