DGM Training event
Lone Actor Violence: Stepping Through Formulation and Risk Decision Making
Dr Nathan Brooks
On line training event only
24 November 2023 9am-12pm
Australian Eastern Standard Time
There has been an increase in lone actor and mass casualty events across the globe over the last two decades. Lone actor violence is considered to be a diverse category of offending, encompassing acts of terrorism, school/university shooting, workplace killings, and rampage/mass murders.
In response to the emerging violence, specialised units and teams tasked with dealing with threats and persons of concern have been established. This has created a range of new and varied roles across police, corrections, mental health services, other government agencies, and the private sector. Legislation has also changed across many states and countries with the expansion of criminal code definitions of terrorism and the implementation of continuing detention orders in some places. Consequently, there has been surge in the commission of lone actor offending, along with a number of convictions against those planning and intending to carry out a violent attack.
At the same time, there has been increasing demand on risk and threat assessment tools to provide evidence based risk estimates to inform the decision-making relating to persons of concern. Due to this, many risk tools and threat management approaches have been developed and implemented at a seemingly rapid rate.
The training will review the emergence of lone actors as a distinct form of perpetrator. Across the training, the myriad of newly developed risk and threat tools will be explored and recommendations provided on the best practice approach to assessing lone actor violence. Risk and threat assessments are essential tools to mitigating lone actor violence and mass casualty events, however, with these forms of assessments still in their infancy, professionals need to exercise caution and discretion in reaching their conclusions. To assist with understanding concepts or threat and risk, methods of formulating ‘risk’ and ‘level of concern’ will be discussed. The training will also explore risk management strategies and the benefits of a collaborative case management approach.
The workshop will be targeted at those with existing knowledge of lone actor violence or violent offenders. Although the training will specifically examine the application of risk and threat principles to inform decision-making and risk judgments, the training will still provide valuable learning to anyone generally interested in this form of offending. The training will have broad applicability to police, corrections, mental health practitioners, security personnel, academics, and students.
Contact DGM with any enquiries
Dr Nathan Brooks is a Forensic Psychologist and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer with Central Queensland University. He has broad experience pertaining to risk and threat assessment, along with having worked in both the private and public sectors. His recent work has focused primarily on high-risk and high-harm matters, particularly in respect to personality and behavioural risk indicators. He has completed hundreds of assessments at the request of courts, government agencies, health services, and independent lawyers. In addition to this, Nathan has provided consultancy on security matters and a variety of threat situations and events. He also provided consultation and expertise to several serious and major crime investigations.
Nathan has conducted lectures and workshops on leading matters in the field, delivering these services nationally and internationally. He has produced a variety of peer-reviewed articles and publications on a range of topics, including lone actor violence, psychopathic personality, personality disorders, criminal profiling, cold case investigations, targeted violence, investigative practices, grievance-fuelled violence, stalking, and emotional and social processing. He is also the joint editor of a book focusing on psychopathic personality within the workplace and has provided consultancy to Fortune 500 companies on the assessment and management of problematic personalities.