Key Terms

Targeted violence: A premeditated act of violence directed at a specific individual, group, or location, regardless of motivation and generally unrelated to other criminal activity.

Behavioral threat assessment: A behavior-based approach to proactively prevent incidents of targeted violence.

The Secret Service behavioral threat assessment model was developed to identify individuals displaying threatening or concerning behavior, gather information to assess if an individual poses a risk of violence, and then manage the risk by implementing appropriate interventions (identify, assess, manage).

Concerning behavior: Actions or communications by an individual that are troubling or inappropriate and indicate a potential risk of violence.

Concerning behaviors exist along a continuum of criminal and non-criminal activities and may include escalating interpersonal disputes, grievances, concerning social media content, stalking and harassing, obsessions with violence, idolizing past attackers, fixating on people or locations, suicidal ideations, self-harm, unusual levels of aggression, threats, and other behaviors that elicit concerns for safety.

Systems Approach: A process of gathering information from various formal and informal community systems in order to provide a comprehensive and reliable assessment of an individual’s thinking and behavior.

Assessment Themes: Areas of inquiry that, when explored, will provide a contextual understanding of an individual’s mindset, behavior, and circumstances and will allow the BTAU to assess if the individual poses a risk of violence.

Management: The strategies and efforts pursued by a BTAU with the goal of making a violent outcome less likely.

Management should always be driven by the results of the assessment, namely, the thinking and behavior of the individual of concern, along with other situational factors.