Imagining the unimaginable to prepare for the unthinkable: Criteria for detecting, reporting, and acting to thwart intended violence.

Abstract

Imagining the Unimaginable" addresses the need for organizations to establish a process for detecting inappropriate behaviors and reporting them to entities capable of acting on the reports. The article recommends incorporating threat management concepts into law enforcement training curricula. It advocates establishing reporting procedures and identifying trained "designated receivers" within the various venues to receive and act on the reports. It also offers an all-purpose reporting guideline keyed on the path to intended violence that proposes "All Threat-All Reporting" criteria, serving as an educational tool for training everyone within law enforcement and different venues. Finally, the article explores the different responses needed for critical and noncritical threats. Together, these recommendations address the challenges involved in initially identifying problem individuals so that the threat management process can begin. Public Significance StatementThis article is significant because the detecting, reporting, and acting process it recommends fills the current void between the occurrence of a threatening or ominous act and the initiation of the threat management process of identifying, assessing, and managing problem individuals. The article also offers model criteria for what types of behaviors should be reported and recommends ways to train individuals on those criteria.

Are all pathway behaviors observable? A quantitative analysis of the pathway to intended violence model.

“…In operational practice, BTA practitioners have used the PIV framework as an organizing tool when evaluating concerning behaviors by a POC (Amman et al, 2017; Malin, 2021; Schildkraut et al, 2024), and its creators have reexamined its application based on differing contextual factors (Calhoun & Weston, 2023). However, there has been limited empirical examination of the model itself.…”