TAKEDOWN - SYNYO GmbH

TAKEDOWN & the Restorative Justice Approach

SYNYO — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 08:59:39 +0000

TAKEDOWN

THIS ARTICLE IS PROVIDED BY TAKEDOWN PROJECT

During the late 1990s victim-offender mediation projects were growing steadily within Europe. However, there was little cross-border communication, and informal enquiries revealed that practitioners, academics and policy makers would benefit from increased mutual support and more regular exchanges.

A small group of people with a strong commitment to restorative justice wanted to build on this interest and in 1998 they obtained non-recurrent funding from the European Commission’s Grotius programme, which stimulated co-operation between European countries in the field of justice and home affairs. A co-ordinating group was formed, consisting of mediation experts from eight European countries: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom.

Together with a secretariat based in the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology at the Catholic University of Leuven, this co-ordinating group prepared the creation of the European Forum. A European conference ‘Victim-offender mediation in Europe: Making restorative justice work‘ was held in October 1999 in Leuven, Belgium. 1999 also saw discussions about the creation of a formal organisation.

Broad consultations were held to make sure that it would reflect the views of the people working in the European restorative justice field. In June 2000, a draft constitution for the European Forum was discussed in a technical seminar. Finally, on 8 December 2000, the European Forum for Victim-Offender Mediation and Restorative Justice (now: European Forum for Restorative Justice) was formed.

Restorative justice approach is also seen as a fruitful concept for the TAKEDOWN project. Hence, the consortium launched two activities in oder to create links between the project and the approach.

Creating the links between TAKEDOWN and the restorative justice approach

The project partner Middlesex University is organizing a project-based seminar with guest speaker Brunilda Pali, who will give a talk on “Terrorism, Restorative Justice and Reconciliation”. Professor Pali, is researcher at the Restorative Justice and Victimology research team in the Leuven Institute of Criminology. She was also lead researcher in the FP7 project ALTERNATIVE and is co-editor of the book “Restoring Justice and Security in Intercultural Europe” (published by Routledge 2017), and “Critical Restorative Justice” (published by Hart 2017). Additionally, she is also Secretary of the Board of European Forum for Restorative Justice. The seminar takes place on Thursday, 22 February from 09:00am-11:00am in London at the Middlesex University (Room CG09, College Building, Ground Floor).

Additionally, as part of the Conference on “Security, Terrorism and Radicalization” that took place at the Euro-Arab Foundation (Granada, Spain) on the 23rd and 24th of October 2017, Florentino Ruiz Yamuza talks about restorative justice in the interview:

TAKEDOWN YouTube Channel

Project Website

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TAKEDOWN Empirical Research Report Published

SYNYO — Fri, 22 Dec 2017 14:16:03 +0000

TAKEDOWN

THIS ARTICLE IS PROVIDED BY TAKEDOWN PROJECT

TAKEDOWN Empirical Research Report Published

As the body of literature and several research studies indicate, there is a knowledge-gap between the scientific community and first-line-practitioners, law enforcement agencies or security solution developers. In order to be able to develop new tools and solutions for supporting the target-groups in their daily work, a major objective of TAKEDOWN is to examine the needs, requirements and perspectives of these stakeholders in a comprehensive empirical research applying both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Summing up the Empirical Research

Based on the outcomes of the empirical research that lasted for about one year in total and actually involved all TAKEDOWN-partners, the empirical research report explores the views and experiences of key stakeholders on the issue of organised crime and terrorist networks. The report seeks views on their experience of organised crime counter-terrorism policy and the drivers of both phenomena. It then draws upon the same methods to explore the various pathways of offenders into organised criminality and terror activities before assessing the influence of governments, law enforcement and the military on organised crime and terror networks. Finally, it looks at views on the various measures against organised crime and terror networks and at what challenges they may pose, before outlining solution approached.

