Live online sessions are scheduled for 1:00 PM ET on the second Wednesday of each month. Sessions include a one-hour expert presentation followed by the opportunity to participate in a 30-minute moderated roundtable discussion with peers to share questions, comments, and ideas for addressing complex threat cases. Participation in the roundtable discussion is not required to receive a certificate of completion for each program. 

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January | Assessing the Risk & Impact of Political Violence in the Workplace 

 

Major elections and significant political swings across the ideological spectrum have created the conditions for increased political violence worldwide. In an October 2024 Scripps News/Ipsos poll, a majority of Americans anticipated that there would be violence in the aftermath of the presidential election. Violence in or around a business can be disruptive and dangerous. Those concerned with violence prevention benefit from an understanding of political violence and strategies for identification, assessment and mitigation as this risk continues to escalate.     

 

February | Copycat and Contagion in the Evolving Media Environment

 

​Mass shooting contagion theory is the studied nature and effect of media coverage of mass shootings and the potential increase of mimicked events. The academic study of this theory has grown in recent years due to the nature of mass shooting events, the frequency of references to previous rampage shooters as inspiration, and the acquisition of fame using violence. The evolving media environment, including social media and generative AI deepfakes, plays an increasingly important role in potential copycat and contagious targeted violence that must be anticipated by threat assessment professionals. 

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​​March | The Role of Humiliation in Targeted Violence

 

In many workplace violence cases, employees were fired or laid off in the days, weeks, months, and, in some cases, years before carrying out their attacks. The change in their employment status often serves as flashpoints or propellant. Adverse employment actions can lead to employees feeling publicly humiliated and isolated and may fuel a potential attacker’s grievance against an employer. Recent research from the FBI found that in comparison to persons of concern (POCs) who did not attack, active shooters who experienced publicly humiliating events were four times more likely to commit extreme violence. As such, the FBI recommends that experiencing publicly humiliating events might serve as a pre-attack indicator and should be considered when assessing the likelihood of targeted violence. Threat assessors should have a solid understanding of the role of humiliation with targeted violence, as well as specific lines of inquiry to add to their threat assessment process.​
 

​April | Identifying and Responding to Extremism in the Workplace

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Left unchecked, extreme beliefs can not only threaten cohesion and productivity, they can compromise safety and raise the risk of disruptive behaviors, even violence in the workplace. Polarization erodes trust between groups. When people believe that their opponents are motivated by malice or have fundamentally different values, it becomes harder to find common ground and resolve conflicts peacefully. This can lead to a breakdown in workforce cohesion and an increase in mistrust, making violence more likely. Tensions among people worldwide are at an all-time high, and likely to become higher. People are reacting more quickly to social and political events and their personal feelings and actions a spilling over into their professional lives. As an evolving risk, threat assessors and violence prevention professionals must be aware of social volatility and its impact on workplace safety and security.

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​May | Emerging Trends in Mental Health: Implications for Workplace Violence Prevention

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Awareness of changing mental health trends has been identified as a core competency for threat assessors. Since the pandemic, the prevalence of mental illnesses in the U.S. has jumped from 1 in 5 adults, to 1 in 4 (18.6% to 26.4% as per Johns Hopkins). Mental health and substance abuse disorders are predicted to soon surpass all physical diseases as a cause of disability worldwide. According to the American Psychological Association, levels of stress are at an all-time high, and research from the FBI has identified mental health stressors as the leading contributor to active shooter incidents. While research consistently finds that those with mental illnesses are no more likely to be violent than others in the community, mental illness, and stress are recognized as contributing rather than causal risk factors. An understanding of the relationship between mental illness and targeted violence is critical for every threat assessor, as is an understanding of current trends in mental health.     
 

​June | Assessing and Managing Threatening Communications

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​Threatening communications can be precursors to acts of violence. They can disrupt workplaces, schools, and public spaces, and can cause significant emotional distress and fear for recipients of a threat. Taking threats seriously and taking appropriate action can help protect individuals and organizations from potential harm. Whether threats are made verbally, non-verbally, in writing, or in electronic or physical forms, assessing the credibility and imminence of a communicated threat is the first step in determining an appropriate threat mitigation strategy. Understanding the validity and urgency of communicated threats is an essential skill for every threat assessor and violence prevention professional.

