Pre-crime and terrorism prevention without a P/CVE strategy: another Italian exceptionalism?

In the Italian context, jihadist radicalisation is considered among the foremost security threats, although no lethal terrorist attack in the name of Islam has occurred. Scholars and practitioners describe this situation as exceptional. Building on this literature, this paper examines another Italian exception: the absence of a comprehensive strategy to Prevent and Counter Violent Extremism. It argues that the reliance on preventive and pre-criminal instruments compensates for the lack of P/CVE programmes (making Italy a distinct case in the EU) and that this anticipatory logic leads to framing Muslims as more dangerous than other citizens, not only for national security concerns but also because of anti-Muslim attitudes. By engaging with critical scholarship on the preventive and pre-criminal turn of counterterrorism, I show that Italy’s counterterrorism policies are marked by three key features of pre-crime – vagueness, imagination, and identity – and that the boundaries between preventive and precautionary logics are becoming porous. A discussion of preventive measures and administrative deportation will follow, examining its discriminatory impact on Muslims. Further, I contend that recent bills to endow Italy with a P/CVE strategy assume that radicalisation is a process mostly connected with jihadism, minimising other violent threats such as right-wing extremism.