The rapid growth in research directed toward preventing violent extremism has resulted in a rich but fragmented body of literature spanning multiple disciplines. This review finds a number of themes that cut across a range of disciplinary approaches and suggests that the concept of resilience could provide the basis for a common framework for prevention. However, thus far the notion of resilience to extremism has often focused on the individual, and insufficient attention has been given to the role of contextual structures and institutions. We suggest that a social-ecological perspective on resilience could re-orientate the discourse on resilience to extremism.

An end to undermining – On the rise and effect of a new security strategy Undermining has become a buzz-word in Dutch politics and security governance. On national and local level there is great concern about the disappearing lines between the legal and illegal world, which affects the democratic order and rule of law in the Netherlands. Hence, everything possible should be done in order to combat the creeping threat of undermining. However, what is undermining actually? And why has the concept become so popular now? In this contribution, the authors will consider those and other relevant key questions about the rise and effect of the undermining concept to provide more conceptual clarity. By critically reflecting on undermining as a speech act, that is ‘underminization’ (cf. securitization), and based on empirical research, the authors suggest that there are two discourses at work that hinder the effectivity of the concept: one is specifically focused on the drugs industry with its illegal activities and one broadens the concept into unlawful and undesired developments that interfere with societal stability. The authors conclude that the concept of undermining may mobilize at policy level, yet seems to paralyze at operational level.

The criminology of moral order refers to the moral causes of crime and disorder, but also investigates the mechanisms of societal stability and resilience. A vital social balance seems under pressure in super-diverse network societies that have to function without any explicit uniting philosophy of life. The concept of ‘complexity without direction’ has been used to describe the background of the challenges of our times. Many people experience the contemporary world as insecure, but do not have much trust in each other, in the institutions, or in the future. This explains the dominance of the safety and security discourse in politics and among citizens. This chapter argues for a dialogue, in which mutual claims to existence are respected and directed to the actual will of people to live together in one society.

The rise of populism is the result of a combination of two worries of people and their accompanying discourses: crime and security; and immigration and nationality. The growing tension between communities is fuelled by Islamist terrorism with a geopolitical background. This chapter deals with the issue of migration and integration of minorities, because it is directly related to the issue of moral order. It sketches the Dutch situation on this issue, including some facts and the public debate. It uses this case study to discuss the governance of a super-diverse society. The chapter then goes into detail on violent radicalization of Islamic youngsters and of nationalist groups.

This chapter discusses how security has taken conceptual control of the moral space and has thus taken on an ordering quality. Recent decades have seen a gradual securitization that has merged into a greater technological development of digitalization and data analysis. The secularization process initially contributed to the increase in crimes in the 1970s, but this was stopped in the 1990s because of all kinds of preventative security arrangements. But it also contributed to the fear of crime, through the loss of certainty which coherent philosophies of life can offer. The experience of feeling unsafe was a crucial factor in security politics. More and more pragmatic instruments were deployed to prevent crime and to counter the fear of crime. Security became a societal project, in which everyone got involved. However, security is a concept without a final stage — it is difficult to define in a positive way: what is really safe? For that reason, it even gets metaphysical connotations: an infinite desire for safety and certainty.

This chapter attempts to develop an understanding of the moral conditions of secular society by tracing its history. The social impact of the secularization process only really became visible in the 1960s. After the earlier separation of church and state, religion in the West also pulled back on a societal level. Historically and culturally that is quite a unique situation, about which the last word has not yet been said. Many churches emptied, but attention to religion is everywhere. Is this because of Islam? How should we relate to religion and its new visibility? The chapter considers secularization since the 1960s as a large-scale field experiment with morality.

This chapter first looks at the information age and its networking mindset. It then examines three tenets from the study of complex systems: structure, synchrony, and stability. It describes the concept of ‘improvising society’, which refers to new social forms of processing alignment and fine-tuning. In both tightly structured and more fluid compositions, arrangements and spontaneous play produce a kaleidoscopic image of networks, clusters and subcultures. The improvising society reflects the new institutional relations. Institutions develop on the basis of tradition and renewal, and give society stability. The alignment of one actor (person, organization) with another actor, and vice versa, ad infinitum, is the ordering process of the current network society.

Central to the morality of any culture are its norms and values on gender, especially on sexual affairs and personal relations. In most Western societies over the last half-century, there has emerged, for example, a wide acceptance of homosexual relations. There is also agreement on the absolute right of self-determination for women. Although there might be a discrepancy between values and reality, this constitutional equality is absent in other parts of the world. Nor has it always been the case in the West. This chapter focuses on the changing views on sexual violence and harassment and the consequences for sexual violence. Studying historical development in sexuality reveals a lot about the morality of a culture. Central to these analyses is the shift from external norms to the idea of mutual consent. It is the only criterion that fits in a secular and liberal context, in which people are autonomous and self-determining.

