Paris, France

The ICPC participated in the conference on transport safety organized by the Région-Île-de-France with the Office national des Transports (ONDT) and the Observatoire national de la délinquance et des réponses pénales (ONDRP) - l'Institut national des hautes études de la sécurité et de la justice (INHESJ).

It was an opportunity to promote experiences and good practices in security in public transport. Ariane de Palacio, Director of Research at the ICPC looked at the following themes:

An international comparison of the types of governance, partnerships and actors relating to governance, and the tools to define a security strategy in public transport (ex. Montreal, London and Berlin).

A comparison of security systems (technical, human, organizational) in different countries.

A comparison of the practices of different countries regarding the role of private security in public transport.

Brussels, Belgium 

Since 2007, approximately every two years, the ICPC, the Observatoire national de la délinquance et des réponses pénales de la France (ONDRP) and the Observatoire national de la délinquance dans les transports (ONDT), organize the International Conference on the prevention of crime and criminal analysis. This year, the conference was held in Brussels in November and was jointly organized by BPS (Brussels Prevention & Security), the ICPC, the ODRP, and the ONDT. It is intended to be a forum for discussions and exchanges based on various experiences, studies, and information at an international level relating to the observation of crime, in particular with regard to its prevention. This event is open to a variety of actors: professionals in the observation and analysis of crime, politicians and civil servants, practitioners, researchers, NGOs, community organizations, etc.

Nairobi, Kenya

The ICPC had the honor of participating in the first UN-Habitat Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, from May 27 to 31, 2019. This assembly focused on urban innovations with the aim of transforming and improving conditions of life in cities. The assembly will meet every 4 years and will have to make decisions and adopt resolutions regarding the program on living conditions in cities and urbanization. Decision-makers will examine the main trends, standards, and rules relating to sustainable urbanization.

Paris, France

On Friday, May 24, 2019, the ICPC had the honor of organizing, alongside the Canadian Embassy in Paris, a presentation of its current work and projects relating to the prevention of violent radicalization, hate crimes, and urban security. The objective was to strengthen the relations between the ICPC and France.

Brussels, Belgium

The International Center for the Prevention of Crime went to meet the Brussels Prevention & Security Observatory (BPS) on May 22, 2019, in Brussels, in order to exchange and strengthen their links. BPS pursues a twofold objective: to coordinate prevention and safety on the territory of the Brussels-Capital Region and to assist all the players concerned to guarantee the best safety for Brussels residents and all those who visit the Region.

Vienna, Austria

As every year, the ICPC was present at the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Vienna. This 28th session enabled us to organize, in collaboration with the International Center for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, a workshop on “Preventing hate crimes”. This workshop took place on Monday, May 20, 2019 in the presence of high-level panelists. The many discussions that followed from the presentations were rich in possible future collaborations.

Berlin, Germany

The ICPC is honored to have participated in the 24th edition of the German Crime Congress from May 20 to 21, 2019, in Berlin, Germany. During this international conference focused on crime prevention in which 3000 people participated, we had the opportunity to present our project on the development of prevention and intervention in response to radicalization leading to violence within the justice system. The main theme of this conference was "Promotion of prevention and democracy".

Bratislava, Slovakia

On March 25 and 26, 2019, the ICPC was invited to share its projects and experiences during the annual OSCE-wide Counter-Terrorism Conference in Bratislava. The main purpose of this international meeting was to take stock of efforts to prevent and combat terrorism as well as violent extremism and radicalization leading to terrorism in the OSCE area.

During this conference, major aspects were discussed such as:

-  Programmes and approaches that help identify, divert, and support individuals at risk of radicalization to terrorist violence such as referral mechanisms and pre-criminal interventions;

- Prison-based and non-custodial programmes to rehabilitate and reintegrate terrorist offenders while ensuring due prosecution of their criminal actions;

- Advances in international co-operation in countering terrorism and the implementation of good practices in preventing VERLT in the OSCE area.

