The Routledge Handbook on Radicalisation and Countering Radicalisation

Bibliographic Data

ID19940683
AuthorsJoel Busher (0000-0002-9004-3447), Leena Malkki (0000-0001-5399-2398), Sarah Marsden (0000-0002-4763-5068)
Year2023
Publication date2023-10-09
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueThe Routledge Handbook on Radicalisation and Countering Radicalisation (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781003035848
OpenAlexW4387460490
ISBN9781003035848
LanguageEN
Citations received11

Counter-radicalisation policies in the United Kingdom are routinely framed as operating in a 'pre-criminal' space — positioned as safeguarding interventions that divert vulnerable individuals away from the criminal justice system. This chapter critically examines the tension between that framing and the simultaneous expansion of pre-emptive terrorism offences under UK law. Drawing on the UK's Prevent strategy and Duty as a central case study, it traces how the statutory obligation on public institutions to identify and refer individuals at risk of radicalisation has been normalised through the language of safeguarding and non-criminalisation. Against this backdrop, the chapter maps the broad and expanding architecture of pre-emptive criminal law offences — covering possession of terrorism-related material, preparation for terrorism, encouragement of terrorism, and conduct linked to proscribed organisations — and demonstrates how these offences, built upon a wide statutory definition of terrorism, increasingly overlap with the very indicators used in Prevent assessments. The chapter argues that the cumulative effect of this expansion has substantially eroded, if not eliminated, the non-criminal space in which Prevent claims to operate, with significant implications for civil liberties, the rule of law, and the integrity of voluntary counter-radicalisation programmes. It concludes that the failure to reckon with this overlap reflects entrenched disciplinary silos between legal scholars and social scientists, and calls for greater cross-disciplinary engagement in evaluating the impact of counter-terrorism measures on affected individuals and communities

Criminology · Political science · Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

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