Context and Objectives

Over the past decade, there has been a rise in concerns regarding attacks, hate crimes, and hate incidents attributed to extremist organizations and “lone actors.” These concerns have prompted governments to invest massive sums of money in preventing and countering violent extremism.

Although the swiftness with which these programs were developed and implemented is commendable, the limited timeframe also left very few opportunities to empirically assess their positive and negative outcomes. As such, large sums are currently being invested in programs whose efficacy and possible side effects are unknown.

In order to inform practitioners and policymakers on the prevention practices to prioritize and those to avoid, CPN-PREV has conducted a systematic review on the effectiveness of primary and secondary PVE programs.

We aimed to answer the following questions:

• Are primary and secondary PVE programs really able to prevent violent extremism?

• Are there specific program modalities associated with a higher chance of success or failure?

• What are the evidence-based recommendations for professionals involved in prevention initiatives?