Behavioral scientist dr. Elaine Pressman Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion
She received this award from Minister Grapperhaus (Justice and Security) for her knowledge of and contribution to a better risk analysis of violent extremist behavior.
Through her efforts and collaboration with the Netherlands Institute for Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology (NIFP), a better risk analysis of violent extremist behavior has been made possible.
As a knowledge center for risk analyzes of suspect and convicted persons of extremist violence, the NIFP has been successfully put on the map.
For more than ten years, Dr Pressman has been an internationally recognized expert in the assessment of the chance of violent extremism.
The instrument developed by her, the Violent Extremism Risk Assessment (VERA), made an important contribution to international counter terrorist measures. The VERA-2R has now been developed with experts from the NIFP. The VERA-2R now serves as the leading risk analysis tool for violent extremism.
The VERA-2R helps to identify and persecute potentially violent extremists at an early stage. The instrument is not only of preventive importance, but it can also be used to evaluate programs for combating violent extremism within and outside of detention. Forensic psychiatrists and psychologists, employees of the police and probation services, the AIVD and the NCTV use the VERA-2R. In the Netherlands, the VERA-2R tool is used for differentiation issues in the terrorist department. In many other countries the instrument is already being deployed, within the EU and, for example, in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
The European Commission in Brussels recognizes the VERA-2R as the most promising standard. Partly on this basis, the NIFP received a subsidy for the creation of a European database and the training of European judicial partners. The NIFP thus becomes an international knowledge center in the field of risk analysis of potentially dangerous extremists and is already carrying out this knowledge within Europe.
Dr. Pressman has transferred the intellectual property of the VERA 2R instrument to the Netherlands Institute for Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology. She is still involved in the NIFP and the further development of the VERA-2R in the coming years.