Conveners
Keynote 2: Developmental prevention of radicalisation: Concepts, state of research and current findings
- Andreas Beelmann (University of Jena)
Description
Chair: Samuel Tomczyk
Abstract: In view of rising prevalence of political crimes in many countries, there is a high necessity for scientific research in the field of radicalization prevention. This presentation introduces the concept of developmental prevention for protecting young people from radicalization and extremism. Based on a social-developmental model of radicalization, existing concepts of radicalization prevention such as social training programs, contact interventions, civic education, service learning, counter narratives or media training will be presented and discussed according to their outcomes and the state of their scientific foundation. Overall, a number of promising approaches exist with sound theoretical framework and at least some indication for evidence. In addition, the results of two evaluation studies will be presented, one dealing with the long-term effects of a prejudice prevention programme (PARTS) and the other with the effects of a more recent radicalization prevention programme for adolescents (“Bleib menschlich/Stay human”). These studies additionally showed that developmental prevention could be a promising route to strengthen young people´s resistance against radicalization and extremism. However, it is currently very difficult to assess the full potential for preventing radicalization trajectories because high-quality, long-term evaluations have been lacking. Thus, the presentation will be closed with the statement that there is an urgent need for further conceptual and evaluation research to address the challenges of radicalization and political crimes.
