In 2016, the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC) conducted a study on frontline practitioners involved in radicalization prevention initiatives. The objective of this study was to identify the main challenges faced by frontline practitioners in their daily work in order to gather specific and practical information regarding the implementation of programmes and initiatives, especially in terms of challenges encountered as well as intervention management approaches. A total of 90 experts and frontline workers from 27 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania were interviewed.
This written speech will present the main findings from our study. We will present how practitioners address specific intervention dimensions and the challenges they face in relation to these different dimensions. More specifically, challenges such as the lack of a common definition surrounding the prevention of violent radicalization, as well as training-related issues and problems arising from the implementation of the interventions will be discussed. The content and specific themes addressed during the interventions as well as vertical, horizontal and international coordination and the lack of evaluation were also issues mentioned during the interviews. We will conclude our article with recommendations for prevention of radicalization interventions.