9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Violence Goes to College: Detecting and Preventing Avenger Violence WEBINAR John Nicoletti, Ph.D. Nicoletti-Flater Associates www.n-fa.comwww.n-fa.com Facebook: Nicoletti-Flater Associates

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates PHASE I DETECTION, BEHAVIORAL CODING, and DISRUPTING

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates UNDERSTANDING VIOLENCE

CAMPUS RELATED VIOLENT INCIDENTS (September 2006 – Present) 9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Columbus, Ohio, March 9, 2010: A 51-year-old custodial employee who received a bad job evaluation came to the university campus with two handguns in a backpack and shot two co- workers, killing one and wounding the other, before fatally shooting himself.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Tacoma, Washington, February 26, 2010: A 30- year-old gunman with an infatuation with a Tacoma special education teacher lay in wait and fatally shot the woman as she arrived for school. Police later fatally shot the gunman after a chase and confrontation about 10 miles away. The teacher had referred to the gunman as a “stalker” and had a restraining order against him.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Litttleton, Colorado, February 23, 2010: A 32- year-old man signed in at the reception noon at a junior high school, approximately three miles from Columbine High School, saying he was a former student. It was unclear when he left the building but at about three p.m., he opened fire in the parking lot of the school, injuring two teenagers. He was tackled by a math teacher, who said they had gone through extensive emergency drills after Columbine.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Louisville, Kentucky, February 12, 2010: An 18- year-old man was arrested for allegedly shooting a 16-year-old girl and a 19-year-old woman at a high school homecoming basketball game. Days prior to the shooting students had informed the school’s principal about Facebook posts saying there was going to be a fight at the game. Neither victim was an intended target. School officials have now doubled up on security.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Huntsville, Alabama, February 12, 2010: A 40- something female biology professor was charged with murder at the University of Alabama’s Huntsville campus. She allegedly opened fire during an afternoon faculty meeting, killing three and injuring three other faculty members. The shooter had apparently been denied tenure and a subsequent appeal had also been denied, meaning she would be out of a job after the current semester.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS New Haven, Connecticut, September 15, 2009: A 24-year-old male animal lab technician was charged with the asphyxiation death of a female Yale graduate student. They found her body hidden in a wall in the basement of a university research building on what would have been her wedding day. Co-workers told police that the technician was a "control freak" who viewed the laboratory and its mice as his territory who would get angry if lab workers did not wear shoe covers.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Langston, Oklahoma, August 16, 2009: Five people were shot and wounded and five suspects taken into custody at a back to school party allowing off-campus students. The shooters and victims were not students at the school. The shootings took place in a campus parking lot at the end of the party.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 19, 2009: A 21-year-old man was shot and killed outside a Harvard University dormitory on May 19. According to new reports, drugs and money were tied to the motive for the alleged murder. The victim had been selling drugs to students at Harvard. Three men allegedly had planned to rob him of his marijuana and money while he was at campus making a transaction.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Middletown, Connecticut, May 6, 2009: A 29-year-old gunman wearing a wig shot and killed a Wesleyan University student while she worked at a bookstore near campus. Police found a journal in which the shooter had written, "I think it okay to kill Jews and go on a killing spree" and "Kill Johanna. She must Die." The gunman gave himself up after seeing his picture in the paper.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Baku, Azerbaijan, April 30, 2009: A 29- year-old gunman climbed from the first floor to the sixth at a university firing on teachers and students, mostly in the head. Twelve were killed and 13 more wounded, before the shooter took his own life. No motive was known. The shooter was described as a “ loner ” who had a recent falling out with his father.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Athens, Georgia, April 25, 2009: A 57- year-old college professor was being sought in the fatal shootings of his ex- wife and two men outside a theater near the University of Georgia campus. He had reported argued with one of the victims earlier and returned with guns and opened fire.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Dearborn, Michigan, April 3, 2009: A murder/ suicide at a local campus occurred as a 28-year-old male snuck in a crudely shortened shotgun, killed a fellow student, and then turned the gun on himself. The shooter was notorious on the Internet, drawing condemnation for videos on You Tube denigrating black women and atheists.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Conway, Arkansas, October 26, 2008: Four men, ages 19-20, shot and killed two students and wounded a third person. The men appear to have driven up on a group of students near a dormitory at the University of Central Arkansas and fired at least eight rounds from a semiautomatic pistol. Police believe the victims were not the intended targets but rather innocent bystanders.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Dekalb, Illinois, February 14, 2008: A 27-year-old former student opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University, killing six and injuring at least 15 others, before killing himself.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Blacksburg, Virginia, April 16, 2007: A 23-year-old senior at Virginia Tech shot and killed 32 students and faculty at the Virginia Tech campus, before turning the gun on himself as police closed in. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RECENT VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Dawson College, Montreal, Canada, September 13, 2006: 25-year-old male, calling himself “The Angel of Death” on a Goth subculture website, kills one and injures 19 others during a shooting spree before being shot and killed by police.

