Assessment procedures in anonymously written threats of harm and violence.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 9(1) of Journal of Threat Assessment and Management (see record 2022-35005-001). In the article https://ifp.nyu.edu/?internalerror=true), the funding statement was missing from the author note. All versions of this article have been corrected.] Anonymously written threats constitute a special form of worrying behavior, in which the author of a threat decides to hide their identity. Importantly, anonymous threats are an increasingly common issue exacerbated by online communication. Anonymity raises additional challenges for threat assessors, but little is known about how practitioners approach such cases. Although a large body of research exists concerning assessment procedures of nonanonymous cases, little is known about how experts approach a case based merely on communications and in the absence of detailed contextual information. Therefore, the present study serves to gain a better picture of the assessment procedures associated with anonymous threatening communications (ATCs). Extensive semistructured interviews were conducted with expert threat assessors, in which participants were asked about their general approach to ATCs, as well as their thoughts regarding a real-life case. Responses were qualitatively coded, in order to reveal common themes and divergent approaches. Based on the results obtained, we formulate eight recommendations for the furtherance of the field of anonymous threat assessment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

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