Deck 14: Understanding Threat Assessment Methodologies and the Role of the Crime Analyst

Question 1

The threat assessment process described in Chapter 14 applies to any identified risk with the major objective being to neutralize the risk before an incident can occur

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Fundamentally, the chapter asks the question: Can identifying risk factors and early warning signs related to violence reduce the number of violent acts that take place at schools, businesses or entertainment venues

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Typically, at least in the media, the investigation into the "whats" & the "whys" of a mass shooting tends to focus on a psychoanalysis of the shooter.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

In 2000, several organizations, including the Secret Service and the FBI, collaborated to produce a report on risk factors associated with the perpetrators in 9 school shooting case studies

Question 5

Early attempts to predict who might be school shooters usually provided profiles and risk assessments

Question 6

This chapter also focuses on profiles and risk assessments

Question 7

The threat assessment approach is considered to be more innovative and advanced than general risk assessments

Question 8

The Threat Assessment is a process in which an identified threat is examined from only only point of view

Question 9

Systematic procedures for conducting threat assessments and intervention strategies for school shootings owe their beginnings to the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC)

Question 10

The Four-Pronged Assessment is only used when an unlikely threat has been received related to a school shooting

Question 11

Research has indicated that those who engage in violence at school were influenced to bring a weapon to school by factors unrelated to school issues.

Question 12

The FBI in its school violence study of 2000 found no common traits among those students prone to commit an act of violence

Question 13

In an article published in the Journal of Communication (2014), Ferguson and Olson found no positive link between violence in society and violent video games

Question 14

The Catalyst Model explains aggression by suggesting that genetic predispositions can lead to an aggressive child temperament and, later, to an aggressive adult personality.

Question 15

Threat assessment may examine the role of the victim in order to attempt to identify a specific reason particular victims were chosen

Question 16

The prediction of future violence remains a necessity in the U.S. justice and mental health systems

Question 17

Typically, at least in the media, the investigation into the "whats" and the "whys" of a mass shooting uses the perspective of focusing on ______________exhibited by the perpetrator.

A) Parenting failures
B) Missed warning signs
C) Violent video games
D) Drug addiction

Question 18

In order to carry out a threat assessment or to conduct a post-incident evaluation of a violent event, _______is necessary.

A) Intelligence
B) Paid informants
C) Blame
D) Profiles of suspects

Question 19

In 2000, the Secret Service, the National Association of School Psychologists, the FBI, the National School Safety Center and the American Psychological Association, collaborated to produce a report on ______________associated with the perpetrators in 9 school shooting case studies.

A) The intimate lives of violent youth
B) Video games
C) Nicknames
D) Risk factors

Question 20

Early attempts to predict who might be school shooters were likely to fall in the categories of _______.

A) Profiles and risk assessments
B) Parenting techniques
C) Sociological dysfunctions
D) Psychoanalytic analyses

Question 21

A threat assessment approach does not focus on predicting future acts of violence; instead it focuses on ______________.

A) Talking to peers
B) Questioning teenagers
C) Preventing a prospective and specific act of violence
D) Setting up violent-prone youth

Question 22

An ideographic approach to a threat of violence involves a case study approach in which an individual, , is identified and studied.

A) Rather than a group of potential perpetrators
B) Who has been over-indulged
C) Who dropped out of school
D) Who has bad friends

Question 23

The threat assessment approach is based on examining direct, threatening statements and behavior, and then ______________.

A) Arresting the suspect
B) Becoming punitive
C) Aggressively pursuing disturbed youth
D) Moving toward prevention

Question 24

The task of threat assessment incorporates the services of law enforcement and ______________.

A) Judges
B) Mental health professionals
C) Environmental criminologists
D) School security guards

Question 25

A multidisciplinary strategy, threat assessment includes defining the_______, as well as identifying the target or targets.

A) Nature and degree of the risk
B) Troublemakers in the school
C) Meaning of aggression
D) Second Amendment

Question 26

A ______________approach provides the most reliability in determining the nature and degree of risk.

A) Focused, singular
B) Threat assessment czar
C) Multifaceted, fact-based
D) Psychological

Question 27

A multifaceted approach utilizes investigative techniques that aid in identification, assessment and management of the ______________who proclaimed the threat.

A) Terrorist group
B) Individual
C) School
D) Clique

Question 28

Systematic procedures for conducting threat assessments and intervention strategies for school shootings owe their beginnings to the _______.

A) Defense Department's Terrorism Division (DDTD)
B) Homeland Securities' Center for School Shootings (CSS)
C) FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC)
D) Treasury Department's Secret Service Criminal Division (SSCD)

Question 29

In 1999, the NCAVC held a symposium on school shootings in Leesburg, Virginia and this symposium examined ______________.

A) 9 school shooting cases
B) Several school discipline cases
C) 9 school suspension cases
D) 18 school shooting cases

Question 30

The result of the NCAVC symposium was a model for ______________.

A) Profiles troubled teens
B) A threat assessment approach to school violence
C) Thinking about youth aggression
D) Changing the school culture

Question 31

This model that came from the NCAVC symposium was called the ______________.

A) School shooter profile model
B) Four-Pronged Assessment Approach
C) Crime Analysis Triangle
D) Threat Assessment Protocol

Question 32

A checklist of warning signs to help detect a school shooter has important drawbacks; one of those drawbacks is the profile approach can unfairly label many nonviolent students as potentially dangerous individuals and the other is that______________ .