As part of the week dedicated to the prevention of radicalization leading to violence, organized by the Department of Public Safety Canada, the ICPC participated, from March 21 to 23, 2019, in workshops and working meetings of the Canadian Practitioners' Network for the Prevention of Radicalization and Violent Extremism. The purpose of these workshops is to develop evidence-based guidelines to promote effective intervention in the field.

In order to enrich an international preliminary study on the evaluation of programs to prevent violent radicalization, the ICPC took the opportunity to organize, in parallel with the seminar, a discussion group to gather the views of actors in the field on programs' evaluation.

The ICPC is now actively involved in sharing experiences and good practices as well as international cooperation on radicalization and violent extremism.

London, UK

On March 14 and 15, 2019, the ICPC was present in London for the launch of ITERP, of which it is a part. ITERP is a consortium of researchers located in different countries around the world. They come from universities and laboratories in psychology, political science, sociology, psychiatry, anthropology, criminology, and mathematics. It also includes action research centers and prevention associations who wish to engage in an approach to assess their practices. They came together in order to share their knowledge and their methods and to compare their approaches to the evaluation of prevention devices. This large-scale scientific cooperation will make it possible to better understand the impact of prevention programs on the populations concerned, but also more broadly to analyze the phenomenon of radicalization from the point of view of care.

It is with great interest that the ICPC participated at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) workshop to develop a set of tools to facilitate the implementation of their Guidelines on Crime and Violence prevention, held in Johannesburg on the 26 and 27 of November 2018. The guidelines themselves mark a bold recognition by the Member States of the SADC that crime and violence prevention is a transversal issue requiring the commitment of multiple stakeholders.

In this regard, the ICPC is proud to have contributed to the development of these guidelines and to the creation of tools that will facilitate their implementation and would like to congratulate the SADC, the Southern Africa Regional Police Chief’s Cooperation Organisation (SARPCOO), and the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum (APCOF) for their leadership in the field of crime and violence prevention in their region.

From October 21 to 26, 2018, the ICPC participated in the 20th Annual Conference of the International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA) which took place in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This Conference also marked the ICPA's 20th Anniversary. The event was hosted by Correctional Service Canada. Under the theme “Beyond Prisons: The Way Forward”, various actors in the prisons and correctional field gathered to cover a wide variety of topics addressing challenges and highlighting best practices. There were over 150 speakers and more than 500 participants.

The ICPC took part in the Conference as a speaker to report on the Action-Research carried out in three French cities (Lyon, Grenoble, and Nice) to develop and implement an Intervention and Prevention Response to Radicalization leading to Violence within the French Probation System. The presentation focused on presenting a set of actions and initiatives implemented at the institutional level to counter radicalization leading to violence.

On July 4 and 5, the ICPC was invited to make a presentation in a National Conference on “Protecting Youth against Delinquency and Crime” in Tunis, Tunisia. The Conference was held by the Tunisian Presidency and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces – DCAF in front of 80 high-ranking Political and Public Administration Executives from Tunisia and aimed to promote international good practices in terms of youth crime prevention (15-29). The ICPC presented its latest international comparative study on National Prevention Strategies for Youth Violence and its Report on Front-Line Workers and Intervention Issues in the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence.

Photo Credits : Zied Ben Chaabane.

From June 4 to 8, 2018, Pablo Madriaza, the ICPC’s Director of Research and Programmes, Ariane de Palacio, Senior Analyst, and Paul Girard, Board Member, made a visit to Chile, invited by Carabineros de Chile, in order to carry out a series of presentations regarding the modernization of the police and standards in terms of crime observation. The first presentation was held before Officers of the Criminal Analysis Department of the Chilean police, the second was made before Officers of the Police Science Academy, and the third one was held in the Carabineros School of Police in front of Officers from various countries in Latin America. This visit has allowed the ICPC to get to know more about the new criminal analysis system implemented in most of the country's police stations which seeks to change the national police's crime prevention model. It was also an opportunity to strengthen links between the ICPC and Carabineros, which is a member of our organization.

From May 14 to 18, 2018, the ICPC participated in the 27th Session of the UNODC’s Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) in Vienna, Austria.

