Research & Evidence

This study evaluated a brief violence risk screener in an emergency department setting and found it to be a valid and reliable tool for identifying individuals at risk of violence. The screening tool showed strong predictive power (e.g. patients who screened positive were 27 times more likely to commit violence) and excellent inter-rater reliability, supporting its use in early threat detection.

This comprehensive review synthesized findings from 22 meta-analyses on violence risk factors. It identified key evidence-based risk factors – for example, substance use disorders and exposure to violence in childhood emerged as major modifiable contributors to later violent behavior (with population-attributable risks around 12–15%). The review underscores that addressing such risk factors (especially mental health and childhood exposures) is critical for informing violence risk assessment tools and prevention strategies.

This review examined violence-prevention programs targeted at young children (ages 3–8) in the US and UK. It found that early interventions with at-risk children can improve prosocial behavior and resilience, as well as academic achievement. Several programs led to reductions in aggressive or violent outcomes later in childhood and strengthened social-emotional learning skills. These findings highlight the importance of early childhood and school-based programs as effective violence prevention measures.

This study analyzed the implementation of a threat assessment protocol across K-12 schools in Virginia. It found that school-based threat assessment teams could reliably distinguish serious threats from non-serious ones and intervene appropriately. Notably, a threat deemed "serious" by a team was over 12 times more likely to result in a student's attempt to carry it out, validating the assessment process. The study provides evidence that structured threat assessment in schools is practical and helps reduce punitive discipline (e.g. expulsions) while maintaining safety by focusing on early intervention with high-risk students.

This paper reviews how mental health professionals contribute to threat assessment and violence prevention in school and campus settings. It highlights that psychologists and counselors provide expertise in evaluating an individual's mental state, stressors, and developmental issues, which is crucial for assessing targeted violence risk. The author offers best-practice guidelines and defines the proper scope of mental health professionals' involvement on threat assessment teams. In sum, the study emphasizes that mental health practitioners play a critical preventive role by identifying at-risk individuals early, guiding risk management (rather than just prediction), and connecting persons of concern to needed interventions.

This recent review examines the community-based "Cure Violence" model, which treats violence like a contagious disease by deploying trained "violence interrupters" in communities. Across 13 evaluations of programs in various cities, the approach was associated with significant reductions in gun violence – for instance, shootings dropped by 63% in one New York City site, and killings fell by 52% in a Chicago program. Overall, about two-thirds of the findings showed violence decreases, many of them statistically significant. The review also identifies key elements for successful community violence intervention, such as focusing on highest-risk individuals, using credible messengers to mediate conflicts, providing sustained case management, and ensuring strong program funding and real-time data monitoring.