Closer to Success? Enhancing prison, probation, and community actors’ skill-set on assessing risk and vulnerabilities to extremist viewpoints through updated tools and mixed-method training (PID120)

3.30pm – 4pm EDT, 2 September 2024 ‐ 30 mins

Workshop Session

Despite a recent decrease in terrorism-related incidents in Europe, addressing radicalisation remains a priority on the European Union policy agenda. Training prison and probation (P&P) and community staff has become crucial for effectively recognising, assessing, and managing individuals who are radicalised or at risk. Two key EU projects, MIRAD and R2COM, have been advanced efforts through innovative assessment tools and training. The MIRAD 'Multi-Ideological Radicalisation Assessment towards Disengagement' project enchanced radicalisation risk assessment by updating the Individual Radicalisation Screening (IRS) instrument towards a ideology-specific, gender-inclusive, and rehabilitation-focused approach. MIRAD combined e-Learning with Virtual Reality (VR) scenarios to improve the practical capacity of practitioners from P&P and community settings. Simultaneously, the R2COM 'Radicalisation and Violent Extremism Prevention in the Community' project addressed the threat of (re)adopting radical viewpoints during the post-release transition period. Recognising the need for community professionals to acknowledge potential radicalisation without exacerbating grievances and stigma, R2COM developed the Transitioning Vulnerabilities to Radicalisation Assessment Tool (TV-RAT), which deconstructs risk and protective factors into subjective assessments based on their impact on an individual’s vulnerability to radicalisation. This paper explores IRS and TV-RAT’s theoretical framework, operational basis, and field applicability (towards enabling desistance from extremist viewpoints), discussing the results of its piloting, training procedures, cross-country applicability, challenges/next steps, and its contribution to research in P/CVE and criminal justice staff training fields. Together, these initiatives underscore the importance of comprehensive and nuanced approaches for P&P and community staff in preventing radicalisation and extremism, demonstrating significant strides in both theoretical and practical domains.