Evidence-Based Policing of U.K. Muslim Communities: Linking Confidence in the Police With Area Vulnerability to Violent Extremism

Violent Extremism terrorism police legitimacy human intelligence

Preventing the growth of political views justifying violence is central to global strategies for countering terrorism. In Western democracies, targeting resources on local ‘‘hot spots’’ of low confidence in the police is essential for making these strategies evidence based. This research explores the relationship between two kinds of evidence for targeting resources across 335 neighborhoods in a large metropolitan area: police scoring of human intelligence data and public opinion surveys (N 1⁄430,412). We map the intelligence data by classifying each Census Output Area (COA) as high, medium, or low risk of vulnerability to violent extremism. Independent survey data for each neighborhood that measures confidence in the police is then compared to categorizations of vulnerability from intelligence sources.