‘The idea that social workers can predict who will become terrorists is science fiction’

‘The idea that social workers can predict who will become terrorists is science fiction’

We live with the ever present risk of terrorism and violent extremism. It is part of life in contemporary Britain. Yet social work is sleep walking into a worrying new area – that of ‘pre-crime’.

This means, in social work terms, pre-determining which children are likely to go on to be harmed or will go on to become terrorists at some stage in the future. It sounds like something from the Tom Cruise film “Minority Report”.