This year's thematic discussion was on Criminal justice responses to prevent and counter cybercrime in all its forms, including through the strengthening of cooperation on national and international levels.

The ICPC contributed to the debate during the PNI Workshop on Cybercrime by providing information from our 6th International report on Crime Prevention and Community Safety on the prevention of Cybercrime. The Report will be available in the Fall of 2018.

On May 10 and 11, 2018, the OSCE-wide Counter-Terrorism Conference on the Reverse Flow of Foreign Terrorists Fighters (FTFs): Challenges for the OSCE Area and Beyond was held in Roma, Italy.

The following topics were discussed during the conference:

• Trends and Dynamics of Returning or Relocating FTFs: Exchange of Views on National Experiences and International Co-operation;
• Managing the Return/Relocation of FTFs: Strengthening Border Security and Information Sharing;
• Addressing the Potential Threat of Returning and Relocating FTFs and their Affiliates: Rehabilitation and Reintegration Programs Within and Outside the Criminal Justice System;
• Addressing Accompanying Family Members of FTFs: Legal Gaps, Juvenile Justice, Engaging with Civil society.

Various representatives from several international organizations including the ICPC were invited to share their experience and ideas on the subject.

The ICPC was invited to participate in the expert meeting days on the prevention of violent radicalization hosted in Montreal, by the Canadian Practitioner Network for the Prevention of Radicalization and Extremist Violence (CPN-PREV). Held as part of the Building Connections: Preventing Violent Extremism Conference in Canada from March 19 to 23, 2018, the event was co-hosted by the Child Soldiers Initiative, the Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence, the Canadian Practitioner Network on Prevention of Radicalization and Extremist Violence, UQÀM, and Concordia University’s Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies. During these meeting days, experts from all around the world joined their expertise in order to reflect on training programmes as well as to constitute a guidelines group that will generate evidence-based recommendations on the best practices in assessment and intervention in matters of radicalization and violent extremism prevention.

From March 5 to 9, 2018, the Director of Research and Programmes of the ICPC, Pablo Madriaza, was invited to Spain by the Basque Police Force (Ertzaintza) to present at the 1^st International Seminar on Criminal Analysis for the Prevention of Crime. As part of this seminar, Mr. Madriaza made a presentation on the factors explaining the extremist radicalization process leading to violence as well as some of the latest results obtained by the ICPC in this field.

This Seminar in Amorebieta (Bizkaia) also brought together an important range of international experts in matters related to criminal investigation

The ICPC was invited by the Office of Crime Reduction & Gang Outreach of British-Columbia in February 2018 to present at the Crime Reduction Research Symposium. The Centre took the opportunity to speak about the importance of community crime prevention and the need for an integrated approach. Like any other social issue, safety requires a strategic approach that looks at providing relevant, sustainable, and effective responses. To this end, the ICPC and the Réseau d’échanges et de soutien aux actions locales (RÉSAL – Network for exchange and support to local actions) have developed a community-based approach that aims at articulating local concerns and expertise surrounding specific issues to ensure local ownership and effectiveness of futures crime prevention initiatives or strategies. The BC Crime Reduction Research Symposium has also been a great opportunity to meet with crime and law enforcement experts from other Canadian provinces and to discuss a wide range of issues going from opioid responses and guns and gangs strategies to policing priorities. The ICPC is confident that the discussion evolving from that Symposium will help to shape future partnerships and foster a greater interprovincial dialogue surrounding the issues of gang outreach and community crime prevention.

Although violent radicalization can be considered to be an international phenomenon, both its incidence and its prevention are increasingly affected by local factors. Many organizations working on the local community level have expressed feelings of powerlessness due to a lack of tools and skills to confront this dilemma, notably in a primary and secondary prevention context.

In order to address this issue, the ICPC, collaborating with the Centre d'action et de prévention contre la radicalisation des individus (CAPRI - Action and Prevention Centre Against the Radicalization of Individuals), has developed a France-Quebec cooperation project for the prevention of radicalization leading to violence. This project aims to develop partnerships between French and Quebec associations in order to develop a common framework guiding local organizations potentially interested in working in this field. This framework would ultimately help shape and create interventions at a local community level.

