Origins of Threat Assessment Teams and Practices

Between 1970 and 1981 there were four assassination attempts on public figures, culminating with the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Regan in 1981. The increase in targeted violence directed toward public figures prompted United States agencies to investigate what could be done to prevent future acts of targeted violence, a practice which would come to be known as threat assessment. Spurred by the desire to understand how targeted violence occurs and how to prevent it, the United States Secret Service, the National Institute of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons launched the Exceptional Case Study Project in 1992, a report that continues to be the foundation of threat assessment practices today. Since the publishing of the ECSP, there have been multiple acts of targeted violence on U.S. soil that have shaped the development and implementation of threat assessment efforts in the nation. In this module, we take a look at some of the significant events that contributed to the creation of current threat assessment practices.