Workplace Violence Prevention
Climate-Change & Violence Risk Screening Questionnaire
July 2026 was the hottest month ever recorded in the United States. Simultaneously, Europe, Asia, and other Northern regions endured devastating heatwaves, severe droughts, and widespread wildfires. Extreme heat physically distorts our world—buckling train rails, bursting concrete highways, sagging power lines, and thinning the air enough to ground flights. Yet beyond the physical environment, extreme heat profoundly alters human behavior and elevates the risk of violence.
An extensive body of empirical research confirms a direct, causal link between elevated temperatures and human aggression. Under extreme thermal stress, individuals exhibit increased interpersonal violence and diminished behavioral control. Mechanistically, heat increases physiological arousal and irritability while eroding cognitive attention and self-regulation. This shifts an individual’s cognitive baseline, accelerating hostile thoughts and driving up rates of violence. Put simply: as temperatures rise, so does the risk of violence.
For safety and security professionals across both the public and private sectors, this represents an escalating, long-term challenge. Climate scientists warn that despite the severity of recent heatwaves, this may be one of the cooler summers for the remainder of our lives. The time has come to recalibrate threat assessment and violence prevention strategies to adapt to this new reality.
The Climate-Change & Violence Risk Screening Questionnaire CC-VR-SQ was developed to help threat assessment and security professionals incorporate the potential influence of climate change and extreme heat into violence risk assessments (self-harm and/or targeted violence). This framework is theoretical, based on emerging operational research, and has not yet been empirically validated. It is an adjunct to a formal threat assessment process and intended solely to assist in gathering, structuring, and organizing behavioral information. This tool should supplement—not supplant—established, validated threat assessment methodologies. Risk categories and thresholds are provisional and subject to adjustment pending future empirical studies.
Using the CC-VR-SQ
The Climate Change & Violence Risk Screening Questionnaire (CC-VR-SQ) is a 37-item battery designed for threat assessors and violence prevention professionals. It helps collect, organize, and analyze information regarding an individual’s response to climate change and extreme heat, evaluating how thermal stress may impact their cognition, behavior, and overall risk of violence. The questionnaire evaluates risk across four interrelated domains.
Section 1: Subject Factors, Distresses & Physiological Vulnerabilities
Section 2: Target Vulnerabilities, Exposure & Behavioral Changes
Section 3: Environmental, Organizational & Community Threat Multipliers
Section 4: Precipitants of Increased Violence Risk & Social Instability
Today, a defensible threat assessment process must account for the effects of extreme heat and climate change on a person of concern, evaluating how these environmental stressors influence violence risk. The CC-VR-SQ provides a structured framework that enables threat management professionals to systematically evaluate these influences and document a thorough, defensible assessment. In today's rapidly changing world, no evaluation is truly complete without accounting for these factors—making the CC-VR-SQ an indispensable tool for every threat assessment team.
Purchase the CC-VR-SQ
The CC-VR-SQ Package includes:
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The full Screening Questionnaire
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The User’s Guide
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A 1-hour and 50-minute training video
The video provides a deep dive into the mental health and behavioral concerns associated with climate change, as well as heat-influenced violence risks.
Price: $205.00 (No additional licensing fees required)