ExtremismWhy criminalizing non-violent extremism won’t prevent terrorism
In the wake of the terrorist attack on London Bridge, there is a push for new legislation to target not the criminal behavior of violence, but the ideology behind it. This is based on the problematic assumption that criminalizing the motivations behind an action can prevent it from happening: but my research suggests that the opposite may well be the case. Providing legitimate and credible non-violent alternatives to terrorism may seem fanciful, but the motivations for some of these individuals often begins in their social exclusion and alienation. Addressing and engaging with these issues much earlier could help prevent violent motivations ever taking root. This means re-orientating criminal justice so that the focus is on the illegitimacy of political violence, not the identities and individuals themselves, could help prevent these attacks, particularly as they become more difficult to detect. Dialogue, not criminalizing non-violent forms of expression, will help prevent political violence.
In the wake of the terrorist attack on London Bridge, Theresa May said that recent attacks “are bound together by the single, evil ideology of Islamist extremism that preaches hatred, sows division, and promotes sectarianism.”
In 2015, the prime minister had written that where “non-violent extremism goes unchallenged, the values that bind our society together fragment”. Going one step further, in its 2017 manifesto, May’s Conservative party called for a new approach where: “We will consider what new criminal offences might need to be created … to defeat the extremists.”
What this push for new legislation targets is not the criminal behavior of violence, but the ideology behind it. This is based on the problematic assumption that criminalizing the motivations behind an action can prevent it from happening: but my research suggests that the opposite may well be the case.
Under U.K. legislation terrorism is defined as violent acts committed to advance a political, ideological, or religious cause. This means that individuals engaging in such attacks are doing so to communicate and bring about some form of political transformation. Violent attacks are done for a political cause, to advance an ideological goal.
The crucial question then is how can states and wider civil society create a context whereby non-violent forms of political expression are considered preferable to such violent alternatives. In other words, how can we make 21st century politics function in a way that draws people with these views in, rather than alienates and isolates them?
The rush to criminalize
In new research I’ve published on negotiations, I discuss how such issues are often due to the orientation of the criminal justice system. Instead of just criminalizing political violence, states frequently criminalize a much broader range of non-violent forms of political expression.
Because politicians like May link certain ideologies to acts of violence, these ideologies are regarded as being just as criminal. All corresponding non-violent expressions of these ideologies – such as certain extreme interpretations of Islam – are to be considered in like terms, as a “pernicious ideology”, as May’s predecessor David Cameron stated following the terror acts in Brussels in 2016.
