The Departmental Council has announced measures to effectively prevent and combat the threat of radicalization among the younger population. The Alpes-Maritimes is one of the risk areas in France, with more than a hundred cases reported this past year.
Eric Ciotti’s analysis, who presented the departmental plan for preventing and combating the radicalization of young people yesterday, is supported by the numbers: “Our department is one of the territories most affected by the jihadist threat. The number of reported cases of radicalization, both minors and adults, continues to grow. We share, with Seine-Saint-Denis, a significant number of reports, with 117 cases recorded in 11 months (from April 29, 2014, to March 12, 2015). It is our duty to prevent these risks, to detect them, and to address them.”
Besides, how can one disagree with the option to prevent rather than sanction when young people are often the first victims of their psychological and cultural fragility and their wanderings?
Yes, but who? how? because the work must be collaborative among all actors, including community agents responsible for children’s policies, associations, institutional partners, and families.
The departmental plan will primarily be a working method structured around 5 axes: Training and informing professionals and the public; Preventing and securing public reception areas; Detecting, identifying, evaluating, and transmitting reported concerns; Preventing, supporting, and acting on identified cases of radicalization; Managing access to rights and benefits.
In fact, the system relies on the principle of forming contracts with families to involve them in the care of children. In this context, which is often a weak point and a source of serious shortcomings, emergency educational measures can now be adopted, with educational and psychological support as well as measures to support the exercise of parental authority.
The strengthening of the educational action measures at home (AED) has also been announced and will result in the development of personalized projects for children in connection with a dedicated educator, based on practices already implemented in Denmark.
Regarding detection, a central role is also given to the Departmental Unit for the Collection, Evaluation, and Treatment of Concerning Information (ADRET), which usually collects all cases of child abuse, to better detect the phenomena of radicalization.
