RAN small-scale expert meeting Lone Actors: Making use of needs and risk assessment tools in P/CVE, online meeting 10 December 2021

The RAN small-scale meeting on Lone Actors: Making use of needs and risk assessment tools in P/CVE took place on 10 December 2021. The meeting brought together civil society practitioners and rehabilitation caseworkers, such as youth and social workers, mental health professionals as well as practitioners working in exit, rehabilitation, prison and probation.

The goal was to identify challenges for first-line practitioners in making use of risk and needs assessment tools in (tertiary) prevention and intervention work related to so-called lone actors.

The meeting also provided practical solutions for using comprehensive assessment frameworks and presented examples to show how these could inform holistic case management and rehabilitation of lone actors.

Some of the key findings of the meeting are listed below.

• Be aware of the important differences between lone actors and group actors.
• Focus on needs and protective factors because these are just as important as the risks.
• Social diagnostics and needs assessments are complementary tools to risk assessment and management. Together they are part of a more holistic approach for the rehabilitation of lone actors.
• Different types of assessments should be part of an integral approach to the management of cases of violent extremist offenders. Examples from Austria and Germany were shared during the meeting. An important aspect highlighted is the co-ownership of the individual to ensure a better result at the end.
• While conducting an integral approach, it is important to understand the different parties involved. Certain terms can be understood differently by mental health practitioners as opposed to practitioners working in the security sector. When collaborating with other organisations try to understand each other.

This paper will first describe the main themes discussed during the meeting. In the second part, recommendations concerning lone actors and the use of needs and risk assessments are presented. Subsequently relevant practices are presented and the paper concludes with an outlook on future meetings dealing with related topics.