The field of social diagnostics offers valuable tools and instruments that to date have been largely overlooked in the context of practical prevention and countering of violent extremism (P/CVE). Nonetheless, these instruments can complement security-focused risk assessments with a much-needed social perspective on the individual needs and resources of a person by:

• providing concrete support for intervention planning;
• providing guidance on a person’s progress;
• ensuring transparency of decision-making, supplementing processes of risk assessment, and assisting in multi-agency communication;
• advancing a holistic understanding of a person’s needs, vulnerabilities, resources and risks – when carried out alongside psychodiagnostical risk assessment.

The following paper introduces the field of social diagnostics and three selected instruments and tools that offer potential benefits for P/CVE. The tools presented here are the Inclusion-Chart 4 (IC4), Network Mapping, and the Biographical Timeline.

Tools and approaches like these can form the basis for further development of P/CVE-specific social diagnostics in the future – and may act as a steppingstone to the often -discussed resilience assessment.