Threat Assessment can reduce school violence

The content and context of the threatening behavior can be evaluated using PETRA procedures to determine the degree of risk associated with the threat of violence escalating into an act of violence.

	Characteristics of the threat. People seldom snap or decide on the spur of the moment to solve a problem with violence. Rather, the path toward violence is progressive with warning signs along the way; a threat of violence is one such observable behavior. Threats of violence against oneself or others offer validation that the student may be approaching or is already in a state of crisis. Threats may be (a) direct or indirect, (b) specific and detailed or general, (c) well thought out or impulsive, and/or (d) veiled, conditional, or implied. Inherent in all threats is an express intent to harm. The fact that an individual is making a threat demonstrates his or her need for assistance and suggests an approaching state of crisis. Although acts of violence are not always preceded by a threat, as many as three-fourths of the school shooters identified in the literature made a threat prior to their violent acts. By utilizing a threat assessment approach, the threshold for evaluation is marked by evidence that the student may be approaching a state of crisis which helps to control for false negatives yet facilitates intervention early enough in the students’ progression toward a violent act that effective case-management strategies can be implemented.
	Predisposing Characteristics. There are a number of demographic or historical characteristics which may predispose a person to violence following the communication of a threat. Some of these characteristics include personal and family history of mental health difficulties (e.g. depression, suicide, thought disorder), unstable home environment or social functioning including recent loss of a loved one, history of aggression or self mutilation, and likelihood to comply with an intervention plan.
	Precipitating Characteristics. Precipitating factors reflect degree of progression toward carrying out a threat of violence. Characteristics such as interpersonal instability, alcohol or drug abuse, or continued placement in the environment that led to the threat reflect characteristics that lay the groundwork for movement toward an act of violence.  For example, the use of drugs increases suicide risk fivefold and recent threats to self esteem or humiliation by others appear to have been at the root of a number of school shootings. Late precipitating factors, which suggest progression along the continuum to a level of impending violence include psycho motor agitation, cognitive distortions and obsessive thoughts marked by anxiety.
	Psychosocial Factors. Many of the personality characteristics identified in the literature regarding perpetrators of school violence reflect significant maladaptive emotional and/or behavioral characteristics that cluster in the domains of depression, aggression, alienation, and egocentrism. Interestingly, these particular personality traits tend to co-occur and may be brought on or exacerbated by an inability to cope with stress.

Psychological Insight © 2006