Breaking the silence: Bystander reporting to law enforcement disrupts individuals moving toward targeted violence.
Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: In an answer to increasing calls to prevent mass violence, law enforcement has partnered with multidisciplinary community shareholders to develop threat assessment teams that actively work together to mitigate potential mass attacks. As bystanders report concerning behavior to law enforcement, these teams work to identify, assess, and manage these concerns in a manner aimed to mitigate the potential for violence and provide necessary support to individuals whose behavior caused concern. To date, there is limited empirical research regarding specific interventions that disrupt individuals moving toward targeted violence. HYPOTHESES: A key focus was to determine if disrupted persons of concern (POC) for violence were more likely to have been reported to law enforcement by bystanders than the active shooter group. In addition, we sought to determine whether the proposed mitigating factor of being "on the radar" moderates targeted violence. METHOD: The present study examined a matched sample of 72 active shooters (AS) and 74 POC who had been assessed by a threat assessment team. The sample was coded using the North Carolina Behavioral Threat Assessment Investigation-25 structured professional judgment tool. RESULTS: = 0.48 reports for AS; p = .032). CONCLUSIONS: These findings emphasize the importance of ongoing law enforcement participation in threat assessment teams and the necessity of bystander education in specific behaviors to watch for and report. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
Source: Law and Human Behavior
DOI: 10.1037/lhb0000630
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4415247336
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