Threat Management: Analysis of School Shooting Prevention

This report delves into the critical area of threat management, specifically focusing on crime prevention strategies related to school shootings. It begins by outlining the 'Pathway to Violence' theory, which provides a chronological understanding of a criminal's mindset before the act of violence. The report uses the Dawson College shooting as a case study, applying the 'Pathway to Violence' to analyze the events and the offender's actions. It defines and provides examples for each step of crime prevention strategies, including primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention methods. Furthermore, the report discusses various approaches to reduce crime, such as target hardening, surveillance, and rehabilitation programs. The report emphasizes the importance of understanding the psychology of criminals to develop effective prevention strategies, concluding with the need for proactive measures by Canadian policing authorities to reduce criminal activities. The report also references the importance of early intervention and educational programs in mitigating the risk of school shootings and similar acts of violence.

Running head- THREAT MANAGEMENT
Threat Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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One of the most crucial aspects of controlling the crime rate is preventing it.
Prevention means to take an antecedent approach to crime by analyzing it and understanding
the motives of the criminal. In order to proper threat management, proper strategies should be
made in order to combat the situation. The Pathway to violence provides guidelines or a
series of chronological steps in order to understand the conscience of the criminal or the
offender before the conduct of the crime. This study further aims to evaluate the school
shootings at Dawson College, by the application of the theory of Pathway to violence.
Further, each step of the crime prevention strategies is defined, and examples are provided for
a better understanding of the stages for the prevention of such a crime.
In an instance of the case of shooting at Dawson College, the gun collector named
Kim veer Gill outside the building before continuing it inside shot various people. It turned
into a terror, as there was numerous shot by one person. The reason remained unknown about
the damage that occurred. His shot resulted in the death of an 18-year-old girl who was just at
her first year of college, and several others were wounded. The police and the students finally
held Gill and the teachers were in chaos as everybody was running out of terror. He killed 72
times in total with different arms and shotgun. After the standoff, Gill shot himself in the
head. It was seen that Gill possessed the arms and the ammunition legally. The reason for
such act remained unknown. Gill was alone and executed the plan all by himself. Many
people affected by the incident had to take up therapy even years after the incident. Hence, it
is evident that the offenders always conduct crime through a strategical process, and this case
can be an excellent example of such implementations (Javanmard & Kosheh, 2018).
It is the conscience of certain people to kill or to harm the targeted people to induce
violence physically. Nevertheless, there are various acts conducted before the actual act by
the offender (Apa.org, 2020). So in order to understand that there is systematic research to
demonstrate the Pathway to violence. Physical violence is vested deeply due to personal

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grudges that result out of the anger, delusions or a paranoid state of mind of the offender. In
quest of revenge or dishonour in this way, offenders of targeted violence habitually pass
through the Pathway to violence, succeeding along with classifiable steps. The paths or the
guidelines replicate the inert and vigorous risk factors that are related to the place of work
and highlighting on the concept of various guidelines (Cyc-net.org, 2020). The elements
include behavioural, ethnical and psychological factors relating to such violence. In practice,
threat management and threat assessment are necessary, and they are related to each other.
The steps that illustrate the pathways to violence include the ideation of the
commission of the crime, planning for that purpose, preparation to execute the planning, and
the final step includes the implementation process. Ideation refers to the thoughts or the
expressions by the force of violence to a real threat (Cook, Ludwig, & McCrary, 2014). It
also can be the result of specific provocation or grudge. Many people persist random or
thoughts to induce violence in reaction to the alleged complaints. Thus, knowing that a
person is thinking about inducing violence is not enough, and that does not confirm the
existence of danger, but it helps to alert the person about the imminent danger and that the
person may be struggling with some belief or fear. As a result, he chooses such a way of
inducing aggression. For example, in the case of Gill, the person was involved continuously
in the thought process and thus failed to establish a healthy way of life, unlike the other
students of the college. Therefore, it is evident that if a depressed person is thinking his
thought will ally result in adverse impact as the person will determine to inflict upon the
damage.
The ideation of the crime would refer to the violence of the crime. The second step
states the planning of the crime by the offender. It states that thoughts of the offender to
commit the offence. It includes the idea of committing violence, as per where or to whom or
how the person will cause them harm—planning showcase through depicting the timings,

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target to induce the injury, and the means and the methods of conducting it. The person has to
plan and prepare himself psychologically to commit the crime. The people committing the
crime first prepare himself for the attack. It is not easy to cause physical harm to another
person. Such a step requires proper planning and execution of the act. For example, in the
case of Gill, he had a lot of arms and ammunition with him. In order to keep that, he required
strategic planning for keeping such arms and ammunition with him. In an ordinary sense, an
offender needs a purpose strategy way before conducting the actual crime. The third step
includes preparation. This stage consists of the attempts made by the offender in order to
initiate violence and cultivate approaches to participate inducing such harm to the victims and
the final steps consist of implementation of all such planning and motives of the offender.
Various researches specify that violence is extemporaneous and rash; they escalate at a fast
pace from ideation to implementation. This is due to the sense of anxiety and a lack of
concern about the consequences. When there is a proper indication, the crimes can be
prevented easily through various regulatory and other processes (Calhoun & Weston, 2015).
The stages of planning and interpretation g the crime should be the alarm in understanding
that a crime is about to happen.
The understanding of the crime is necessary in order to prevent crime. Many
researchers are of the view that prevention of crime plays an important role to make the
society free from crimes. The old-fashioned way to prevent crime is to prevent such public
wrongdoing. Presently in the era of technological development, several measures have been
taken by the Canadian police authority in order to reduce criminal activities. The measures
include target hardening, reducing the payoff, surveillance, target removal, access control,
reducing the means, increasing the chances of being caught, rule setting, deflecting offenders
and changing the environment. According to the preventing methods, children and teenagers
should be more educated with the pieces of training of combating crime and in cases of