From January 13 to 20, 2018, a Quebec delegation composed of Mohamed Loutfi, Social Worker for the Centre Laurentien d’aide à la famille, Marie-Hèlène Rivest, Social Worker for Équipe Clinique polarisation du CIUSS and Cateline Autixier, Analyst for the ICPC, went on a mission in France to Paris and Bordeaux. The goal of this mission was to facilitate the experiences exchange, to introduce their respective local reality, and to present the work done in a local community context with regards to radicalization, especially in youth. Thus, this Quebec delegation met with various French organizations and associations working in the prevention of radicalization leading to violence as well as numerous French institutions’ Officials. Along with these visits were organized debate sessions and workshops allowing for an enrichment of knowledge on the prevention of radicalization leading to violence in theory, conception, and intervention. These exanges of initiatives and practices allowed all participants to enrich their intervention repertoire.

This mission has marked the end of the first year of the France-Quebec cooperation project on the prevention of radicalization leading to violence which will proceed in 2018 along with new workshops, conferences, and exchanges, as well as an anticipated visit from a French delegation to Montreal.

From December 5 to 8, 2017, the ICPC was invited to participate in the 2017 Korean Institute of Criminology’s (KIC) International Forum in Seoul, South Korea. Ariane de Palacio, Senior Analyst, presented various tools the ICPC had worked on to support evidence-based crime prevention policy and decision making, especially on municipal and local scales. The ICPC and the KIC are thinking of a close collaboration to be developed in the next months.

In parallel to this Forum was also held the Autumn 2017 UNODC Programme Institutes Network (PNI) Coordination Meeting, during which the ICPC was selected to be the leading agency to develop and organize PNI Workshop 1 on Evidence-Based Crime Prevention during the 2020 UN Crime Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice by UNODC.

On November 17 and 18, 2017 was held the first International Congress on Crime, Violence and Addiction Social Prevention for Peace Building, organized by the University of Sinaloa in Mazatlán, Mexico. Ariane de Palacio, Analyst and Project Officer at the ICPC, was invited to give the event’s opening conference during which she presented the results of the 2017 ICPC report on National Crime Youth Violence Prevention Strategies. This event was also an opportunity to consolidate and expand the ICPC’s presence and partnerships in Mexico, especially through the development of collaboration perspectives with the University of Sinaloa and the University of Chihuahua.

A video summary of the event is available (in Spanish) here.

Pablo Madriaza, Director of Research and Programmes at the ICPC, was invited by the “Asegurando la Educación” (Secure Education) programme, funded by USAID, to assist them technically in their strategic planning and to attend a colloquium gathering government officials from Honduras where he presented the characteristics of efficient violence prevention programmes in schools. “Asegurando la Educación” aims to prevent violence in more than 70 schools across the country.

As part of the 38th Congress of the Quebec Criminology Society - Intervention in a context of vulnerability: Better action through better understanding which took place from November 8 to 10, 2017, at the Manoir Saint-Sauveur, Pablo Madriaza, Director of Research and Programmes at the ICPC, was invited to speak during workshop 13 on “Preventing Radicalization leading to Violence”. He presented the characteristics and challenges related to the research-action currently carried out within the French probation system by the ICPC in collaboration with the French Prison Administration for their project: “Intervention and prevention response to violent radicalization within the probation system”.

From November 1 to 3, 2017, the ICPC had the opportunity to take part in the 2nd African Forum for Urban Safety (AFUS) as a speaker. The 2nd Forum was organized in association with UN-Habitat’s Safer Cities Programme and aimed to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and practices to address multiple urban safety challenges raised by urbanization in Africa. Held in Durban, South Africa, the Forum gathered national and international experts on urban safety, criminal justice, and crime prevention. During the Forum, the ICPC was able to present the first version of the Crime Observatory Evaluation Framework, currently being developed in association with the Observatoire national de la délinquance et des réponses pénales (ONDRP-France) and the Organization of American States (OAS). This framework aims to establish internationally recognized quality standards for the conceptualization, implementation, operationalization, and evaluation of crime observatories. In the case of African cities, this tool will not only be used to ensure the reliability of observatories when it comes to safety, but also to improve how municipal strategies should be informed.