Major Findings

The activities of organized crime raising particular concern among our informants were associated with the illegal drug business and with cybercrime. On both, however, there was a sense that information and knowledge remain incomplete. More collaboration between researchers, practitioners, experts and the civil society was advocated as a way forward to remedy this situation. Only in some national contexts was concern also addressed towards the complicities and partnerships between organized crime and the official world.

Opinions about the causes leading people to join organized crime networks converged on prevailing etiologies based around learning processes and environmental circumstances. In brief, cultural background and social context were the core explanatory variables. The responses to organized crime favored by our informants emphasized technical and professional, rather than social, measures. This may reflect the composition of informants, who were preponderantly operating in law enforcement agencies.

The major areas of concern relating to terrorism were identified as propaganda and recruitment. Cultural heritage and social marginalization were seen as the major drivers leading to involvement in terrorist activities. Individual pathology was discarded, while the role of religious leaders was also deemed essential. Strengthening international cooperation was regarded as crucial in the fight against terrorism, as was the involvement of Muslim communities in preventative projects. Educational programs were also advocated, while invasions of countries were seen as being detrimental.

Only a section of our informants believed in the prevalence of hybrids, namely criminal groups combining elements of organized crime and terrorist networks. Skepticism characterized the views of many others, who underlined the difference between the two types of organization and found the very crime-terror nexus ambiguous.

Click here to download the full report

Area and crime profiles

April 9, 2016

The Citizens Survey

January 11, 2016

The post TAKEDOWN Empirical Research Report Published first appeared on SYNYO GmbH.

The post TAKEDOWN Empirical Research Report Published appeared first on SYNYO GmbH.

Interview with Professor Vincenzo Ruggiero (Middlesex University, London)

SYNYO — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 09:10:24 +0000

TAKEDOWN

INTERVIEW WITH Professor Vincenzo Ruggiero (Middlesex University, London)

THIS ARTICLE IS PROVIDED BY TAKEDOWN PROJECT

Vincenzo Ruggiero is Professor of Sociology at Middlesex University, London. He is also director of the Centre for Social and criminological Research at Middlesex University. He has conducted research on behalf of the ESRC (the Economic and Social Research Council), the British Home Office, the European Commission and the United Nations. He has worked on penal systems, organised and corporate crime, state crimes and the crimes of the powerful, and also on sociological and urban issues, social movements, political violence and war. As part of TAKEDOWN team, he is working on the quantitative empirical research and responsible for scientific dissemination.

For frequent updates on the TAKEDOWN project, subscribe to our newsletter.

See the interview here

Interview with Matteo Pugliese (OSCE Youth & Security Representative)

April 22, 2017

Area and crime profiles

April 9, 2016

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Interview with Matteo Pugliese (OSCE Youth & Security Representative)

SYNYO — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 13:39:32 +0000

TAKEDOWN

INTERVIEW WITH MATTEO PUGLIESE (OSCE YOUTH & SECURITY REPRESENTATIVE) FOR THE TAKEDOWN PROJECT

THIS ARTICLE IS PROVIDED BY TAKEDOWN PROJECT

In January 2017, Matteo Pugliese was appointed as Special Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office on Youth and Security for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. OSCE is the world’s largest regional security organization, with 57 participating states in North America, Europe and Asia. Mr. Pugliese holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law and a Master’s degree in Strategic Studies and International Security. He is also a regular contributor to journals and geopolitical think tanks; focusing on terrorism, the Balkans and NATO-related issues.

In this interview for the TAKEDOWN project, he highlights the importance of having a good theoretical understanding of the phenomenon and its roots to be able to improve national policies on countering terrorism. He also explains how the non-profit and the private sector might play a crucial role in the fight against radicalization.

“Terrorism is a very complicated issue… Younger generations are required a deeper knowledge, a deeper understanding of the phenomenon”.

