Abstract
Radicalization of youth leading to violent extremism in the form of terrorism is an urgent problem considering the rise of young people joining extremist groups of different ideologies. Previous research on the impact of counter-terrorism polices has highlighted negative outcomes such as stigmatizing minority groups. Drawing on qualitative research conducted under the PROTON project (2016–2019) by CREA-UB on the social and ethical impact of counter-terrorism policies in six EU countries, the present article presents and discusses the ways in which actions characterized by creating spaces for dialogue at the grassroots level are contributing to prevent youth violent radicalization. The results highlight four core elements underlying these spaces for dialogue: providing guidance to be safe in the exploration of extremist messages and violent radicalization; the rejection of violence; that dialogue is egalitarian; and that relationships are built on trust so that adolescents and young adults feel confident to raise their doubts. If taken into account, these elements can serve to elaborate dialogic evidence-based policies. The policies which include a dialogue between the scientific evidence and the people affected by them once implemented, achieve positive social impact.
Highlights
Over the last decades, Europe has experienced a variety of attacks against civil society emerging from the violent radicalization of specific extremist groups (EC, 2016; Horgan, 2009)
Most six countries analysed are following the recommendations of the EU provided in the EU-Counter Terrorism Strategy (2005) and its revisions as well as the European Union’s Global Strategy (2016), with some exceptions; for example, Italy is in the process of developing a complete package of prevention measures
The qualitative analysis provides insight into common elements across the different projects that appear to be crucial in preventing violent extremism among youth and young adults
Summary
Europe has experienced a variety of attacks against civil society emerging from the violent radicalization of specific extremist groups (EC, 2016; Horgan, 2009). There are several examples of religious inspired terrorist attacks, such as the London underground bombings in 2005, or more recently, the attacks carried out in Barcelona and the nearby town of Cambrils in summer 2017. In both cases, the offenders were young men, aged 18, 19, 22 and 30 in the London attacks and between 17 and 25 years old in Spain. The far right has been responsible for violent incidents, such as the terrorist attack by Breivik in Norway 2011, or attacks targeted at Muslims, migrants and refugees, such as setting refugee camps on fire (Höffler and Sommerer, 2017). Leftwing and anarchist extremism as well as nationalist and separatist extremism is on the rise, though to less of an extent; so too are young people being increasingly recruited into violent radicalization (RAN, 2017)
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