NCJ Number
91518
Editor(s)
J Takeuchi,
F Solomon,
W W Menninger
Date Published
1981
Length
187 pages
Annotation
Issues addressed in these conference proceedings include dangerousness and limits in predicting dangerousness, managing threatening persons, relationships between the Secret Service and the mental health community, research opportunities to improve Secret Service operations, and agent training and selection.
Abstract
The report first presents questions raised by the Secret Service in planning meetings before the conference and opening remarks by a director of research from Harvard University and high officials in the Secret Service. It then summarizes workshop discussions and plenary sessions. In general, conferees felt that violent or dangerous behavior should not be regarded as a personality trait, but fluctuated over time and was elicited by particular settings. They also offered many practical suggestions for improving the yield of information from interviews with potentially dangerous individuals and tended to agree with the Secret Service that the personality type of greatest concern was a marginal or self-proclaimed member of a fringe group espousing extremist social, political, or religious views. Participants proposed the creation of an independent research advisory board to work with the Secret Service and that the agency establish its own research staff. Other suggestions focused on improving relations between the Service and the mental health community and managing a dangerous person within the context of a free society. Four papers commissioned for the conference examine methods for assessing and managing dangerous behavior and ways to improve Secret Service operations. Other presentations review clinical prediction studies, interviewing techniques, parole behavior prediction, suicide prevention research, handling nuclear threat messages, ethical and legal issues in Secret Service intervention, case management, and the escalating incidence of assassination. The appendixes provide the conference's agenda and a list of participants. Many presentations include references. For separate papers, see NCJ-91519-22.