COMBATIVES · RESEARCH & STUDY NOTES
Understanding violence before confrontation.
COMBATIVES studies violence through technical, academic and public-safety research. This section organizes concepts related to behavioral threat assessment, protective intelligence, violence prevention, interpersonal violence, child protection and real-world safety.
The objective is not to create profiles or predict who will become violent. The objective is to understand behavior, context, escalation, risk, prevention and the opportunities that may exist before harm occurs.
Identify. Assess. Manage.
Behavioral Threat Assessment is a structured, fact-based approach for identifying concerning behavior, gathering information, assessing whether an individual may pose a risk of harm and developing appropriate strategies to manage that risk.
Core principle
The process is behavior-based. It does not depend on demographic profiles, stereotypes or a single warning sign.
Why it matters
Prevention begins when concerning behavior is recognized early enough to allow information gathering, assessment and intervention before violence occurs.
COMBATIVES NOTE
Threat assessment is not about identifying “dangerous-looking people.” It is about understanding behavior in context.
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Targeted Violence
Targeted violence refers to violence in which an assailant selects a particular person, group, organization or location before the attack.
Planned vs. reactive
Technical literature distinguishes predatory or planned violence from impulsive or reactive violence. Planned violence may involve intention, research, preparation and target-related behavior before the incident.
What it does not mean
Not all violence follows the same process. Concepts developed for targeted violence should not automatically be applied to every argument, street confrontation or spontaneous assault.
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Protection begins with information.
Protective Intelligence is a proactive approach developed within protective operations to identify, assess and manage individuals or situations that may present a threat to a protected person or target.
The shift
Traditional protection often concentrates on barriers, guards and physical security. Protective Intelligence adds another layer: understanding the person, motive, capability, behavior and relationship to the potential target.
CORE QUESTION
What information exists before the person reaches the target?
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Making a threat is not the same as posing a threat.
A person may communicate threatening language without ultimately presenting a high level of violence concern. Another person may never issue a direct threat while simultaneously engaging in concerning planning or target-related behavior.
Assessment
Threatening communications should be evaluated together with context, circumstances, relationships, behavior and other available information.
IMPORTANT DISTINCTION
Do not wait for perfect words of warning when the broader behavioral picture already warrants legitimate concern.
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Pathway to Violence
The Pathway to Violence is one model used to understand how some forms of planned violence may progress from a personal grievance toward increasingly concrete attack-related behavior.
Critical limitation
This is not a deterministic sequence. Progression may be rapid, slow, incomplete, different from the model or not observable at all.
COMBATIVES NOTE
The practical value of the concept is not prediction. It is recognizing that the attack may be the final event in a longer behavioral process.
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Change matters.
Warning behaviors are dynamic behaviors that may indicate increasing or accelerating concern. They are different from static background risk factors.
Fixation
Increasing or extreme preoccupation with a person, grievance, cause or subject.
Leakage
Communications or expressions that do not necessarily make a direct threat but reveal clues about violent ideas, aspirations, intentions or plans.
Energy Burst
A marked increase in the frequency, duration or variety of target-related warning behavior.
Last Resort Behavior
Communications or actions suggesting increasing desperation or a belief that no alternatives remain.
DO NOT PROFILE
No single behavior proves that violence will occur. Behaviors must be evaluated in context and as part of the totality of circumstances.
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Someone often sees a piece of the picture.
Bystander reporting is a central component of targeted violence prevention. Family members, friends, classmates, co-workers, neighbors and others may observe behavior that is not visible to authorities or organizations.
The information problem
One person may see a communication. Another may know about a grievance. Someone else may observe a behavioral change. When information remains in separate silos, the larger pattern may never become visible.
PREVENTION PRINCIPLE
Reporting systems only work when people know where to report, believe they will be taken seriously and trust that a response will occur.
Sources
Grievance can matter — but grievance is not prediction.
Studies of targeted violence repeatedly identify grievance as a relevant theme in a substantial number of cases. A grievance may involve perceived injustice, humiliation, interpersonal conflict, domestic relationships, employment or other personal issues.
Context
Millions of people experience rejection, humiliation, conflict and anger without becoming violent. Concern increases only when grievance is evaluated together with other behavioral and situational information.
Real incidents
The Secret Service analysis of 173 mass attacks in public spaces found grievance-related motives in many cases and emphasized the value of recognizing concerning behavior before violence.
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Intimate Partner Violence is broader than physical assault.
The CDC framework for Intimate Partner Violence includes physical violence, sexual violence, stalking and psychological aggression — including coercive tactics — by a current or former intimate partner.
Digital environments
Stalking, psychological aggression and coercive behavior may also occur through digital devices, messaging systems and social media.
Prevention
Prevention includes safe and healthy relationship skills, engagement of influential adults and peers, protective environments, support systems and survivor safety.
COMBATIVES NOTE
Family protection cannot begin only when physical violence starts. Control, coercion, stalking and escalating behavior may precede physical harm.
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Prevention must begin before victimization.
The CDC approaches sexual violence as a preventable public-health problem requiring action at individual, relationship, community and societal levels.
Prevention strategies
Evidence-based approaches include promoting norms that protect against violence, teaching prevention skills, supporting girls and women, creating protective environments and reducing harm to victims and survivors.
Evidence matters
Awareness alone is not necessarily prevention. Programs should be evaluated according to whether they actually reduce victimization, perpetration or established risk factors.
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Child abuse includes more than physical violence.
