
Ahmed AjilUniversity of Lausanne | UNIL · School of Criminal Justice
Ahmed Ajil
PhD Criminology // MLaw Criminology & Security, MA Applied Security Strategy, BA International Relations
Research / Crime analysis / Consultancy
About
42
Publications
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Introduction
Engaged researcher in the field of criminal justice and security, with expertise on issues and questions related
to political mobilization and violence, terrorism and counterterrorism, migration and security, prisons
and policing. Experienced in academic research, crime analysis and policymaking.
Publications
Publications (42)
In the domain of PVE as well as reintegration, the most interesting studies are arguably based on material collected first-hand from the individuals involved in the phenomenon of political violence or terrorism. As more individuals from the 2013-2016 wave of foreign terrorist fighters are exiting the criminal justice system, young individuals with...
Dieser Beitrag analysiert die Verurteilung der IZRS-Vorstandsmitglieder wegen Verstosses gegen Art. 2 Abs. 1 des AQ/IS-Gesetzes. Durch die Produktion und Bewerbung eines Interviews mit dem geistigen Führer der syrischen Jaysh al-Fath und eines Dokumentarfilms tätigten sie vorsätzlich Al- Qaida-Propaganda. Ziel des Beitrags ist es, die mit dem Ersta...
The phenomena referred to as terrorism and political violence have become a major object of academic interest over the past two decades. While the lack of first-hand data collection has been criticised, a growing number of researchers are conducting field research and interviews with individuals involved in these phenomena. Among them, there are sc...
Since 9/11, states around the world have engaged in efforts to counter the so-called “terrorist threat”. Besides neo-colonial military projects, this has manifested itself in a mushrooming of laws, policies and practices in the realm of counterterrorism, and an explosion of research into terrorism, extremism or radicalisation. In this chapter, draw...
Predictive policing, that is, the data-driven deployment of police operations on the ground, has become increasingly important in recent years. While predictive policing instruments serve to formalise the ways in which police think and operate, the human agent remains central to their exploitation and translation into strategic, operational, and ta...
In this chapter, we explore the nature of Western/ Eurocentric cognitive imperialism in criminology and criminal justice (CCJ). Defining cognitive imperialism as, "the logical structure undergirding colonization and the process of socializing colonial subjects into accepting that logic," we analyse our experience and that of CCJ scholars-in-trainin...
Si le colonialisme en tant qu'époque historique marquée par l'invasion, l'appropriation et la domination de territoires et de corps primairement dans le Sud Global est majoritairement terminé, les appels à la décolonisation, eux, persistent autour du monde dans différentes sphères de la société. Dans les milieux académiques, depuis le tournant du m...
Der Tagungsband enthält die Beiträge des 2022 in Interlaken durchgeführten Jahreskongresses der Schweizerischen Arbeitsgruppe für Kriminologie. Mit Beiträgen von AutorInnen aus den Bereichen des Rechts, der Soziologie,
der Verhaltensökonomie, der sozialen Arbeit und der Psychologie, behandelt
dieser Tagungsband zunächst die Alternativen zum Gefängn...
Si le colonialisme en tant qu'époque historique marquée par l'invasion, l'appropriation et la domination de territoires et de corps primairement dans le Sud Global est majoritairement terminée, les appels à la décolonisation, eux, persistent autour du monde dans différentes sphères de la société. Dans les milieux académiques, depuis le tournant du...
This paper presents the findings from doctoral research conducted between 2018 and 2020 on politico-ideological mobilization and violence in relation to causes and conflicts in the Arab World. It focuses on interviews conducted in Lebanon with individuals engaged in violent action or sympathizing with violent groups. Ideologically, the sample compr...
This book presents a study of politico-ideological mobilisation and violence by focusing on the life stories, trajectories and narratives of individuals who mobilised for causes and conflicts in the Arab World. It provides a greater understanding of the biographical, sociological, political and historic factors pertinent for their radicalisation pr...
This paper presents findings from doctoral research conducted between 2018 and 2020 on politico-ideological mobilisation and violence in relation to causes and conflicts in the Arab World. It focuses on fieldwork and interviews conducted in Lebanon with members and sympathisers of different violent groups, including Salafi-jihadist, Shi'a militanti...
Since 9/11, states around the world have engaged in efforts to counter the so-called “terrorist threat”. Besides neo-colonial military projects, this has manifested itself in a mushrooming of laws, policies and practices in the realm of counterterrorism, and an explosion of research into terrorism, extremism or radicalisation. In this chapter, draw...
Le 13 juin 2021, le peuple suisse a plébiscité la Loi fédérale sur les mesures
policières de lutte contre le terrorisme (LMPT)1, alors même que 66 universitaires
ont, sur l’initiative du récipiendaire de ces Mélanges, rédigé une lettre
ouverte soulignant les nombreuses difficultés juridiques que soulève cette loi
au regard des exigences de l’État d...
The phenomena referred to as terrorism and political violence have become a major object of academic interest over the past two decades. While generally speaking, the lack of first-hand data collection has been criticised, a growing number of researchers are conducting field research and interviews with individuals involved in these phenomena. Amon...
Feminist criminologists were pioneers in highlighting that academics’ standpoints (i.e., their social and societal positionalities) influence which “objective” truth they tell. Testimonies, the sharing of one's story, can provide important angles to our understandings of social phenomenon, including of life in the academic sphere. In the present wo...
