Assessment of violence potential among school children: Beyond profiling

The increasing level of public attention to violence in American schools makes the issue a top priority among educators. School psychologists could play an important role in identifying at-risk youth, and planning appropriate individual, school, and community interventions related to school violence. However, there is limited literature examining different assessment approaches that could be used to evaluate student risk for violence. This article reviews (a) characteristics of students "at risk" for violence, (b) informal checklists and matching student characteristics to profiles of typical violent students and (c) threat assessment based on Borum et al.'s (1999) model. Ethical and legal considerations are covered as well.