This chapter analyses the position of criminal law in order to understand the dominance of the security discourse. In a morally coherent community, criminal law functions as a last resort — an ultimum remedium. This was the case until the 1970s. Due to rising crime figures and societal unease, the position of criminal law shifted from a legal practice on the periphery to a central institution of moral order. The chapter discusses a switch in the relationship between morality and criminal law. After the 1970s, criminal law was no longer the result of consensus on moral issues, but it was the other way round: criminal law became the defining authority in the design of moral space. It is the moral stronghold in a liquid society, an anchor in a complex world without direction. The chapter shows how ‘the victim’ was the key in this ‘inversion’ of morality and criminal law.

This introductory chapter elaborates on the relation between social organization and morality. It discusses the emergence of a network society, the secular condition, superdiversity, individualized morality and the dominance of the security issue. It argues that Western societies can be characterized with three words: complexity without direction. With digitalization as a driving force, the social order of our times has completely changed compared to the ideologically organized world of some decades ago. Morality is no longer a ‘natural’, but must be understood as emerging from the ethical and normative buzz that arises from an improvising society. This emerging morality is fuelled by inspiring stories, moments of ‘fullness’ (i.e., moral or spiritual feelings), and practices under the condition of the rule of law that respect human diversity and put clear boundaries on subversive actions.

Moral order is disturbed by criminal events. However, in a secularized and networked society a common moral ground is increasingly hard to find. People feel confused about the bigger issues of our time such as crime, anti-social behaviour, Islamist radicalism, sexual harassment and populism. Traditionally, issues around morality have been neglected by criminologists. Through theory, case studies and discussion, this book sheds a new and topical light on these concerns. Using the moral perspective, the book bridges the gap between people's emotional opinions on crime, and criminologists' rationalized answers to questions of crime and security.

Samenleven in het ‘superdiverse’ Nederland is verre van vanzelfsprekend. Hans Boutellier: ‘Opbouwwerk is zowel uitdagender als meer noodzakelijk geworden.’

This study examines whether the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system influences targeted risk and protective factors and the subsequent development of problem behaviour among adolescents (12–18 years) in the Netherlands. In this quasi-experimental study of ten communities (five experimenta l, five control), adolescent outcomes were examined using a longitudinal design. Propensity score methodology and multilevel modelling were used to test the effects. No impact of CTC could be detected on the development of a broader range of behaviours, or on the initiation of drinking and smoking. These results differ from earlier experimental studies and could be attributed to the threats to internal validity and design limitations of this community study. It is important to identify, monitor, address and report threats to internal validity when conducting effectiveness trials.

From secularization to securitization: considering the relation between religion, crime and security The Western world seems to be a secular one. Although secularization has long roots, from the sixties onwards the role of religion in public life has diminished. How did that affect the crime and security issue? Criminological literature learns that there is a two-sided relationship: (1) in a religious context there is an inhibiting effect of being religious; and (2) religion can also legitimize or neutralize criminal or violent behavior – for example in the case of Islam-related terrorist acts. Secularization did indeed contribute to the rise of crime; in nowadays secular context religion can – the other way around – legitimize criminal behavior. The author argues that secularization also has facilitated the growth of the security issue as such. Fear of crime was the driving force behind a process in which secularization resulted in securitization of Western society.

Knowing how to use Twitter. How Twitter can contribute to confidence in the police Community policing is a common strategy in the Dutch police organization: working in a geographically bounded area, in close proximity and engagement with the local population. The use of Twitter by local police-officers is an increasingly popular way of communicating in this context. Prior research has indicated that there is a positive relation between the use of Twitter by the local police officer and citizens’ confidence in the police. But what factors determine this confidence and how can it be strengthened by using Twitter? This article examines the nature of police tweets and shows how tweets can contribute to improving the degree of confidence between citizens and the police. To determine what factors influence confidence we made use of the model of trust and confidence by Jackson and Bradford. This model differentiates between ‘effectiveness’, ‘fairness’, and ‘engagement’. These three factors are used to explore the way tweets might influence confidence in policing. The empirical research included interviews with three police officers who twitter actively, as well as interviews with 30 ‘followers’ living in the neighbourhood where the police officer works. Also an analyses has been carried out of the tweets made by the police officers in one year, 3.506 tweets in total, by categorizing the tweets according to the model of Jackson and Bradford. We conclude that the model of Jackson and Bradford is useful to explore the possible relationship between the use of Twitter and citizens confidence in the police. Using Twitter by the local police officers seems to make a possible contribution to the degree of confidence in the police. Our categorization of Twittermessages allowed us to give practical recommendations to local police officers how to use Twitter in order to improve confidence among citizens. The data also suggest that followers appreciate the fact that local police officers show their knowledge of current affairs in the neighbourhood.

There is a lively and long-running debate in the literature about what community policing is and how it works in everyday practice. We contribute to this expanding body of knowledge by minutely sifting and classifying the things neighbourhood coordinators (a kind of community officers) do in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Our endeavours have resulted in a list of 101 tasks they perform. A ranking of tasks was printed on small plasticized cards, enabling neighbourhood coordinators and their managers to identify core and peripheral tasks. Core tasks include keeping contact with citizens, local safety issues (supervising the neighbourhood, signalling small problems, handling accidents and incidents, and conflict mediation), administrative duties and providing the police team with information. Peripheral tasks mostly take the shape of supportive (managerial) work. In addition, we interviewed neighbourhood coordinators and police ward managers to gain their views on community policing.