Threat Assessment: De®ning an Approach for Evaluating Risk of Targeted Violencez

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.