Radicalisation theories, policing practices, and “the future of terrorism?”

ABSTRACT

This article explores how theories of radicalisation have placed an emphasis on the development of an indicators-based approach to identify individuals who might engage in politically motivated violence. We trace how policing agencies have juxtaposed the search for indicators as a defence against criticisms of racial profiling. However, through an analysis of Canadian counter-terrorism training programmes, we demonstrate that the search for radicalisation indicators reaffirms pre-emptive and discriminatory security practices. We insist that despite efforts to theorise radicalisation outside of the practices of the “war on terror”, current trends risk rationalising prejudicial policing that affirms social exclusion and injustice.

KEYWORDS:

• Security
• profiling
• risk
• surveillance
• discrimination
• race

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. At the time of revisions to this article (March 2016), the newly elected federal government has made a pledge of creating a cohesive counter-radicalisation strategy.

2. There are no explanatory records accompanying the statement “Gangs are for kids. Jihad is for men.” The statement is not in quotation marks, so it is unclear if it is a quotation or a statement constructed by the RCMP. To our knowledge, the statement has not appeared in any other RCMP documentary records.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeffrey Monaghan

Jeffrey Monaghan is an assistant professor at the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. He has a PhD in Sociology from Queen’s University, Canada. His research examines the policing of social movements, surveillance in the context of the “war on terror” as well the globalisation of security governance practices.

Adam Molnar

Adam Molnar is a lecturer in the Department of Criminology at Deakin University, where he is a member of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation (Australia). He has a PhD from the University of Victoria (Canada) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Surveillance Studies Centre at Queen’s University. His research focuses on surveillance and technology in practices of policing and national security, and considers the impacts for social justice, rule of law and privacy.