RADIKALISERING – En studie av mobilisering, forebygging og rehabilitering

Radicalisation and violent extremism. Violence as a tool to promote political, ideological or religious goals that violate fundamental values. These are threats to the security of the individual and society. Terrorist attacks, such as in Oslo and on Utøya on 22 July 2011 and against the Bataclan Theater and several other places in Paris on 13 November 2015, are examples of how violent extremism can affect us.

Efforts to combat and prevent violent extremism are taking place in many ways. Large resources have been invested to improve preparedness and crisis management. Security services have become increasingly better at averting planned terrorist attacks, and security measures for terrorist-exposed targets have been heightened. In addition, it’s important to prevent recruitment to violent extremism. That is, to prevent individual acceptance and justification of violence as a political, ideological or religious means. The action plan of the Norwegian government against radicalisation and violent extremism states: ‘The goal is to identify people at risk as early as possible and apply measures that work.’

Key questions are: What characterises people at risk? Who can identify these people, and how? What measures work? How do the identified people perceive this? A general dilemma in all prevention is to assess the effect of measures. Are the measures themselves effective, or are there other factors that prevent what you want to prevent?

This report presents results from the research project ‘Radiskan’, which deals with the prevention of radicalisation in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Its purpose is to produce knowledge about how measures against radicalisation are implemented and how they are experienced. It’s the local authorities, voluntary organisations and individuals who follow up action plans and translate them into concrete measures. The project has investigated how this happens through ethnographic studies, conversations and interviews with involved actors. The research is important to fill knowledge gaps for further development of policy and practical measures. Knowledge and experience are gained through systematic methods, analyses, documentation and quality assurance to avoid biased opinions, views and prejudices. Radiskan is part of FFI’s research program ‘Protection of society (BAS)’. Together with the TERRA projects, BAS is part of FFI’s long-term research efforts on societal security and terrorism. BAS’ overall goal is to contribute in building knowledge and support for the work of the Norwegian authorities in prevention, cross-sectoral preparedness and crisis management for serious national crises and actions that threaten society.