The Clinical Threat Assessment of the Lone-Actor Terrorist.
The Terrorist Radicalization Assessment Protocol (TRAP-18) is a structured professional judgment instrument for the assessment of individuals who present a concern for lone-actor terrorism. It consists of eight proximal warning behaviors and 10 distal characteristics. Previous research has demonstrated its interrater reliability and some concurrent and postdictive validity. In this article, TRAP-18 is retrospectively applied to the case of US Army psychiatrist and jihadist Malik Nidal Hasan, who committed a mass murder at Fort Hood, Texas in 2009. The strengths and limitations of TRAP-18 as a structured professional judgment instrument for mental health clinicians are discussed, and clinical risk management suggestions are made.
San Diego Psychoanalytic Center and Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. Electronic address: reidmeloy@gmail.com.
J Reid
JR
Meloy
Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA.
Jacqueline
J
Genzman
D006708:Homicide; D006801:Humans; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D023481:Terrorism / Q000523:psychology*; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology
Lone actor; Mass murder; Risk assessment; Terrorism