Threat assessment: defining an approach for evaluating risk of targeted violence

✍ Scribed by Randy Borum; Robert Fein; Bryan Vossekuil; John Berglund

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 148 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0735-3936
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0798(199907/09)17:3<323::aid-bsl349>3.0.co;2-g

✦ Synopsis

Although the ®eld of risk assessment has made tremendous advances in the past 20 years, assessments of targeted violence continue to pose a signi®cant challenge to law enforcement, mental health, and other professionals. These speci®c and critical assessments require an innovative approach. The threat assessment model, developed and re®ned by the U.S. Secret Service, provides a useful framework for thinking about assessments of potential for targeted violence. In this paper, we attempt to de®ne this approach as it has been developed by the Secret Service, and apply it within the existing professional/scienti®c literature on risk assessment. We begin with a brief review of existing models and approaches in risk assessment, and identi®cation of some gaps in our existing knowledge as it relates to assessments of targeted violence. We then proceed with an outline of the threat assessment approach, including a review of principles and guiding operational questions, and discussion of its use in assessment of targeted violence.