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Is This Student a Threat? Six Principles of Threat Assessment

NCJ Number
197770
Journal
Campus Safety Journal Volume: 10 Issue: 11 Dated: November 2002 Pages: 16,18,42
Editor(s)
Tom Nelson
Date Published
November 2002
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article studies the six principles of threat assessment.
Abstract
Six principles form the foundation of the threat assessment process: (1) targeted violence is the end result of an understandable, and oftentimes discernible process of thinking and behaving; (2) targeted violence stems from an interaction among the person, the situation, the setting, and the target; (3) an investigative, skeptical, inquisitive mindset is critical to successful threat assessment; (4) effective threat assessment is based on facts, rather than characteristics or "traits;" (5) an "integrated systems approach" should guide threat assessment investigations; and (6) the central question of a threat assessment is whether a student poses a threat, not whether the student made a threat. Every threat should receive prompt attention. The article claims that, although voicing a threat should not be used as the principal determinant in making judgments about the likelihood of a school attack, it would also be a mistake to assume that individuals who make threats are in every instance unlikely to follow through.

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