Threat Assessments and Intelligence Sharing: Toward Desecuritisation of School Shootings in the United States

Abstract

'The first step in developing effective assessment approaches and appropriate policy is to identify clearly the types of behavior or outcomes that one is trying to prevent' (Chavez, 1999; Furlong & Morrison, 2000 quoted in Reddy et al, 2001, 158-59). This dissertation answers the question of why a skewed perception of risk exists for the threat of school shootings in the United States. It further seeks to propose the creation of an intelligence database to inform threat assessment teams in schools to increase knowledge of threat communications and behaviours of potential shooters. This assessment is significant to understanding how the skewed assessment of risk negatively impacts the implementation of prevention policies, resulting in a failure to prevent school shootings and lasting detrimental consequences on the learning environment. By applying the Copenhagen School's securitisation theory to US policy responses, discursive language will be analyzed to support the claim that school shootings are perceived as an existential threat to the United States, marking a successful securitisation. A within case analysis of unfavorable policies will inform the selection of a policy recognized in the research as a positive step toward achieving desecuritisation. The policy, behavioural threat assessment,...