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adults; rehabilitation is the key in order to prevent crimes. Different kinds of crime
prevention method include the primary, secondary and tertiary way to prevent the crime
(Calhoun, 2017). The primary prevention protects individuals from dealing with all kinds of
fragments and social developments. The goal is to prevent adverse living conditions and to
improve the relationship with society. The goal can be easily achieved by improving the
living conditions of the person who become the offender due to the lack of such benefits.
Secondary prevention method includes the protections of the people who are at risk. It
includes the addicts or the people who are in a very critical condition. The main goal of this
method is to prevent the occurrence of the crime by providing g first aid to the victims. For
examples, a person taking drugs should be rehabilitated before he reaches that level of
addiction and becomes an addict. The tertiary prevention method is the kind of prevention
that include various rehabilitative and reformative programs such as psychotherapy for
children, criminal, women and various other groups who need that. Precautionary struggles at
this stage are to stop criminal behaviour so that criminals can adapt to the changes in their
social environment and not indulge in crimes. The primary purpose is to use it because of
sensing the procedures for arresting the offender, punishing the convicted person, rehabilitate
or reform him. Other crime prevention methods include the various steps that every citizen
takes in order to combat the situation for the crime.
The Pathways Model is considered to be a consistent, nation-wide approach based on
clear and organized informative experiences with the available resources that guide each
student effectively to attain the highest qualities in order to achieve such specific goals. The
pathway model states clearly about the articulate educational programs such as the course
orders and the outcomes from such learning from the programs. These are mostly upon the
completion of the student’s program in both workforces and education fields. Students are
assisted in such programs from the start to discover the various programs that may be helpful

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in the career (Barrowcadbury.org.uk, 2020). These plans prove to abridge the decision-
making power of the students and also encourage various programs that may affect the
colleges and make a positive impact on the students. Thus pathway model can be used as an
approach to reduce the crime and can be used as a way to prevent the crimes in schools and
academic sectors. So the pathway model can be used in order to identify the criminal attitude
of the person and in return can use it as a measure in order to reduce the crime rate or the
criminal intent of the person. Introducing various programs that might be group session the
intention of the criminal or the offender could be easily understood, and it can be used as
afore in order to reduce the intention and develop a positive attitude in the offender for not
committing the crime or repeating it. Thus, following the pathway model does not fit in this
scenario as there were no such intentions that were made clear in order to eliminate the
commission of the crime. However, if this approach was followed, then it could never turn
into a terror and could be avoided easily with rehabilitative measures.
The various approach a person can take in order to combat crime ensures safety so
that crime such as theft and robbery cannot take place—other methods related to reducing
how the crime has been committed—for example not leaving the doors open which may
invite some theft or robbery into our house unknowingly. The most effective method for the
prevention of crime would include more police force or officials for the surveillance of the
homes or the public places (Frank, 2016). They are improving surveillance of the home by
increasing the usage of CCTV cameras and other safety measures. The safety measures for
the protection of the property must be ensured. Statutory measures should be strengthened
more in order to ensure the prevention of a crime. As CCTV cameras are very costly to
install, therefore upgraded locking system, fitting sash jammers in doors and windows are
used in the houses to prevent robbery and theft.

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Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that by following the
famous phrase ‘prevention is better than cure’ the Canadian policing authority needs to such
measures which are considered to be helpful in reducing criminal activities. It has been
observed that crime is the conduct of a person that is more associated with the psychology of
the person. The primary motive should understand the mental elements of the criminal to
conduct the crime in order to prevent the occurrence of the crime. The prevention process
must be such that it understands the psychology of the criminal before the crime has been
conducted so that measures can be taken to ensure the prevention of such an act. Further,
each step of the crime prevention strategies is defined, and examples are provided for a better
understanding of the stages for the prevention of such a crime.
Reference:
Apa.org.(2020).Retrieved21February2020,fromhttps://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/features/
tam-tam0000056.pdf
Barrowcadbury.org.uk. (2020). Retrieved 29 February 2020, from
https://www.barrowcadbury.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/T2A_Pathways-
from-Crime_online-ver2.pdf
Calhoun, f. (2017). Threat assessment and management strategies. Crc press.
Calhoun, F., & Weston, S. (2015). Perspectives on threat management. Journal Of Threat
Assessment And Management, 2(3-4)
Cook, P., Ludwig, J., & McCrary, J. (2014). Controlling crime. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.

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Cyc-net.org. (2020). Redirecting pathways to violence: Early identification of risk factors in
children. Retrieved 21 February 2020, from https://cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cyconline-
jan2010-carney.html
Frank, C. (2016). Protecting our children and youth: How social service delivery can prevent
crime. Crime Quarterly, (13).
Javanmard, D., & Kosheh, N. (2018). Criminal policy preventing the crimes of drugs and
psychotropic by emphasizing on legislative perspective. International Academic
Journal Of Humanities, 05(02), 91-102.