Threat Assessment

Other Threat Assessment Materials

New Resources 

NEW -- New Video on Averting Targeted School Violence

• The National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) has released "a video which highlights the findings and implications of its research on school violence prevention based upon the study Averting Targeted School Violence: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Plots Against Schools (2021)."
• Watch the video here.

National Threat Evaluation and Reporting (NTER) Program 3rd Quarterly Bulletin Q2 of FY22

• National Threat Evaluation and Reporting (NTER) Program 3rd Quarterly Bulletin Q2 of FY22.
  • The NTER Program’s quarterly bulletin is designed to help inform Department of Homeland Security customers of research developments and resources to examine Homeland threats through a threat assessment and management perspective.
  • In light of Women’s History Month, the topics featured in this bulletin mainly focus on the role of gender in targeted violence and threat assessment. 

Dewey Cornell, Ph.D.

• Threat Assessment in College Settings

  • Written by Dewey Cornell, Ph.D. and published in Change magazine in 2010.

  • Although it is important for colleges to have a well-designed plan for first-responders, a comprehensive approach to campus safety should not be limited to security measures, warning systems, or crisis-response plans that are designed to react to violence. Threat assessment is a form of violence prevention that should be undertaken well before a gunman appears in the parking lot. The history of many school shootings reveals that the attack was preceded by threatening statements and behavior that aroused the concern of others weeks or months in advance.

• The Virginia Model for Student Threat Assessment

  • Written by Dewey Cornell, Ph.D. and presented at the Confronting Violence in Our Schools: Planning, Response, and Recovery - A PERI Symposium in 2007.

  • This brief paper discusses the rationale for conducting threat assessments and how to apply the research-based threat assessment model created by the University of Virginia.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

• NEW -- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule: A Guide for Law Enforcement

  • The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule provides Federal privacy protections for individually identifiable health information, called protected health information or PHI, held by most health care providers and health plans and their business associates. The HIPAA Privacy Rule sets out how and with whom PHI may be shared. The Privacy Rule also gives individuals certain rights regarding their health information, such as the rights to access or request corrections to their information.

• Mass Victimization: Promising Avenues for Prevention (Published - Dec 2015)

  • This document is focused on identifying strategies that contribute to preventing, not predicting, incidents of targeted violence that result in mass casualty events. It is the result of a multi-agency collaborative conference held at Quantico, Virginia, in August of 2013.

• Making Prevention A Reality (2017)

  • Created to give law enforcement and other first responders tools to prevent, rather than simply respond, to targeted violence. Created based on the input of academic researchers, mental health practitioners' and law enforcement from across the United States.

• Pre-Attack Behaviors of Active Shooters (Published - June, 2018)

  • Guide for parents, friends, teachers, employers, law enforcement and mental health professionals, and anyone who suspects that a person is moving towards an act of violence. Designed to provide guidance on recognizing the concrete and observable pre-attack behaviors of many active shooters.

Higher Education Mental Health Alliance (HEMHA)

• Balancing Safety and Support on Campus: A Guide for Campus Teams

  • Courtesy of the Higher Education Mental Health Alliance (HEMHA).

  • This guide summarizes the existing literature on campus teams and suggests some of the key issues that should be considered when creating or managing a campus team. The guide may be particularly useful to new teams considering various options for how they should be organized and led, but should also be helpful to existing teams interested in assessing their current functions, operations, or emphases.

National Center for Education Statistics

• Indicators of School Crime and Safety (2018)

National Police Foundation

• Averted and Completed School Attacks - a Comparison from the National Police Foundation

  • In this report, 51 completed and 51 averted incidents of school violence, drawn from the Averted School Violence (ASV) database, were analyzed to help further our understanding of averted and completed school attacks. The report also seeks to provide important lessons about how school violence can be prevented. The data are drawn from the public domain as well as from law enforcement, school officials, and others entering reports into the database. 

University of Alaska Anchorage

• University Cyber Attack! Tabletop Exercise

U.S. Department of Justice

• Campus Threat Assessment Case Studies: A Training Tool for Investigation, Evaluation & Intervention

  • Published December 2012 by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), U.S. Department of Justice

  • This guide is a training tool to assist campus threat assessment teams with self-guided opportunities to develop, refine, and enhance their behavioral threat assessment processes. Its design will help teams ensure they have a working knowledge of the nature and process of violence, how to identify persons at risk, reporting and assessing concerns, and resolving situations through compassionate and effective approaches.

• School Resource Officers: Averted School Violence Special Report

  • This report examines a dozen case studies of targeted violence incidents thwarted by the positive and often heroic actions of classmates, school administrators, SROs, and law enforcement agencies. It also includes recommendations and lessons learned from all cases in the ASV database. In addition, a companion publication entitled, Targeted Violence Averted: College and University Case Studies, presents information on post-secondary averted violence incidents and lessons learned to support student safety.

• Targeted Violence Averted: College and University Case Studies

  • This report documents representative case studies of incidents in which targeted violence was thwarted by the actions of college students, school administrators and faculty, campus police, and other stakeholders. The examination of these case studies and the lessons learned from them demonstrates progress toward increased safety at colleges and universities. In addition, a companion publication entitled School Resource Officers: Averted School Violence Special Report presents information on K-12 averted violence incidents and the role school resource officers (SRO) assume in supporting student safety.