From October 22 to 27, 2017, the ICPC participated in the 19th International Corrections and Prisons Association Annual Conference (ICPA) which took place in London, United Kingdom. The event was hosted by Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service. Under the theme “Innovation in Rehabilitation: Building Better Futures”, academics, directors of administrations, high-ranking officials, project officers, and practitioners were gathered to discuss dignity, human rights in prison, and programmes against violence in general.

More than 540 participants were registered and many sessions were organized, dealing with various topics and experimentations such as the architecture and design of facilities, offender-centred programmes and services, rehabilitation and education, and strategic reforms.

The ICPC took part in the conference as a speaker in a workshop called "Radicalisation". The presentation focused on the research-action currently being carried out in France which aims to develop a prevention and intervention response to radicalization leading to violence within the probation system.

The 3rd World Congress on Probation was held in Tokyo, Japan, from September 12 to 14, 2017. The congress mainly focused on the development of probation and the role of the community with the aim of highlighting how important active community participation is to prevent recidivism and promote the reintegration of individuals. The event was hosted by several organizations: the Rehabilitation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice of Japan, the United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFEI), the Japan Rehabilitation Aid Association, the National Federation of Volunteers Probation Officers, the National Association of Offenders Rehabilitation Services, and the Japanese Association for the Rehabilitation of Offenders.

The ICPC took part in the congress as a speaker in a workshop called "Evidence-Based Theories and Practices involving Offenders with Special Needs". The presentation focused on the research-action currently being carried out in France which aims to develop a prevention and intervention response to radicalization leading to violence within the probation system.

As part of the ENACT project (Enhancing Africa’s response to transnational organised crime) funded by the European Union, the ICPC was requested to support the creation and implementation of a network of five Regional Organised Crime Observatories (ROCO) located across Africa.

In order to launch the project, the ICPC participated from July 3 to 6, 2017, in the ROCOs inaugural workshop in Cape Town, South Africa. During this meeting, international experts on transnational organised crime gathered to reflect on the different approaches, opportunities, and challenges that these observatories will encounter during their mandate. The ICPC, which acted as an expert on observatories, intervened on several occasions including to organize and moderate a session on the challenges of data collection. During these interventions, Ariane de Palacio and Pier Alexandre Lemaire, the analysts engaged in this project, stressed the importance of ROCOs in producing and disseminating quality information in a transparent and independent manner while ensuring the inclusion of all relevant actors and contributing to the reinforcement of local capacities, data production processes, public policy frameworks, and public debate on transnational organised crime.

This inaugural workshop is the starting point of a nearly three year project. The ICPC is proud to have been a part of it and share its expertise. This meeting was also an opportunity for the ICPC to explore and discuss future collaboration.

From July 3 to 7, 2017, the ICPC’s Director of Research and Programmes went on a mission to France as part of the “Intervention and prevention response to violent radicalization within the probation system” project in collaboration with the Department of Penitentiary Administration (DAP) of France. During this mission, the ICPC’s Director and Fanny Valendru, analyst, participated in meetings held by the pilot research cells of the Penitentiary Services for Integration and Probation (SPIP) in Lyon and Grenoble. In Lyon, discussions were held on the individual intervention model suggested by the ICPC for those convicted on terrorism-related charges which is soon to be implemented in Lyon's SPIP. In Grenoble, the first cycle of the group intervention was evaluated based on a primary prevention model. At the end of the week, the ICPS's director and analyst participated in the national evaluation committee of the project gathering members of national and interregional directorates as well as directors and members of each pilot implementation site where the progression of the project was also presented. This included a semi-structured interview guide for identification and primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention responses elaborated by the ICPC and members of each pilot research cell, as well as modifications made to the impact assessment model.