Child maltreatment includes physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect when committed by a parent, caregiver or another person in a custodial role.
Risk and protective factors
Child abuse and neglect emerge from interactions among individual, family and environmental factors. Risk factors help identify vulnerability but do not predict which individual will become a victim or perpetrator.
Protective environments
Safe, stable and nurturing relationships, supportive family environments and access to appropriate services form an important part of prevention.
COMBATIVES NOTE
Child protection is not only teaching a child how to react to danger. It is also changing the environment around the child so abuse becomes harder to initiate, conceal and continue.
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Prevention is more important than prediction.
Secret Service research into completed and averted school attacks repeatedly emphasizes early identification, reporting, multidisciplinary assessment and intervention.
No profile
There is no useful demographic profile of a student attacker. Assessment must focus on behaviors, circumstances, stressors, communications and context.
Intervention points
Analysis of disrupted plots demonstrates that opportunities for intervention often exist before behavior reaches violence.
Families and peers
Students, friends, classmates and family members may be among the people best positioned to observe concerning communications and changes in behavior.
IMPORTANT
Removing a student from an environment does not, by itself, necessarily remove the underlying risk. Prevention requires assessment, management and appropriate support.
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Technical Language
Key terms.
COMBATIVES uses established terminology whenever possible. Technical terms are retained in English so readers can identify the concepts in original research and professional literature.
Behavioral Threat Assessment
Structured assessment of concerning behavior and circumstances for purposes of prevention and risk management.
Protective Intelligence
Information gathering and analysis intended to identify, assess and manage potential threats to a protected person or target.
Targeted Violence
Violence in which a particular target is selected before the attack.
Grievance
A highly personal sense of injustice, injury, humiliation or resentment that may become relevant in some threat-assessment cases.
Fixation
Extreme or increasing preoccupation with a person, cause, grievance or subject.
Leakage
Communications or expressions that indirectly reveal information related to violent thinking, intentions or plans.
Warning Behavior
Dynamic behavior that may indicate increasing or accelerating concern.
Risk Factor
A characteristic or circumstance associated with increased risk, but not proof or prediction of an individual outcome.
Bystander Reporting
Reporting concerning behavior observed by people around an individual or situation.
Research Reference Institutions
Where the research comes from.
COMBATIVES studies violence, behavior, prevention and protection through publicly available technical, academic, public-health and public-safety research produced by recognized institutions.
These organizations contribute different perspectives to the study of violence — including behavioral threat assessment, protective intelligence, criminal justice, public health, interpersonal violence, child protection and violence prevention.
FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
A federal law-enforcement and domestic intelligence agency within the U.S. Department of Justice. FBI behavioral programs and specialist units have produced operational and research material addressing targeted violence, threat assessment, threatening communications, stalking, violent behavior and violence prevention.
USSS
United States Secret Service
A federal law-enforcement agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Its protective mission includes safeguarding designated national leaders and other protected persons, locations and events. The agency's protective work has contributed substantially to the development of Protective Intelligence and behavioral threat assessment.
NTAC
National Threat Assessment Center
The U.S. Secret Service center focused on behavioral threat assessment and targeted violence prevention. Its research examines completed attacks, disrupted plots, attacker backgrounds, concerning behavior, communications, reporting and opportunities for intervention before violence occurs.
NIJ
National Institute of Justice
The research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. NIJ supports research related to crime, criminal justice, violence, policing and public safety, including foundational work relevant to protective intelligence and threat assessment.
CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The national public-health agency of the United States. Its violence-prevention work examines violence as a preventable public-health problem and develops evidence-based strategies concerning intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child abuse and neglect, youth violence and other forms of interpersonal violence.
DHS
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
The federal department responsible for a broad range of homeland-security and public-safety missions. The U.S. Secret Service operates within DHS, and departmental initiatives also address preparedness, threat prevention, community resilience and protection.
DOJ
U.S. Department of Justice
The federal department responsible for law enforcement and the administration of justice in the United States. Institutions referenced in COMBATIVES research, including the FBI and National Institute of Justice, operate within the Department of Justice.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY
Different disciplines. One problem.
Violence cannot be understood through physical confrontation alone. Relevant knowledge may come from behavioral science, law enforcement, protective operations, criminal justice, public health, psychology, education, social services and other professional fields.
Reference does not imply affiliation
COMBATIVES does not claim affiliation, representation, endorsement, training or certification by the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, NTAC, NIJ, CDC, DHS, U.S. Department of Justice or any other institution referenced on this page unless expressly and independently stated. Their publicly available publications are used as technical references for independent study, research and education.
Research Library
Primary references.
The following publications form part of the current COMBATIVES study library. They are used as technical references and do not imply institutional affiliation, certification or endorsement.
COMBATIVES STANDARD
Research before opinion.
COMBATIVES does not treat isolated behavior, appearance, diagnosis, demographic characteristics or intuition as proof that an individual will become violent.
Research findings are presented with their context and limitations. When COMBATIVES adds an editorial or practical interpretation, that interpretation is distinguished from the original source.
Violence prevention is an evolving multidisciplinary field. New evidence may refine, challenge or replace existing concepts over time.
COMBATIVES Research & Study Notes is an educational and editorial project. The material presented here does not constitute a clinical diagnosis, psychological evaluation, legal opinion, law-enforcement threat assessment or individualized security assessment. Situations involving immediate danger should be referred to the appropriate emergency, law-enforcement, medical or specialized professional services in the relevant jurisdiction.