Policing mental health? Norwegian police’s work with preventing radicalization into violent extremism

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper, we investigate how mental health-related issues have become part of the Norwegian police’s practical work in the prevention of violent extremism (PVE). Through interviews with Norwegian police, we show that mental health issues are a recurring part of their PVE work and that operating in the grey area between policing and health care is challenging. We show that for police, assessing whether extreme views and attitudes are just that – extreme – or indications of mental health issues can be difficult. We also show that the police tend to view mental health issues as one of many factors contributing to violent extremism rather than as a singular, causal factor. We argue for the importance of improving the police’s approach to mental health-related issues, both by increasing knowledge about mental health issues as basis for initial mental health assessments and by establishing access to competent professional health personnel. A better understanding of how mental health issues interact with other challenges in a person’s life, including aspects relevant to the criminal justice system – notably radicalization into violent extremism – and how multi-agency approaches can be best utilized in such circumstances, is needed in order to provide better PVE measures.