A) Many teens who show one or more signs common to school shooters will never act out in a violent way
B) Many teens with one or more signs will certainly act out
C) Some teens with a warning sign will go on to be police officers
D) Some teens with a warning sign will be a disabled student

Question 33

The Four-Pronged Assessment is only used when a ______________ related to a school shooting.

A) Student is disrespectful in class
B) Student is sent to the office
C) Student misses too many classes
D) Credible threat has been received

Question 34

The assessment of the student who has issued a threat is based on the _______ known about the student in four major areas.

A) Totality of the circumstances
B) Personal secrets
C) Intimate details
D) Comments from his or her parents

Question 35

The Four Prongs of the Assessment include Personality of the student, Family dynamics, School dynamics and the student's role in those dynamics and ______________.

A) Academic Grades
B) Dating history
C) Social dynamics
D) IQ test scores

Question 36

If the individual appears to have serious problems in the majority of the four prongs of the assessment, then the threat should be taken seriously and ______________.

A) Referral to a social worker should be made
B) A note should be sent his or her parents
C) He or she should get a serious talking to
D) Intervention strategies must be implemented

Question 37

In her monograph entitled "The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective," Mary Ellen O'Toole, recommends that schools not only appoint a threat assessment coordinator, but also establish a ______________ .

A) Committee of teachers to talk about recommendations
B) Multi-disciplinary team as part of the threat assessment system
C) Principal's work team
D) School Board subcommittee

Question 38

All threat messages do become risk factors and could strongly suggest that an individual is ______________ .

A) Merely seeking attention
B) Trying to establish some street creds
C) Considering an act of violence
D) Thinking about his or her future

Question 39

Examining risk factors from both inside and outside of the school environment is the main focus of the threat assessment approach which in this course is called: _______.

A) The Threat Assessment Strategy
B) Four-Pronged Model
C) NCAVC
D) Crime Analysis Triangle

Question 40

The FBI in its school violence study in 2002 found common traits among those students prone to commit an act of violence; those traits included:

A) The suspects were white males under 18 years of age.
B) They had low tolerance for frustration.
C) They experienced a failed love relationship.
D) All of the above

Question 41

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 2002 reported that television violence might cause children and teenagers to become "immune" to the horror of violence and could cause them to gradually accept violence _______.

A) As a way to get closer to negative peers
B) As a way to solve problems
C) As a way to get out of school
D) As a way to stop headaches

Question 42

A study, carried out by professors Christopher Ferguson and Cheryl Olson, aimed to determine conclusively whether there was a link between violent video games and violent behaviour, found ______________between violence in society and violent video games.

A) A positive link
B) A negative link
C) No positive link
D) A high correlation

Question 43

Findings of researchers tend to ______________the popular belief that playing violent video games increased aggression, particularly for those young people with mental health problems.

A) Confirm
B) Contradict
C) Establish
D) Show that

Question 44

Elson and Ferguson in 2014 reported on another study about violent video games and reported that although youth playing violent video games was going up, youth violence was ______________.

A) Going down and most youth who play violent video games do not become more aggressive in real-life situations
B) Going up and video games might be the cause
C) Going down but no one knows why
D) Going up and violent video games was causing this rise

Question 45

Since violent video games may not be a contributing factor in youth violence, Ferguson et al. in 2008 proposed a ______________to help explain youth aggressiveness.

A) New set of facts
B) Disease model
C) Catalyst Model
D) Profile approach

Question 46

The Catalyst Model suggests that a genetic predisposition can lead to an aggressive child temperament and, later, to an ______________.

A) Oppositional teen syndrome
B) Overly passive adult personality
C) Amoral personality disorder
D) Aggressive adult personality

Question 47

Ferguson and his colleagues in the Catalyst Model suggest that it is environmental factors that may act as catalysts leading to aggressive actions for an individual who has ______________.

A) A friendly disposition
B) A violence-prone personality
C) A warped sense of humor
D) A never done anything wrong

Question 48

The Catalyst Model states that the environment does not cause aggressive behavior, but may only ______________.

A) Act as a catalyst influencing its form
B) Be a consequence
C) Act as a psychological contributor
D) Be a false causative factor

Question 49

The Threat Assessment Strategy may examine the role of the ______________ in order to attempt to identify a specific reason particular victim(s) were chosen.

A) Principal
B) Parents
C) Victim
D) Police

Question 50

Targeted violence predatory, intended violence that is not ______________ .

A) Planned
B) Researched
C) Actually carried out
D) Spontaneous

Question 51

Some experts contend that threat assessment is not a final product, but the beginning of the______________.

A) Investigation
B) Management process
C) Final solution
D) Eliminating of school shootings

Question 52

The biopsychosocial model is a holistic investigation that seeks to obtain a _______ of the person of concern.

A) 360-degree picture
B) Superficial idea
C) Brief profile
D) Positive image

Question 53

The Pathway to Targeted Violence is made up of ______________ steps.

A) Three
B) Four
C) Six
D) Seven

Question 54

The first step on the Pathway to Targeted Violence is ______________.

A) Ideation
B) Grievance
C) Probing
D) The attack

Question 55

A grievance is highly personal and it may be

A) Real or imagined
B) Related to a TV show
C) Just a dream
D) Based on forgotten memories

Question 56

Most people who make a threat are _______.

A) Really dangerous
B) Only kidding
C) Not dangerous
D) Crazy