Our Expert Views

Our Expert Views

Rich, readable blogs from our experts who work among the community, in academia and research on new developments in Prevent and their real impact on people.

People's Review of Prevent

The People's Review of Prevent

The People’s Review of Prevent is an alternative review to the Government Shawcross Review.

This review provides a voice to the people most impacted by the Prevent Duty.

Prevent is described as ‘safeguarding’ children from harms. However, under Prevent, safeguarding is focused on protecting the wider public from children believed to be ‘risky’, rather than protecting children from harms.

Throughout our report we present case studies that show how real these harms can be and the distress they cause to children and their families and carers.

Prevent in immigration will deepen state violence to migrant communities

Shawcross’s recommendation to apply to Prevent in immigration relies upon one flawed assumption among many that he makes in his review, and will further divide and destabilise UK society...

Why the Prevent duty threatens long-term public security

The foundations of the Prevent duty are pre-crime in nature; it rests on an assumption that it is possible to ‘predict’ an individual’s susceptibility to be violent, even when that individual is a child...

Latest Prevent statistics can direct us to the ‘alternative’

The latest Prevent statistics direct us to an answer that lies in following long-held practices that preserve trust and will allow better access to public services while restoring it to its rightful role...

Parliament: How the Prevent strategy violates civil and human rights

This blog is about three main concerns about the Prevent strategy that are linked to civil liberties and human rights. It forms a summary of Prevent Watch’s recent presentation at Portcullis House. ...

The refusal by Shawcross to acknowledge critique of Prevent is a wake-up call

This blog deals with the harmful aspects of Prevent to which Shawcross admits when he describes it as "a state-run scheme to counter specific ideas, attitudes, and non-criminal behaviours"...

The pressure-cooker effect: The harm of self-censorship on Palestine

From self-censorship to democratic disengagement, the real impact of Prevent on young people should be causing the government to reconsider Prevent – so, why are they only increasing the pressure?...

Pushing back against Prevent censorship in the context of Israel-Palestine

New Prevent guidelines for responsible authorities will be severely tested by the fallout from the military actions in Israel-Palestine...

Shared concerns: Community security in Muslim and Gypsy communities

Increasing assaults on community  security in the UK include the use of Prevent on Muslims, providing interesting common ground with the new Policing Act and its impact on Gypsy communities...

What we can expect from the Prevent strategy this academic year 

Here's what students, staff and parents can expect this 2023-4 academic year after the Home Office accepted all of Shawcross’s recommendations. ...

Like Prevent, pre-crime policies used in the past created the notion of ‘thought crime’

Pre-crime policies in Japan and Russia prior to World War 2 reveal uncanny similarities to the UK’s Prevent strategy and relied on the same social elements to be acceptable.  By Zara W. Tahir The Prevent strategy has often been...

Making autistic children an extremism ‘threat’ is the latest in the long list of harms of Prevent

The latest in the harms of Prevent training is that it links children with autism to extremism, using high numbers of referrals to ‘evidence’ this mistaken assumption. While many of these cases are not pursued further, the harms to...