See the interview here

Area and crime profiles

April 9, 2016

The Citizens Survey

January 11, 2016

The post Interview with Matteo Pugliese (OSCE Youth & Security Representative) first appeared on SYNYO GmbH.

The post Interview with Matteo Pugliese (OSCE Youth & Security Representative) appeared first on SYNYO GmbH.

TAKEDOWN Kick off Meeting

SYNYO — Thu, 10 Nov 2016 15:54:20 +0000

TAKEDOWN

THIS ARTICLE IS PROVIDED BY TAKEDOWN PROJECT

TAKEDOWN Kick off Meeting

The project was kicked off by the consortium in September 2016 in Vienna. On the first day, the consortium partners introduced their organisation. The coordinator highlighted the structure and the schedule of the project. As another major point on the first day, the workpackage leads presented their particular workpackage (WP) and the main aims of the work.

On the second day, joint sessions on WP2 and WP3 as well as parallel sessions on WP4 and WP5, WP6 and WP7 were held. All consortium partners discussed the content, the ways to address the tasks of these WPs and an initial planning involving the relevant partners was developed in order to get the work started as soon as possible.

On the third day, WP8 was presented and project management tools, administration issues such as reporting and quality assurance procedures were highlighted by the coordinator, before the kick-off meeting was closed in the late afternoon.

Project Website and Social Media

One major tool for making TAKEDOWN visible and for providing essential information on the project is the project website. The website provides an overview on the background, the objectives and the structure of the project. It also highlights the expertise and the roles of all 18 consortium partners. Furthermore, it provides interested persons with public deliverables, the project logo and – as a continuous action – with factsheets, folders and other dissemination material.

A second major tool for promoting TAKEDOWN and for creating a strong network of scholars, practitioners and other key players in this field are social media channels. As a first step, the TAKEDOWN Twitter channel was installed to get connected with the scientific and practitioner key players in the field of organized crime and terrorist networks.

The consortium has decided to install a Facebook channel in the second year of the project in order to distribute and promote the project outcomes. The Facebook channel will also be used to connect with further stakeholders and to distribute the TAKEDOWN newsletters. Furthermore, the consortium will constantly evaluate the installation of further social media channels.

Review of the Scientific Literature

As a foundation for the TAKEDOWN project, the scientific literature on OC and TN is currently reviewed as part of WP2. The works discussed are selected on the basis of the following delimiting criteria: analyses of the causes, structures and activities of organized crime and terrorist networks are examined if they are relevant to, and linked with, the identification of tools to prevent and tackle both forms of crime. This will be of paramount importance when, in WP3, the empirical part of the research will be carried out.

The literature review is divided into three main sections, respectively pertaining to organized crime, terrorism, and hybrids forms combining elements of both. Within the first two sections, the literature review will focus on causes, structures, activities, and prevention-response measures related to OC and TN. The third and final section will examine the ‘hybrids’ (or the ‘nexus’), namely the organizations and actions which combine elements of organized crime and terrorism. It will review both the literature that examines these two phenomena jointly as well as the literature that is discarding the association of the two phenomena.

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TAKEDOWN: Long-term sustainability and impact through science insights and the online platforms

SYNYO — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 15:44:53 +0000

TAKEDOWN

TAKEDOWN: Long-term sustainability and impact through science insights and the online platforms

The project focussed on creating new insights on radicalisation, extremism and terrorism. The partners conducted empirical research and developed a multidimensional model for analysing and assessing the risk of individual cases. Furthermore, the research insights as well as the requirements were also taken into account for the development of two online platforms, which are addressing the needs of first-line-practitioners and law enforcement agencies.

Against the background of the analysis of the existing body of knowledge and relevant European as well as national policies in this field, the partners conducted both quantitative and qualitative research in different countries and with a variety of stakeholder groups. The main aim was to get insights on the actual challenges, the phenomenon of the “nexus” of organized crime and terrorism as well as on the user requirements for the platform development.

