Threat Assessment Teams for Institutions of Higher Education: A Review of Key Ideas and Practices for Professional Counselors

This review of literature provides a comprehensive account of the instigative factors, history, and evolution of threat assessment teams (TATs) for target-based violence in institutions of higher education (IHEs). Through examining diverse approaches to threat assessment, this review investigates the most effective criteria for creating protocols to identify and manage threats of target-based violence. The objective is to provide a greater understanding of the precursors and warning signs to threats of violence, including an understanding of what psychosocial factors impel students to enact mass murder, so that TATs can implement preventative strategies to school violence. The generalized findings of the majority of studies point to the necessity for a multi-disciplinary team referencing fact-based predictors of violence, yet applying an individualized and preventative approach to each case of suspected violence.

The Cambridge Handbook of Forensic Psychology

In the decade since the publication of the first edition of The Cambridge Handbook of Forensic Psychology, the field has expanded into areas such as social work and education, while maintaining the interest of criminal justice researchers and policy makers. This new edition provides cutting-edge and comprehensive coverage of the key theoretical perspectives, assessment methods, and interventions in forensic psychology. The chapters address substantive topics such as acquisitive crime, domestic violence, mass murder, and sexual violence, while also exploring emerging areas of research such as the expansion of cybercrime, particularly child sexual exploitation, as well as aspects of terrorism and radicalisation. Reflecting the global reach of forensic psychology and its wide range of perspectives, the international team of contributors emphasise diversity and cross-reference between adults, adolescents, and children to deliver a contemporary picture of the discipline.

The “Alert” for non-sites of memory: a 1965 scout action of discovering and describing Second World War sites in Poland

During the First Scouting Alert (Poland 1965), scouts were tasked with finding and describing sites related to the events of Second World War. Those were mostly monuments, places of conflict, graves and body disposal pits. The scouts were tasked with finding such sites in their neighbourhood according to information collected from local communities. The campaign resulted in 26,000 reports in form of the registration sheets containing self-made maps, short descriptions of the found sites and answers to several questions on how to commemorate them. The Alert can be seen as a nationwide response to non-sites of memory. The article analyses the reports of the scouts, as well as considering the action as a process. It presents the political background of the action and diagnoses its influence on the results of the reconnaissance conducted - types of places to be found and registered or overlooked by scouts. In particular cases, the Alert generated opportunities during which non-sites of memory could be restored to the public awareness. The paper summarizes the campaign and focuses on two cases: Krępiecki Forest and Adampol, described to present the influence of the Alert on the memory cultures. In the neighbourhood of Krępiecki Forest, the Alert was an impulse to transform a person who saw the mass murder into a key witness. The case of archaeological investigations conducted in Adampol shows the potential of the Alert archive materials to evoke the state of unrest and to become forensic evidence

Compassion, Reasoning, and the Urgency of Healing Divided Societies

An unprecedented planetary danger faces human civilization and puts its future in question, especially climate catastrophe. There is a vital need for human beings to make better decisions together. These decisions must take place across many cultures and civilizations that have conflicting interests, ambitions, and needs. Thinking together leads to more advanced problem solving. In order to survive and thrive, humans have always had to make decisions informed by two things: (1) a common concern for each other, and (2) a capacity for reasoning that supports sustainable life. We often do this, but we are also capable of mass murder and destruction of life on earth. This is a paradox of mutually exclusive fates, with the negative fate only circumvented through the cultivation of our positive capacities. Our positive capacities for survival require a cultivation of compassion and moral reasoning, what is being introduced in this book as Compassionate Reasoning.

Mass Murder in America: Trends, Characteristics, Explanations, and Policy Response

Mass murder, especially involving a firearm, has been a subject of increasing interest among criminologists over the past decade. Lacking an existing and reliable data resource for studying these crimes, several organizations have launched their own database initiatives with, unfortunately, little consensus on definition. As a result, there is confusion regarding the nature and trends of such events. In this paper, we rely on the Associated Press/USA Today/Northeastern University Mass Killing Database, which provides the widest coverage of incidents in the U.S. with four or more victim fatalities, regardless of location, situation, or weapon. First, we present trends in incidents and victimization of mass killings from 2006 through 2020, followed by an examination of various incident, offender, and victim characteristics, distinguishing among the major subtypes. Next, we detail a motivational typology of mass murder and identify the common contributing factors. Finally, we consider the potential effects of certain policy responses related to media coverage, mental health services, and gun restrictions on the prevalence of mass killing.

Trauma, Narrative and History: Representation of Traumatic Experience in the Works of Algirdas Landsbergis

The twentieth century witnessed an abundant number of traumatic events related to dark history. Trauma caused by war, occupation, exile, repression, gave rise to migration or mass murder. To rely upon Cathy Caruth (1996: 3), the concept of trauma is understood as a physical wound; however, subsequently in medicine and the literature of psychiatry, especially in Freud’s works, the concept of trauma came to be understood as a psychological wound. In addition, trauma is not only a disturbing or stressful experience that affects an individual physically or psychologically, it may also be based on other factors created by society. Over time the field of trauma in various contexts expanded so that today it is widely used in sociology when analysing historical and cultural events. Cultural traumatic memory is mirrored in trauma fiction that conveys the experience of loss and suffering, there is a space for memories, introspection, recollections, flashbacks and awful remembrances that are colored by pain. Apart from individual, event-based trauma, there is another category of trauma variously called cultural or historical trauma, which affects groups of people. Numerous studies have been conducted on the latter topic, however, trauma and its expression in Lithuanian literature has not yet been sufficiently documented. The aim of this study is to discuss the concepts of cultural and historical trauma and the way trauma is reflected in Algirdas Jeronimas Landsbergis’ works. The authors of the study claim that Landsbergis – one of many Lithuanian writers-in-exile – wrote texts that fill a cultural vacuum and invite a re-discussion of what was most painful in the past.

Misogyny, Violent Extremism and Interpersonal Violence: Examining the Mediating and Contingent Effects of Revenge Motivation, Hypermasculinity, Collective Narcissism and Group Threats

The growing evidence base of risk factors for violent extremism demonstrates overlaps with parallel problem areas like domestic violence, mass murder, and stalking. Yet, empirical research examining the overlap among these domains is limited. The present analysis aims to address the lack of empirical research on the relationship between misogyny, violent extremism, and interpersonal violence by conducting survey-based analyses employing a newly developed and validated psychometric scale to measure misogyny. Based on a UK nationally representative survey (n = 1500), we examine the underlying mechanisms and contingent effects linking misogyny to violent extremism and interpersonal violence. We investigate how misogyny, frustrated narcissistic entitlement, and group threats among men translate into revenge motivation and hypermasculinity and thus, may increase violent extremist intentions and attitudes, as well as justification of and willingness to engage in interpersonal violence. The results show that misogyny predicts violent extremist attitudes and intentions as well as increased support for and willingness to engage in interpersonal violence via revenge planning and hypermasculinity, particularly among men who experience frustrated narcissistic entitlement and greater threats to the ingroup. Among women, misogyny is not associated with violent extremist attitudes or intentions but is associated with increased support for and readiness to use violence. Our findings have important practical implications as we provide evidence which articulates when and for whom misogyny may be a risk factor for violent extremism and interpersonal violence. Establishing the relevance of misogyny as a risk factor for (extremist) violence may provide evidence for more targeted prevention and intervention programs.