CAMPUS RELATED VIOLENT INCIDENTS = 16 Number Killed -71 Number Injured -61 Perpetrators : Professors - 2 Students - 4 Other (non-campus) 10 9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Threats come from two categories of perpetrators:

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates BASIC CATEGORIES Insider Outsider

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates There are two timelines in violence.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates TWO KEY TIME CONSIDERATIONS Event Threshold Event Horizon

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates The probability of a violent incident from an insider should be low.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Avengers always have a progression.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates DEVELOPMENT OF AN AVENGER Perceived Injustice Feeling Victimized Externalization of Responsibility Development of a Grudge Obsessed with Avenging Avenging Action

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Phases of action and campus responsibilities: PreventionInterruption/Disruption RespondingNeutralization Aftermath

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Avengers always tell you ahead of time.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates The difference between a tragedy and a success story is that somebody took the “broadcasting” seriously.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates How Do They Broadcast It? Threats (may be verbal or written) Direct Veiled Conditional Videos New Technologies  Web Pages  Text Messaging  My Space Other Behavioral Indicators

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates BEHAVIORAL CODING OPTIONS: * Normal Behaviors * Boundary Probing Behaviors * Attack Related Behaviors - Desensitization Behaviors In Vivo Virtual - Dehumanization Behaviors In Vivo Virtual - Skill Set Building - Development of an Armament Inventory - Development of an Attack Plan * Attack Behaviors

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Coding the Behavioral Broadcast (skip the “tea leaf reading”) Normal behaviors must be defined according to: The specific environment The individual Boundary Probing: Pushing tolerance levels To determine how much they can get away with.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates IMPORTANT ISSUE If the school or campus allows a boundary probe to occur without a disrupter, then by default that behavior becomes normal.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Reasons for Not Disrupting the Behavior Unilateral Risk Assessment Inserting ‘JUST’ in the behavioral description Applying ‘Extinction Theory’ to violence Over-reliance on Risk Assessment Instruments instead of Behavioral Observations and Data Monitoring Afraid to do anything because they might “set the person off” Assuming that the potential perpetrator is getting help because he/she is in counseling Afraid of law suit or other legal action.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates REASONS FOR OVERREACTING OR IDENTIFYING A FALSE POSITIVE Focusing on ‘WHO’ instead of ‘WHAT’ Loner Odd Mentally Ill Over Reliance on Risk Assessment Instruments instead of Behavior Observations and Data Monitoring Unilateral Risk Assessment

