Completed BBCSS Project

Investigating the Relationship between Threatening Communications and Actual Behavior

The Secret Service requested the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences to appoint an ad hoc steering committee.  This committee planed and conducted a workshop investigating the relationship between subjects' communications and behaviors of a threatening nature.  The workshop included discussions and presentations on topic areas such as 1) the variables associated with different methods of communications, 2) the relationship of these methods to risk and/or threat assessment, 3) current methodologies used to analyze these methods, and 4) how the methodologies are applied in the field.  To guide the discussions at the workshop, the steering committee commissioned literature reviews summarizing the existing literature in these topic areas, identifying gaps in the literature, and identifying areas for future research.  After the workshop, a verbatim transcript was prepared and issued in accordance with institutional guidelines.

Committee Membership

Judee Burgoon, University of Arizona

Douglas H. Harris (Chair), Anacapa Sciences, Inc.

Gary LaFree, University of Maryland

John Monahan, University of Virginia, IOM

Kimberly A. Neuendorf, Cleveland State University

Mario Scalora, University of Nebraska

Stuart W. Shulman, University of Massachusetts Amherst