Violence Risk and Threat Assessment

This chapter provides an overview of important considerations in conducting evaluations of violence risk. The potential benefits and clinical applications of consulting social networking sites (SNS) and other internet-based data for these types of forensic evaluations are discussed. Practical, ethical, and legal considerations distinctive to using SNS data in appraising a defendant’s risk for engaging in future acts of violence are also provided. The chapter uses two de-identified, hybridized case examples to illustrate this discussion.