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July | Behavioral Factors in Insider Threats: Precipitants and Risk Indicators

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Threat assessment professionals must be knowledgeable of the risk factors and warning behaviors associated with physical violence. Described as "kinetic violence," physical acts of workplace violence are only one type of insider threat. Malicious cyber activity, fraud, theft, and sabotage all have their own precipitants and behavioral risk indicators that may be overlooked by even experienced threat assessors.  Behavioral risk indicators of insider threats can be subtle or overt changes in an individual's behavior, work habits, or social interactions. Insider threats can also involve coordinated attacks combining different methods. In assessing concerning behavior, threat assessment professionals should be knowledgeable and skillful in detecting all types of threats to an organization or its workforce, not only the threat of workplace violence.

 

August | Climate Change, Extreme Heat, and Targeted Violence

 

​Everyone participating in the behavioral threat assessment and management process must begin to develop an understanding of the effects of climate change and increasing heat on psychological functioning and violence potential. Climate changes not only affect interpersonal violence but contribute to civil unrest and collective violence, as well as extremism and terrorism. This program will introduce participants to the Climate Change-Violence Model, as well as approaches to climate-informed threat assessment. The violence-risk landscape is evolving quickly. Threat assessment professionals and those serving on threat assessment teams must understand and increasingly apply the concepts outlined in this program to their work. Practitioners must prepare for the evolving risk environment.   

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September | Psychiatric Emergency Evaluations in Threat Assessment Cases

 

Concerns about mental health frequently arise during the threat assessment process. In some instances, there may be evidence of an acute mental illness and possibly the need for the psychiatric hospitalization of a person of concern. Threat assessors must be knowledgeable about the signs and symptoms of mental illness and understand the basic functions of community or hospital-based psychiatric emergency or crisis units. The assessment of dangerousness conducted by clinicians in psychiatric emergency settings is substantially different from the process of behavioral threat assessment and management. Failure to understand and reconcile those differences can create difficulty in effectively connecting a person at risk of violence with the right type of intervention. This is an important area of information for every threat assessment professional. 

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October | The Eco-Extremist Threat to Critical Infrastructure

 

Eco-extremism is the nexus between environmentalism and direct action, but it can also be an ideology that unites fascism with environmentalism, based on the belief that controlling migration and population growth is the only way to save the planet from environmental destruction and to protect increasingly scarce resources for the rightful occupants of a nation.

 

Accelerationists within the eco-extremist community advocate for hastening societal collapse or technological advancement to bring about a new order. Within this broad spectrum, some accelerationist groups promote targeting critical infrastructure, such as power grids, water supply systems, transportation networks, and telecommunications, to disrupt society and speed its downfall. Organizations of all types and sizes depend on these critical infrastructures and threat assessment teams should be aware of this emerging ideological threat. ​​

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November | Case Collaboration with Community-based Threat Assessment Teams

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Community-based threat assessment teams are multidisciplinary groups of professionals who work together to identify, assess, and manage individuals who pose a potential threat of violence to themselves or others. These teams typically include representatives from various state, county, and local agencies and organizations, such as law enforcement, mental health professionals, school officials, and social service providers. The primary goal of these teams is to prevent violence by identifying individuals who may be at risk of harming themselves or others and providing them with appropriate interventions and support services.​
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There are many foreseeable situations in which a person of concern being assessed by a community-based BTAM team may also pose a risk to a local business, and likewise, where a person of concern known to a workplace BTAM team may be a risk to the community.  Interoperability between workplace and community-based threat assessment teams is critical,  for de-confliction and avoiding tragic outcomes resulting from a failure to communicate or coordinate threat mitigation efforts. Community-based teams are rapidly developing across the U.S., and workplace teams benefit from cooperation and collaboration in addressing behavioral threat cases.

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December | Care and Feeding of the Behavioral Threat Assessment & Management Team

 

Organizations cannot apply a one-and-done approach to BTAM team development. Threat assessment skills have a short shelf life if they are not used often. To keep teams cohesive, functional, and effective, it is important to provide, not just ongoing training, but other activities to recognize the efforts and dedication of team members, celebrate successes, and mark milestones. This session is focused on exploring strategies and techniques for maintaining BTAM teams, reducing attrition, and sustaining the quality of their work. Such efforts also help demonstrate the organization's support for the team and aid in the defensibility of the team's work when called into question. Organizations need to protect their investment in BTAM teams development through ongoing team maintenance initiatives.     ​

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