Coordinated by SYNYO GmbH (AT), a total of 18 partners including the Euro-Arab Foundation (Spain), Autonomous University of Barcelona (ES), Middlesex University (UK), University of Leeds (UK), ETH Zurich – Center for Security Studies (CH), Technion Israel Institute of Technology (Israel), Czech Technical University (CZ), Technische Universität Darmstadt (DE), Agenfor Italia (IT), Center for the Study of Democracy (BG), Peace Action Training and Research Institute of Romania (RO), University of Security Management in Kosice (SK), Leuven Security Excellence Consortium vzw (BE), Agency for European Integration & Economic Development (AT), Valencia City Council – Local Police (ES), Police Academy in Szczytno (PL) and Cloud security Alliance (UK) conducted in-depth research.

In the following sections, the core outputs that have been developed during the project and that include and combine the results of the work are highlighted.

Edited volume

Publications are part of the common dissemination and communication strategies of EU-projects. While the partners published several journal articles and papers in conference proceedings, a major achievement of the TAKEDOWN project was the actual physical publication of an edited volume. In this book, the main outcomes of the H2020-project “TAKEDOWN: Understand the Dimensions of Organised Crime and Terrorist Networks for Developing Effective and Efficient Security Solutions for First-line-practitioners and Professionals”, which has been funded by the European Commission through the framework program Horizon 2020 (H2020) in the course of the call “Fight against crime and Terrorism” (FCT-16-2015) are provided. The edited volume “Organized Crime and Terrorist Networks” has been published by Routledge in August 2019.

Online platforms

In addition to the research outputs, main outputs are the two online platforms, which have been developed in the TAKEDOWN project.

The www.firstlinepractitioners.com platform aims at providing information, services and tools for supporting first-line-practitioners as well as researchers and the public. The following figure provides an overview of the core functionalities of this open service and information platform.

The second platform www.fightcrimeterrorism.com has a different focus and is therefore conceptualized as a closed platform for registered and authorized users. It provides services as well as a market place, where law enforcement agencies can find the latest solutions. Especially SMEs are invited to present their products and solutions on this market place and get access to LEAs all over Europe. This particular platform therefore also intends to support the European security industry. The following figure provides an overview of the core functionalities of this closed platform.

Sustainability

Many European projects are facing the challenge that while research results remain available through online repositories of journals or in libraries, online platforms that are developed and used during projects are facing severe problems when it comes to the long-term sustainability. As it becomes apparent when browsing through H2020 projects in the field of security, a vast number of online platforms have been developed in the past years as part of European projects. Depending on the target group and the purpose of the platforms, we consider at least three major challenges of having several online instances addressing similar target groups:

First, many platforms provide similar content or resources. Although they might have a slightly different focus or are presented (structured) in a different way, there are often overlaps and duplications.
Second, the more platforms are released, the less traffic and visibility each of them will have – especially if they are targeting the same or similar user groups. Hence, it also becomes more difficult to establish a system of maintenance, which can only be ensured, if a platform is actually relevant and “worth” to maintain.
Third, even if an exploitation strategy is provided and attempts for making use of the platforms are made, platforms are often branded by a project and usually they aren’t maintained anymore. Hence, the platforms get outdated after a while.

Therefore, the TAKEDOWN project decided for non-project but target group branded platforms and to therefore establish dedicated brands for the platforms. For ensuring the long-term sustainability, SYNYO furthermore decided to also present the option to join forces on the FirstLinePractitioners platform to the consortia of the H2020-project MINDb4ACT as well as to the ISFP-projects CHAMPIONs and ARMOUR, where SYNYO is involved as a partner. All projects agreed to follow this joint approach and to make the outcomes available through FirstLinePractitioners by developing dedicated information and services modules and by providing information and new tools. The projects do, however, not only benefit by making use of a well-established instance and (yet agile) development approach, but also through the dedicated platform First-Line-Practitioners Twitter account, where project outputs and new platform content can be promoted.

