Citation

Regehr C, Glancy GD, Carter A, Ramshaw L. Int. J. Law Psychiatry 2017; 54: 140-147.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Center for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada. Electronic address: Lisa.ramshaw@camh.ca.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ijlp.2017.06.009

PMID

28687175

Abstract

Horrifying, high profile acts of violence on campuses remain relatively rare, nevertheless, academic administrators are required to manage threats of violence on campus on an increasingly regular basis. These threats take two primary forms, those in which the perpetrator and the intended victim(s) are clearly identified, often involving repeated threats and threatening behaviour towards an individual; and those involving anonymous threats to commit acts of larger scale violence. Complicating factors in managing these threats include: fear contagion; mass media and social media attention; responsibilities to all members of the university community sometimes including individuals issuing the threat and the intended victims; demands for safety and security measures that are often at odds with professional advice; and permeable campus boundaries that cause security challenges. This paper considers the changing landscape of threat assessment and risk assessment on university and college campuses and suggests opportunities for partnerships between forensic mental health professionals and academic administrators.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

College campus; Online threats; Risk assessment; Threat assessment; University campus