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

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Policing
• radicalization
• extremism
• prevention
• mental health
• multi-agency

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In this paper, we understand mental health as ‘the state of balance that individuals establish within themselves and between themselves and their social and physical environment’ (Sartorius, 2002). Thus, mental health-related issues are not restricted to psychological/psychiatric diagnoses but can also include cases where a person can be regarded as ‘out of balance’.

2 Terms commonly used when referring to such prevention work include ‘countering violent extremism’ (CVE) and ‘preventing violent extremism’ (PVE) (Sivenbring & Malmros, 2019). In this paper, the acronym PVE will be used when referring to such work.

3 Note that the author uses the more overarching term ‘counter-terrorism’ which includes both preventive and interventive measures and – arguably – focuses on efforts aimed more specifically at individuals rather than more general preventative efforts aimed at the broader population.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Per Moum Hellevik

Per Moum Hellevik holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS). His research focuses on interpersonal violence and radicalization into violent extremism. Hellevik is currently overseeing all research related to radicalization into violent extremism at NKVTS.

Arnfinn J. Andersen

Arnfinn J. Andersen holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and is a Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS). His research interests are radicalisation, refugees, mental health, social integration and welfare. He is co-editor of the book Violent Extremism in the 21st Century. International Perspectives, Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2018). He served as Research Director at NKVTS from 2010 to 2018.

Kristin Engh Førde

Kristin Engh Førde is a Ph.D. in medical anthropology and postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Gender Research at the University of Oslo. She was previously a Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS), where she conducted research on the prevention of radicalisation and violent extremism. Førde co-edited the anthology Violent Extremism in the 21st Century. International Perspectives (2018) published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.