Research at Commission for Countering Extremism
The Commission’s work is based on engagement, evidence and impartiality.
Evidence
A robust evidence base is required to support work on counter extremism and to help understand the variety of ideological challenges that England and Wales faces.
The CCE’s approach to building an evidence base is formed from open-source research, maintaining and coordinating the Academic Practitioner Counter Extremism Network (APCEN), commissioning new and innovative research, and access to available government data.
Research
Research is a core component of CCE’s work.
Previous papers have been commissioned on a range of topics, including:
- the far-right
- the far-left
- Islamism
- violent and non-violent extremism
- drivers of extremism
- online extremism
- critiquing approaches to countering extremism
- understanding effective approaches to changing attitudes and behaviour
To build upon this work, the CCE is commissioning a series of new research projects under the banner of ‘Rethinking Extremism’.
This research will help ensure the CCE is best placed to advise Government on the nature and scale of the extremist threat today.
Impartiality
The Commissioner for Countering Extremism is a non-statutory public appointee of the Home Office who operates independently and at arm’s length from government, providing the government with impartial, expert advice and scrutiny on the tools, policies and approaches needed to tackle extremism. The Commissioner is supported by a small secretariat of Home Office Civil Servants.
The CCE is free to determine independently its methodologies and the content of its reports, recommendations, and public statements.