Keywords

Terrorism, organized crime, extremism, online platform, edited volume, Routledge, sustainability, nexus

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TAKEDOWN: Developing new approaches for countering violent extremism and organized crime

SYNYO — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 08:30:42 +0000

TAKEDOWN

TAKEDOWN: Developing new approaches for countering violent extremism and organized crime

Both organized crime and terrorist networks are major threats for the European Union and its population. On the one hand, we are facing an increasing infiltration of organized crime into the legal economy. On the other hand, Europe is being challenged by returning foreign fighters as well as terrorist attacks by individuals that have been radicalised in Europe. Additionally, in this regard, it is crucial to understand the interdependencies as defined in the crime-terror-nexus.

The objective of TAKEDOWN is to understand the social, psychological and economic aspects of processes that lead to organized crime and violent extremism. The H2020-project “TAKEDOWN: Understand the Dimensions of Organised Crime and Terrorist Networks for Developing Effective and Efficient Security Solutions for First-line-practitioners and Professionals” has been funded by the European Commission through the framework program Horizon 2020 (H2020) in the course of the call “Fight against crime and Terrorism” (FCT-16-2015) “Investigating the role of social, psychological and economic aspects of the processes that lead to organized crime (including cyber related offenses), and terrorist networks and their impact on social cohesion”.

Coordinated by SYNYO GmbH (AT) and throughout a duration of 36 months with a total number of 419 person months, 18 partners will be working on analysing the body of knowledge as well as conducting empirical research on the challenges and needs of first-line practitioners, policy makers and researchers as well as law enforcement agencies. Among these partners are the Euro-Arab Foundation (Spain), Autonomous University of Barcelona (ES), Middlesex University (UK), University of Leeds (UK), ETH Zurich – Center for Security Studies (CH), Technion Israel Institute of Technology (Israel), Czech Technical University (CZ), Technische Universität Darmstadt (DE), Agenfor Italia (IT), Center for the Study of Democracy (BG), Peace Action Training and Research Institute of Romania (RO), University of Security Management in Kosice (SK), Leuven Security Excellence Consortium vzw (BE), Agency for European Integration & Economic Development (AT), Valencia City Council – Local Police (ES), Police Academy in Szczytno (PL) and Cloud security Alliance (UK). Based on the knowledge aggregation, dynamic, multi-dimensional models for both organized crime and violent extremism including a particular focus on the crime-terror-nexus will be developed. They will reflect the complexity of individual and structural dimensions, geographical scale as well as the forms and levels of responses related to different stakeholder groups and practitioners.

Developing new online platforms

As a non-digital solution, a set of validated, research-based and multilingual TAKEDOWN Toolkits including action plans, response strategies, technological concepts, and best practices will be developed. The focus will be put on the specific needs of first-line-practitioners as well as professionals in law enforcement. Recommendations and policy briefs for policy makers will be created as well.

As one pillar of the digital solutions, the TAKEDOWN Open Information Hub will target first-line-practitioners by providing inductive materials such as experts and training finders, tools advisors, good practices evaluations, information and knowledge articles.

The second pillar of the digital solutions, the TAKEDOWN Professional Solution Platform, will consist of various modules for law enforcement and security solution developers. It will combine knowledge materials and digital security solutions as well as scenarios, product advisors and a digital toolkit.

With this multi-level approach, TAKEDOWN will support a better understanding of the extremism and organized crime nexus while developing modern approaches and solutions. It will finally lead to a more efficient and effective response on organized crime and terrorism and strengthen social cohesion at pan-European level.

Links

Link to FIRST-LINE PRACTIONERS Platform: www.firstlinepractitioners.com

Link to FIGHT CRIME TERRORISM Platform: www.fightcrimeterrorism.com

Keywords

Organized crime, violent extremism, terrorism, radicalisation, first-line-practitioners, toolkit, law enforcement

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