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Focus on What – Not Who

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates VIRGINIA TECH - WARNING SIGNS  Neighbors reported Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech shooter, as being a “loner” and “odd.” He would not respond when spoken to and would talk to himself.  When taking a creative writing class in fall 2005, female students complained that Cho would take photos of their legs under the desks with his cell phone.  Cho wrote about death in such a sinister way that the dozens of students boycotted the creative writing class.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates VIRGINIA TECH - WARNING SIGNS (con’t)  In November 2005 a female student reported “annoying” behavior from Cho and he was referred to the University disciplinary system.  In December 2005, a second female student complained about electronic instant messaging from Cho and he was told by police not to contact her again. The University was again contacted.  After an acquaintance reported Cho might be suicidal, a psychiatric evaluation determined he was a danger to himself or others as a result of mental illness.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates VIRGINIA TECH - WARNING SIGNS (con’t)  Cho receives outpatient treatment in December 2005 and is deemed to present an imminent danger to himself.  According to a fellow student, Cho had written two plays so “twisted” that his classmates suspected he might become a “school shooter.” - One play involved a fight between a step-father and step-son and involved throwing of hammers and attacks with a chainsaw. -The second play involved students fantasizing about stalking and killing a teacher who sexually molested them.  Cho’s tutor at Virginia Tech urged him to seek counseling and reported her concerns about him to school officials.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates VIRGINIA TECH - WARNING SIGNS (con’t)  Cho had recently set fire to his dorm room.  When Cho purchased the gun for his killing spree he presented three forms of identification and state police conducted an instant background check which took about a minute. Cho did not say why he wanted a gun.  Cho left a long and vitriolic note in his dorm room explaining his actions and stating, “You caused me to do this.” It also railed against “rich kids,” “debauchery,” and “deceitful charlatans” on campus.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates TECHNIQUES FOR DISRUPTING / INTERRUPTING

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates If They Broadcast It – Believe It!

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Skip the “Tea Leaf” Reading If a coded behavior occurs, go to a disrupter.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Always Interrupt / Disrupt the Behavior

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates NEGATIVE BEHAVIORS INCREASE WHEN THERE ARE NO TREES (DETERRENTS)

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates TREES CATEGORIES (disrupters) CATEGORY I QUESTIONING CATEGORY II CONFRONTING CATEGORY III CONSEQUENCES

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates WHEN A TREE IS PLACED AFTER A PRACTICE SESSION THE INDIVIDUAL HAS A CHOICE TO EITHER BACK OFF OR CLIMB OVER IT INDIVIDUAL REACTIONS TO TREES

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Match the disrupter to the behavioral category, then watch the results.

PHASE II THREAT ASSESSMENT TEAMS’ Responsibilities Functional Duties 9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Conduct a Risk Assessment After a Broadcast

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates RISK ASSESSMENT OUTCOME CATEGORIES Proactive Attack Behaviors Against People/ Property Reactive Attack Behaviors Against People/ Property Proactive Non-Attack Behaviors Behaviors That Create Social / Psychological Disruption Reactive Non-Attack Behaviors that Create Social / Psychological Disruption

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Predicting Future Violence The best predictor of future behavior is not past behavior but post-intervention behavior.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates If the concerning behaviors continue after an intervention, then two possible hypotheses have been generated: 1. The individual is choosing to disregard rules when it suits him/her. 2. The individual does not have the capacity to control his/her actions.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS Risk Assessments must always include expiration dates. Risk Assessments must also include Risk Management Strategies.

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates HIPPA & FERPA ISSUES OR NOT

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates INACCURATE ASSESSMENT False Positive False Negative

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Don’t Worry Alone or Make Unilateral Risk Assessments

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates VORTEX * ALL DATA FLOWS INTO IT * SEES THE BIG PICTURE * CAN BE ONE INDIVIDUAL * CAN BE A TEAM * MUST BE FORMALIZED * MUST BE KNOW TO ALL PEOPLE OR KEY PEOPLE * MUST ACT ON THE DATA WITHOUT A VORTEX ALL EVENTS APPEAR AS ISOLATED INCIDENTS

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Integrating Everything Document and date the behavior Code the behavior Activate a response Initiate a disrupter Removal Counseling Other Options Re-evaluate the behavior

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Reintegration Issues and Considerations Attack behaviors and attack-related behaviors have been eliminated A functional vortex is in place Re-entry plan has been developed to include: Response protocols Points of contact Regular monitoring Development of methods for reassuring Victims Targets Students Teachers/Staff Others

9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates Important Consideration Once a student or individual has engaged in an attack-related behavior, they should always remain on the radar detector, even if the behavior appears to have stabilized.

Responding to an Incident and Dealing with the Aftermath Physical Clean Up Campus Reactivation Victim Management / Psychological Clean Up 9/11/2015© Nicoletti-Flater Associates