The banality of counterterrorism “after, after 9/11”? Perspectives on the Prevent duty from the UK health care sector

Charlotte Heath-Kelly*, Erzsébet Strausz

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

Since 2015, the UK healthcare sector sector has (along with education and social care) been responsibilised for noticing signs of radicalisation and reporting patients to the Prevent programme. The Prevent Duty frames the integration of healthcare professionals into the UK’s counterterrorism effort as the banal extension of safeguarding. But safeguarding has previously been framed as the protection of children, and adults with care and support needs, from abuse. This article explores the legitimacy of situating Prevent within safeguarding through interviews with safeguarding experts in six National Health Service (NHS) Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups. It also describes the factors which NHS staff identified as indicators of radicalisation–data which was obtained from an online questionnaire completed by 329 health care professionals. The article argues that the “after, after 9/11” era is not radically distinct from earlier periods of counterterrorism but does contain novel features, such as the performance of anticipatory counterterrorism under the rubric of welfare and care.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)89-109
Number of pages21
JournalCritical Studies on Terrorism
Volume12
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Jan 2019
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • NHS
  • Prevent strategy
  • health care
  • radicalisation
  • safeguarding

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