Project
Online radicalisation and terrorist offending
Unit(s) of assessment: Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience; Social Work and Social Policy
Research theme: Health and Wellbeing
School: School of Social Sciences
Overview
We have an ongoing collaboration (led by Jens Binder) with HMPSS and the Ministry of Justice that uses closed-source offender data to investigate pathways into radicalisation, online and offline, for the full prison population of convicted extremists in England and Wales. Online behaviours and background variables are related to the formal risk assessments for convicted offenders, delivered with the Extremism Risk Guidance ERG22+ in use within HMPPS.
The work has to date led to ministerial reports available on gov.uk, three peer-reviewed academic papers, and a series of briefings, including CT Police and the Home Office. The work is further utilised by the Independent Reviewer of UK TACT legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, for framing recommendations regarding those found to engage with radicalising content online. Findings are currently informing the redesign of the ERG framework within HMPSS as part of the activities of the National Counter-Terrorism, Assessment and Rehabilitation Centre (CT-ARC).