Effective preventive work or thought policing? Police employees’ understanding, assessment and management of radicalization

Research problem and scientific questionsThe Police authority is tasked with preventing radicalization – the process that leads individuals to support or practice ideologically motivated violence.

The task is relatively new, complex, and debated, as the work involves balancing early detection of ideologically motivated crime and police control of constitutionally protected political or religious opinions.

In Sweden, there is a complete lack of research into how police employees understand radicalization as a phenomenon, as well as how they work with assessment and management of cases of radicalization.

This study will explore the following questions:RQ1: How do police employees describe radicalization as a phenomenon and what sources of knowledge do they base their understandings on?RQ2: What processes, tools and methods are used in connection with assessment and management of radicalization cases, and how do police employees perceive their appropriateness and effectiveness?RQ3: What differences can be identified between how police employees understand, assess, and manage cases of radicalization to extreme right and Islamist violence?Data and methodThe study uses a case study design based on two fictional vignettes that describe how young people are gradually radicalized into ideologically motivated violence.

The vignettes will be used in six to eight focus group interviews with local police officers, investigators, analysts, case managers and coordinators from the Police authority who work with the issue of radicalization.

The data collection is supplemented with 15 individual interviews.Societal relevance and utilizationThe knowledge produced provides an insight into police employees´ understanding of and work against radicalization.

Such knowledge helps to inform a discussion about the Police´s role in and ability to detect and deal with terrorist threats, and to identify shortcomings and risks associated with such work.

The knowledge can also be used for competence and methods development by the Police authority and in education of future police officers.Plan for project realizationThe applicant will work 50% on the project over three years.

The study contains three phases:Phase 1: Start-up, ethics review application, development of vignettes and recruitment of informantsPhase 2: Data collection and initial codingPhase 3: Analysis, writing and collaborationThe project includes funding for participation in conferences, workshops and four publications.