Forensic psychologists lead Australian fight against terror networks

POLICE are using the expertise of forensic psychologists in the fight against terrorist networks spreading their influence within Australia.

Counter-terror chief Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther says forensic psychologists are making a real difference in the war on terror.

POLICE are now using the expertise of forensic psychologists in the fight against terrorists.

The Victorian counter-terror command now has two forensic psychologists working fulltime with the team in what the counter-terror chief, Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther says is a “game changer”.

“To me that’s one of the most critical assets that I have at the organisation’s disposal because we can put an intelligence lens over a piece of information but a psychologist puts a behavioural lens over it and they see things quite differently. So in terms of our capacity to assess risk and what we would do to mitigate that risk we have got great opportunity out of that. It’s a game changer for me,” Mr Guenther said in a wideranging interview with News Corporation.

“The way we work with the psychologists is quite brilliant … having that function is great because what it does is that it tests our own thinking.” He said their role was important in terms of prevention and response.

“I can think of one example where they’ve certainly intervened and significantly diminished the risk.”

Mr Guenther says his team was now also researching the role of women in fostering an environment that allows extremist ideology to grow.

“Because I don’t think it’s something we have done terribly well in the past. I think what we have done … we have focused very much on the men and the young men that are going there and then when I look at it and see we’ve still got lots of young women actually travelling there.”

Mr Guenther said the gap was how to connect with mothers and women in the households to prevent young women and men from radicalising.

Fom the Telegram account of Umm Isa Al Amrikiah, otherwise known as Shadi Jabar.

“I think the dynamics of our thinking has to change and we need to really look much more broadly around that.”

Mr Guenther says one of the big challenges is identifying young female role models and supporting them.

“What we know is that it doesn’t matter how hard we can preach about the challenging conditions over there it’s not stopping people going over there. So the best opportunity we have to interrupt here is by role models here saying, actually you can have your identity, you can live your strict religion, that’s all available here in Melbourne and Victoria. And that’s something that we need to do and actively sponsor.”

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His advice for parents of young people?

“My advice is to reach out to their community, reach out to their congregations, have a discussion with the schools, with their teachers … I think that’s the first port of call to express their concern to teachers, congregations, community people that they trust”.

Law enforcement, he says, is just one cog in the wheel.

“We live in a really safe and secure society and I think its really important for the community as a whole to actually ensure that that remains the case. That would be my message. It’s not just a role for law enforcement. Yes, we play a part in it, we are one cog in the wheel … even by volunteering observations there is a big role for the community there. I’d encourage the community to be part of that involvement, their observations are really important.”

Originally published as Forensic psychologists lead Australian fight against terror networks