• School Safety: Research on Gathering Tips and Addressing Threats

  • New research suggests that schools should have a systematic and coordinated approach in place to gather and process information on threats, respond appropriately, and document the response.

• Averted School Violence Database - a Preliminary Report

  • In 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, and the National Institute of Justice provided funding to the Police Foundation to initiate the Averted School Violence (ASV) project. Through this project, the Police Foundation developed a database, to collect, analyze, and publish incidents of averted and completed acts of school violence that have occurred since the attack on Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado., The database is intended to serve as a resource to law enforcement, school, mental health professionals, and others involved in preventing school violence by sharing ways in which other school attacks across the country have been identified and prevented.

U.S. Department of Education

• Cybersecurity Considerations for K-12 Schools and School Districts | REMS TA Center.

  • Read this fact sheet for information on threats facing school and school district networks and systems, preparing for threats, and cybersecurity's relation to EOP development and planning.

• REMS TA Center Emergency Exercises

  • Conducting exercises is an integral part of school safety and is one of the most effective ways to evaluate the EOP and emergency procedures. The more a plan is practiced and tested and the more stakeholders are trained on the plan, the more effectively the whole school community will act before, during, and after an emergency to lessen the impact on life and property. The exercise continuum (e.g. tabletops, simulations, drills) provides opportunities to practice with community partners, validate courses of action, and identify any gaps and weaknesses in the plan. Ideally, education agencies will create an exercise program and related training program, building from a discussion-based exercise, such as a tabletop exercise, up to an operations-based exercise, such as a drill or functional exercise. Not only do exercises promote school and community preparedness, but they also help develop and foster effective relationships with community partners, clarify the roles and responsibilities of school staff and community partners, assess the availability of resources and capabilities to respond to emergencies, and identify areas in need of improvement.

    • Integrating Drills and Exercises Into Overall School Emergency Management Planning

    • Emergency Exercises Package: Conduct a tabletop exercise with this package that contains instructions, scenarios/injects and podcasts, and supplemental resources.

    • Preparing for a Cyber Security Breach Before One Occurs: University of Southern Mississippi National Center for Spectator Sport Safety and Security's Cyber Security Tabletop Exercise

      •  Read about the development and implementation of a cybersecurity scenario as a part of a tabletop exercise and the institution of higher education's lessons learned.

    • Tool Box

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

• National Threat Evaluation and Reporting (NTER) Office

  • NTER equips homeland security partners with tools and resources to identify and mitigate threats of terrorism and targeted violence to keep the Homeland safe primarily through two lines of effort: the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI) and Behavioral Threat Assessment Integration (BTAI).

University of Southern Mississippi

• Cyber Security Tabletop Exercise

• Facilitator's Manual

• Participant's Manual

U.S. Secret Service

• Enhancing School Safety Using a Threat Assessment Model - (July 2018)

  • This operation guide was developed to provide fundamental direction on how to prevent incidents of targeted school violence, that is, when a student specifically selects a school or a member of the school community for harm. The content in this guide is based on information developed by the U.S. Secret Service, Protective Intelligence and Assessment Division, National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC).

• Mass Attacks in Public Spaces - August 2020

  • This latest study, titled Mass Attacks in Public Spaces - 2019, examines 34 targeted attacks that occurred in public or semi-public spaces (e.g. schools, places of business, houses of worship, open spaces) from January through December 2019. This report is the agency's third in a series of annual reports that have examined mass attacks in the United States, during which three or more individuals were harmed.

• Making Schools Safer

  • Published May 2013 by the U.S. Secret Service

  • This tip guide summarizes the components to include in a comprehensive school safety plan:

    • Foster a Climate of Respect and Trust

    • Build Relationships

    • Promote Communication

    • Identify Concerning Behaviors

    • Maintain a Threat Assessment Team

    • Reinforce Clear Policies and Procedures

    • Provide Resources to Manage Concerning Students

    • Promote Information Sharing Between the School and Community Stakeholders

    • Liaison with Law Enforcement

    • Require Consistent Training Among Stakeholders

• The Path to Violence

  • Video from PBS that first aired in February 2013.

  • This program tells a story about the effective Secret Service threat assessment program that helps schools detect problem behavior in advance and prevent acts of school violence.

  • CSSRC Staff Review - June 2014

• Prior Knowledge of Potential School-Based Violence: Information Students Learn May Prevent a Targeted Attack, (Bystander Study)

  • Published by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Secret Service (2008)

• 2002 U.S. Secret Service Final Report and Findings of the Safe Schools Initiative: Implications for the Prevention of School Attacks in the United States

  • Provides overview of the Key Findings of the Safe School Initiative

• 2002 U.S. Secret Service Threat Assessment in Schools: A Guide to Managing Threatening Situations and Creating Safe School Climates

  • Provides guidance for implementing, conducting and managing a school threat assessment process

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and Wisconsin Department of Justice

• Cyber Safety for Parents/Guardians and Children