The prevention of juvenile radicalisation: Promoting the use of alternatives to detention through judicial training

As the European agenda entails, the issue of radicalisation and countering violent extremism has increasingly become a priority for every European Union (EU) Member State. The radicalisation of EU citizens, which may go as far as their departure to fight for terrorist and extreme violent organisations such as IS, poses a genuine security threat to the European Union, its member states and neighbouring countries.

The quickening pace of this phenomenon means that repressive measures are no longer sufficient and that a new strategy based on prevention needs to be adopted.

The project “The prevention of juvenile radicalisation: Promoting the use of alternatives to detention through judicial training” will address the issue of juvenile radicalisation in detention, within and outside the prison system, through the sharing of knowledge and good practices between judicial professionals and actors of several EU Member States (EUMS), especially those drawing on cross-sector collaboration. It is based on the assumption that efforts to promote disengagement from violence and extremism will be more effective if they build on existing structures for crime prevention and rehabilitation.

The activities proposed in this project, and especially the training programme, will therefore target in priority the judiciary and judicial staff: judges, prosecutors and court officers, as well as other legal practitioners and actors involved in the justice system: lawyers, probation officers, educators, mediators and policymakers, as being the group most susceptible of benefiting of, and implementing, knowledge and good practices shared and learnt through the project.

The project will be focused on the three following themes:

The prevention of radicalisation in detention.

Tertiary prevention and reinsertion.

De-radicalisation processes through alternatives to detention, including community and family based approaches to de-radicalisation.

Main Activities

• Overview of the situation of radicalisation among youngsters in Europe and the use of alternatives to detention in EUMS: providing in-depth research on the situation of radicalisation among youngsters and the use of alternatives to detention in the 28 EUMS. This research is provided by two external consultants, specialists on radicalisation and judicial training issues, who are also in charge of the training package. A group of 4 experts also contributes to this diagnosis and analysis by sharing their knowledge and experience in order to improve the contents of the training package. Furthermore, each partner participates to the research by providing a national report on the situation of radicalisation and the use of alternatives to detention in their home country.
• National practice-oriented training and knowledge sharing: exchanging policies, learning from good practices and training of the trainers concerning the prevention of radicalisation and the use of alternatives to detention in partners' countries. This activity, in which all partners will participate, consists of 3 national meetings organised in Germany, Belgium and Spain, each one being focused on a specific theme and composed of a national workshop to exchange on good practices, a study visit and a training session led by the two external consultants -who produce the training package.
• Training manual: production, and subsequent translation into national languages, of a training package. The training manual is composed of 5 volumes: 1. European policy and theoretical framework; 2. Prevention of radicalisation in detention; 3. Community-based and family intervention; 4. Tertiary prevention experiences; 5. National reports and highlight of good practices. It is intended for the partners and national stakeholders in order to allow for its dissemination at a national level in the partner’s countries through national workshops.
• Online training course: production of a self-learning activity based on the training manual and hosted on the IJJO e-learning platform in each of the partners’ languages that will be open to stakeholders in each partner’s country.
• Knowledge diffusion and final conference: recommendations on the prevention of radicalisation and the use of alternatives to detention for youngsters will be embodied in a policy brief, while the results of the project will be presented during a final conference in Paris that will bring together all the partners of the project and European Council for Juvenile Justice’ members (especially from the Judiciary and the Public Administration sections).

Click here to go to the project's web section on the IJJO website.