Although Switzerland has not experienced a large-scale attack of the kind experienced in other European countries in the last decade, the phenomenon of politico-ideological violence in the jihadist spectrum is nevertheless present. Since 2004 and until 2021, the Swiss Federal Criminal Court has tried a total of seventeen criminal proceedings relate...
In my doctoral thesis, I present a theory of politico-ideological mobilisation and violence in relation to causes and conflicts in the Arab World based mainly on 109 interviews conducted between 2018 and 2020 in Lebanon, Switzerland and Canada. Among the interviewees are 26 mainly non-violent political activists and 32 individuals who resorted to v...
Cette contribution analyse les procédures pénales relatives au terrorisme dji- hadiste conduites devant le Tribunal pénal fédéral. Il s’est agi d’établir les faits ayant donné lieu à une poursuite judiciaire, puis leurs conséquences. Il appa- raît que le droit pénal couvre déjà l’intégralité de l’éventail d’actes qui pour- raient être considérés co...
Cette contribution revient de façon synthétique et critique sur la vingtaine de jugements rendus en la matière. Il s’est agi premièrement d’établir les faits ayant donnés lieu à une poursuite judiciaire, puis d’analyser leurs résultats, et - dans les cas portés devant les instances judiciaires - de présenter les sanctions infligées. La présente ana...
Dieser Artikel analysiert den Fall eines irakischen Asylsuchenden namens Sami, der in der Schweiz wegen angeblicher Mitgliedschaft in der Organisation «Islamischer Staat» (IS) verurteilt wurde. Auf der Grundlage von gerichtlichen, klinischen und administrativen Dokumenten sowie ausführlichen Interviews mit den Betroffenen wird untersucht, wie sich...
This report, based on data collected between 2019 and 2020, aims to shed light on informal child protection and justice systems operating in Lebanon. Beyond an extensive review of the literature on informal child protection and justice sys- tems, interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with 199 individuals, among them key stakeholders...
At international level, dynamic security is increasingly considered to be an essential preventive element in the implementation of penal sentences and justice. In considering how to deal with various security-related phenomena, it is appropriate to promote the concept of dynamic security as it allows for long-term preventive work within the closed...
Cet article analyse le cas de Sami, un demandeur d'asile irakien condamné en Suisse pour appartenance présumée au groupe « EI ». Sur la base de documents judiciaires, cliniques et administratifs ainsi que d'entretiens approfondis avec les personnes concernées, il examine comment peut progressivement se cimenter l'image d'un dangereux terroriste de...
While the prevention of internal and external threats to public safety has always been a function of the modern nation-state, the last few decades have witnessed an ‘overproduction’ of this function, to the point where talk of a preventive turn seems warranted, particularly significant in the field of terrorism prevention. It has accelerated after...
Si le Conseil national adopte le projet de loi sur les mesures policières de lutte contre le terrorisme, des enfants dès l’âge de 12 ans n’ayant commis aucun acte pénalement répréhensible pourront être astreints à porter un bracelet électronique, mettent en garde Manon Jendly, professeure associée à l’Ecole des sciences criminelles de Lausanne, et...
Die geplanten Gesetzesänderungen zur Bekämpfung von Terrorismus stellen Auswüchse repressiver und feindstrafrechtlicher kriminalpolitischer Tendenzen dar, die von einer These profitieren, die selten in Frage gestellt wird. Nämlich, dass Terrorist*innen gefährlich sind. Doch was bedeutet es, in der Schweiz ein*e «Terrorist*in» zu sein? Ist der Kurzs...
Scholarship on security has recently seen a shift from traditionally state-centric, elitist and objectivist conceptions of ‘security’ towards human-centred perspectives which put emphasis on forms of ‘vernacular’ and ‘everyday’ security, and promote bottom-up empirical inquiries to further our understand of what security looks like ‘from below’. Th...
Most studies on politico-ideological violence (PIV) recognise the importance of socio-political and economic grievances, but rarely analyse them in depth. I argue that this is symptomatic of a tendency of depoliticisation in radicalisation research in the post 9/11 context and suggest that the study of PIV may benefit from putting greater emphasis...
Trends seemingly signal the decay of White heterosexual male hegemony in academia. Still, while changes have addressed lack of access to an academic system whose benefits are assumed, critical literature calls into question Western-based theory and traditionally Eurocentric ways of knowledge production. An important programmatic component of decolo...
While the issue of foreign fighting has been very present in Swiss public discourse in recent years, little is known about the actual trajectories of young men who engage in this particular form of political violence. Based primarily on face-to-face in-depth interviews with four Swiss male nationals who travelled to conflict zones in the Arab World...
By including the voices of Syrian and Iraqi urban refugees in Jordan in the production of
knowledge, this master’s thesis aims to direct the criminological gaze to contexts that usually
escape it and to explore what security looks like ‘from below’, based on the subjective understanding
of individuals and their everyday security practices and exper...
The conflicts in Syria and more recently in Iraq have attracted over 500 British
nationals over the past three years. There are growing concerns among security
analysts regarding the threat these fighters may constitute upon their return to
the UK. Those individuals have been in contact with extremist, anti-Western doctrines and some of them have a...