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Head of Criminology and Director of Terrorism Studies, University of East London

Professor Andrew Silke is the Head of Criminology and the Programme Director for Terrorism Studies at the University of East London. He has a background in forensic psychology and criminology and has worked both in academia and for government. He is internationally recognised as a leading expert on terrorism and low intensity conflict, but has also researched and published on topics ranging from vigilantism, policing, cyber-crime, international criminal justice, critical incident psychology, offender psychology and prisoner risk assessment. He has over 100 publications in academic books and journals, practitioner magazines and in the popular media. He is frequently invited to give talks at international conferences and universities throughout the world.

He has worked with a variety of government departments and law enforcement and security agencies. In the United Kingdom these include, the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Defence. Overseas he has worked with the United Nations, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, NATO, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

He serves by invitation on the United Nations Roster of Terrorism Experts. He is a member of the European Commission’s Radicalisation Awareness Network Centre of Excellence (RAN CoE) which works with practitioners to develop state-of-the-art knowledge to prevent and counter radicalisation to violent extremism. Prior to this, he served both on the European Commission’s European Network of Experts on Radicalisation and on the Commission’s Expert Group on Violent Radicalisation. Professor Silke also served on the British Psychological Society’s working group on the Psychological Risk Assessment of those Convicted or Detained under Terrorist Related Offences.

He has provided research advice to the Royal Society in the UK and the National Academy of Sciences in the US. He has provided invited briefings on terrorism-related issues to Select Committees of the UK House of Commons and was appointed in 2009 as a Specialist Advisor to the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee for its inquiry into the UK Government's programme for preventing violent extremism. In 2010 he gave invited oral testimony before the Canadian Special Senate Committee on Anti-terrorism. He is a member of the Cabinet Office National Risk Assessment Behavioural Science Expert Group.

Experience

  • –present
    Head of Criminology and Director of Terrorism Studies, University of East London