VOL. II ARTICLE NO. 125

A Primer on Assessing the Potential for Violence

Preventing Workplace Violence Requires Action on Many Different Fronts. One of the Most Critical – and Least Understood – Is Behavioral Threat Assessment.

When violence shatters the routine of a workplace – especially when it results in grievous injury or loss of life – it’s both painful and instructive to look back at the early signs of trouble.

Almost without fail, you will find a circle of hidden insights – discrete “pieces” of information held by colleagues, family and strangers alike – that, had they been shared and analyzed in a timely manner, would have provided the single best opportunity to head off catastrophe.

That sensitive and highly nuanced information collection and analysis, however, is rarely conducted when it’s most valuable: before an incident occurs.

Why? Because, among other reasons, the domain of knowledge that underlies it – behavioral threat assessment – doesn’t fit neatly within the purview of law enforcement. Or psychology. Or even protective intelligence. Instead, it spans – and requires a careful choreography of – them all.

Workplace violence is perhaps the single greatest and most common risk confronting employees and businesses in the U.S. today. This is because:

• The threat – and the many different ways that violence can unfold in an office or a plant – is tangible and significant.
• The vulnerability of most businesses – in terms of not having an effective behavioral threat assessment capability or resource in place – is high.
• The consequences of an attack are very likely to result in death or injury and may even impact the reputation and vitality of the company or division for years.

Key Research, However, Has Given Us Remarkable Insights into Prevention

We know, through research conducted by the U.S. Secret Service, that targeted violence is rarely a sudden and unpredictable event.^{1, 2} Instead, it is frequently the end result of a process that is discernable to others. Threat assessment is widely recognized as the most effective means of determining whether the facts appear to show that an individual is on a pathway to violence. It is designed to separate those few who actually pose a threat from the many who make threats.

Three Foundational Principles Are Driving the Evolution of Best Practices in this Field

The goals of behavioral threat assessment are supported by three key principles derived from the U.S. Secret Service’s research:

1. Targeted violence is the result of an understandable and often discernable process of thinking and behavior.
2. Violence stems from an interaction among the potential attacker, past stressful events, a current situation and the target.
3. A potential attacker’s behavior is vital to identifying his or her intentions.

A Sampling of Key Steps Critical to Establishing a Model Behavioral Threat Assessment Program

While experts can be summoned on an ad hoc basis whenever credible threats emerge,many organizations – especially large employers – are better served by developing in-house capabilities at some level. Key elements of such programs include, for example:

• A Multi-Disciplinary Team: Fill Each Seat Carefully - The most effective threat assessment teams in corporate environments have full executive support and often include the ombudsman and representatives from management, key operating divisions, HR, legal and the safety and security department as well local law enforcement, mental health centers and external threat assessment firms.
• Privacy: Become Very Familiar With How, What and With Whom Information Can Be Shared – A common “stumbling block” involves reluctance by team members to share information. This often stems from the perceived limitations of laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). These laws, however, often provide exceptions that allow information to be shared under certain circumstances.
• Reporting Guidelines: Define the Formal Channels of Information Exchange – Research has shown that third parties often have vital pieces of information yet, because they don’t know who to tell or question the value of the information, they keep it to themselves – sometimes with tragic consequences. For this reason, clear guidelines should be developed for employees to report aberrant, dangerous or threatening behaviors to the threat assessment team.
• Awareness: Harness the Support of the Entire Workforce – Company-wide campaigns and other tactics to broadcast the existence of the threat assessment team and its purpose are essential. One key message: employees should not attempt to decide what is and is not serious enough to report. If it concerns them, they should share the information with a colleague or, preferably, with the threat assessment team.
• Training and Role-Playing: Keep Learning, Practicing and Simulating Scenarios – Consider having outside experts introduce key concepts in the context of actual events, emphasizing the importance of collaborative interviews as an information-gathering tool, and offer several different solutions to a given set of circumstances.
• Collaboration: Get Connected with National Associations and Peer Groups – Various groups can provide a free or low-cost method of obtaining practical advice and keeping up-to-date with developments in the fields of behavioral threat assessment and workplace violence prevention. Consider joining the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP), Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) or American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS).

For More Information

To find out more about our workplace violence, behavioral threat assessment and security training and awareness services as well as our broader security and investigative services, contact:

• Arnette Heintze, Chief Executive Officer, at (312) 869-8500 or via email
• Matthew W. Doherty, SVP and Managing Director, at (312) 869-8500 or via email

FOOTNOTES: ¹ Fein & Vossekuil, “Assassination in the United States: An operational study of recent assassins, attackers and near-lethal approachers,” Journal of Forensic Sciences, 1999. ² Vossekuil, Fein, Reddy, Borum & Modzeleski, “The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative,” U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Secret Service (2002).