During the month of December 2016, the ICPC’s Director of Research and Programmes, Pablo Madriaza, undertook a mission in Chile, invited by the master's programme “Magíster en Prevención, Seguridad Urbana y política criminal” of Alberto Hurtado University to give a lecture on violent radicalization in the West. During this mission, he was also invited by the Central University to lecture on the evolution of violence in schools for the master's programme “Magíster en Psicología Educacional y Gestión de la Convivencia Escolar”.

In addition to these teaching activities, Mr. Madriaza visited the ICPC’s members and key partners in Chile. He visited the Criminal Analysis Department and the Community Policing programme (MICC) of the National Police of Chile (“Carabineros”). The ICPC made suggestions concerning criminal analysis methodologies and perfected the details of the “Carabineros” seminar that will be held in October 2017, co-organized with the ICPC. Mr. Madriaza also visited the Sub-secretariat for the Prevention of Crime of the Government of Chile and met the Director of the Department of Studies to establish avenues for future collaboration. He also met with officials from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and researchers from the Citizen Security Program from Alberto Hurtado University of Chile.

As part of this second mission, the ICPC held two training sessions on the prevention of radicalization leading to violence for the staff of the Penitentiary Services for Integration and Probation (SPIP) of Lyon and Grenoble between September 19 and 21 in Lyon, and for the SPIP of Nice on September 22 and 23 in Mougins and Nice. During these meetings, the ICPC held three workshops with each SPIP in order to disclose the preliminary results of the diagnostic stage and to agree with the staff on the first lines of action for the intervention response.

From September 12 to 15, the ICPC was invited to participate in a Thematic School on Radicalization organized in Paris by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po).

This Thematic School responds to a growing social and scientific need for training related to radicalization issues, especially after the Paris attacks in January 2015. Far from considering radicalization as a unique or specific phenomenon in our time, the school therefore sought to compare the different ways of understanding these phenomenon, emphasizing a critical distance and the research methods used to understand it.

The ICPC made two presentations during this Thematic School. As part of the round table on "Radicalization: definition and approaches", the ICPC’s Senior Analyst, Pablo Madriaza, gave a presentation titled “Radicalization factors in the light of prevention programs” based on the systematic review the ICPC recently conducted. On the second day, Pablo Madriaza made another presentation during workshop 1 on the ""Invisible" forms of radicality" presenting measures implemented on a municipal level.

From July 6 to 8 2016, UN-Habitat held the Habitat III Cross-Cutting Expert Group Meeting on Safer Cities in the New Urban Agenda in Geneva, Switzerland.

The ICPC presented the content of its upcoming 5th International Report focusing on the prevention of crime in cities. The presentation was well received. The ICPC also met members of its network, including Small Arms Survey and EFUS, as well as other participants with whom possibilities of future collaborations and projects were discussed.

On March 21 and 22 2016, the ICPC attended the Kanishka Symposium in Ottawa to present its report Preventing Radicalization: A Systematic Review.

The Kanishka Symposium brought together a range of experts and practitioners specializing in the prevention of radicalisation leading to violence. It sought to help identify promising approaches that ‘go beyond the checklist’ and inform various applied research initiatives intended to better understand and address violent extremism.

The Société de criminologie du Québec (Quebec Criminology Society) held its 37th biennial convention from October 28 to 30, 2015 in Quebec (Canada) on the theme "For Enlightened Justice and Successful Social Inclusion, Education and Criminology: the Levers for Action". A working session titled International Panorama on Crime Prevention and Recidivism was on the congress agenda. The ICPC presented the 4th International Report on Crime Prevention and Community Safety and the technical assistance project that the ICPC provided for the Observatory and Index of Democratic Security of the Central American Integration System (OBSICA).

On May 20 and 21, 2015, the Intersection network, whose mission is to develop, implement, and promote a Quebec police model based on the community approach by mobilizing stakeholders with the common goal of preventing crime and promoting safe living environments in Quebec, held its 22nd annual seminar called Radicalization: the Challenge of Reconciliation and Mobilization. More than 250 participants, the majority of whom were police officers, participated in the seminar. Serges Bruneau and Pablo Madriaza were there representing the ICPC.