I had the opportunity to read the new book, Social Work and Countering Violent Extremism: Case Management, Direct Practice and Multi-Sectoral Collaboration, by David Yuzva Clement, et al. I have had the good fortune to collaborate with David and one of the co-authors, Andrew McKenzie. I’d like to second the comment made by Tony Stanley in his foreword, I could have used this book 10 years ago when I was early in my work as a social worker in targeted violence, radicalization, and extremism prevention and intervention. What an excellent book! While the authors make it clear the Canadian and German contexts are different than the United States, there is much to learn and take away from this book for social workers or clinicians from any discipline and location who work, or may want to work, in this space. I found chapters two (overview of radicalization and extremism terminology and theory) and three (disengagement and exiting from violent extremism) to be the real heart of the book.
The authors do an excellent job of covering the history and developments in our understanding of radicalization and extremism. I greatly appreciated the focus on the public health model with specific attention paid to secondary and tertiary models of intervention. As one of the Briefs in Social Work series from Springer, the book is readily accessible, well written, thorough, and rigorous in its coverage. The authors are to be commended for fitting so much excellent information into a brief book. I highly recommend this book for anyone new to working in the targeted violence space as well as educators who are looking for a very accessible text for their students.
