Društvene i Humanističke Studije (Jan 2020)
The Police Perception of the Role of Media in Preventing Radicalisation: The Case of Croatia
Abstract
This paper aimed to explore whether and how media can be involved in the process of the prevention of extremism and radicalisation from the police point of view. This survey was conducted on a sample of 108 students from the Croatian Police Academy of the Ministry of the Interior by a questionnaire examining the participants’ knowledge on radicalization, the presence of various types of radicalization in their environment, factors and conditions that affect the development of extremism and radicalization and the ability of media to prevent radicalization. Results point out that police officers do see media as a partner stakeholder in preventing radicalisation. The results of this survey could be used to present the importance of media in preventing radicalisation to various stakeholders to start implementing media workers training for the facilitation of this process. This paper gives us an insight into Croatian police officers’ perception of media as their partners in the prevention of radicalisation and extremism. Future survey should include a larger sample with an equal number of participants with and without work experience in the police so that potential differences in their attitudes could be investigated.
