Webinar on The Prevent Duty - Violence Fascinated Individuals and associated threats
Background
Prevent remains an early intervention safeguarding programme. Its core aim is unchanged: to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Professional judgement remains central and is a critical part of our safeguarding work.
It is important to note, however, that ideology is not mandatory for a Prevent referral to be made. The key consideration is whether a person may be on a pathway that could lead to terrorism. Prevent national referral figures have recently been released and show a 27% increase in referrals from last year. Fascination with Extreme Violence and Mass Casualty Attacks (FEV-MCA) or Violence Fascinated Individuals (VFI's) are making up a growing number of these cases.
Along with the rise in FEV‑MCA Prevent referrals, recent reviews now recognise non‑ideological extreme‑violence fascination as an emerging Prevent category. Adolescents are presenting with fixations on mass shootings, weapons, and real‑world perpetrators far more frequently. Historically, there was perhaps an over‑emphasis on ideology having to be evident; this is no longer the case.
Examples of violence fascinated individuals where no clear ideology was present include Axel Rudakubana who carried out the murders in Southport, and Nicholas Prosper who shot dead his mum and two siblings in Luton. Greater attention and Prevent scrutiny is now placed around incidents where multiple referrals, issues mixed with mental health, or neurodivergent factors might be adding to harm.
When faced with evolving patterns of changing behaviour, it is worth looking for what might be subtle changes in an individual especially where a clear ideology might be missing. If there is an interest in committing extreme or mass violence, that makes a person a concern for Prevent.
Consider behavioural changes that might be evident, notably fascination with extreme violence, persistent interest in overseas school massacres, genocide, or historic mass killings are likely to be important. Fixation on 'exemplary models' idolising previous attackers, violent historical figures, battle sites or symbols relating to extremist or neo nazi beliefs might be apparent.
Webinar details
On 20 May 2026 at 1:30pm, there is a Prevent webinar which will include information on these themes.
This 90-minute webinar will be delivered by Russell Cole, Norfolk's Preventing Radicalisation Co-ordinator and supported by members of the Education Safeguarding Team.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this session colleagues will be able to:
- Define emerging and extremist ideologies.
- Identify emerging characteristics of concern.
- Recognise manifestations of these emerging ideologies.
- Make informed judgements on whether an individual expressing these emerging ideologies of concern should be referred to Prevent.
Please note that this webinar will not be recorded due to the sensitive content that it contains.
The webinar will take place via Microsoft Teams.
