The concept of ‘disguised compliance’ describes a process whereby a perpetrator deliberately manipulates the truth to disguise his or her true intent. Recent terrorist attacks, including the attack by Usman Khan on London Bridge in November 2019, strongly suggest that violent extremists are using this technique to conceal their motives either in custody or while on supervision in the community. The EPC-CEP Hiding in Plain Sight Discussion Paper looks at the challenges in detecting and countering deception and proposes a set of recommendations for frontline practitioners, governments and other actors across Europe and beyond who deal with risk management of extremists whether in prison or in the community.
The publication incorporates the results of an EPC-CEP expert workshop that took place earlier in the year, which was also organised within the framework of the Disguised Compliance project launched by CEP and Staffordshire University.