What is Actuarial Instruments

This chapter turns its focus to ways to assess the risk of mass shootings. Risk assessment is used for the prevention and initial identification of violence. The usefulness of risk assessment instruments in this process is debated. Also discussed is the viability of criminal profiling, looking at characteristics associated with a particular type of offender. To add to the discussion, the motives of previous mass shooters selected as case studies are detailed. This goes some way to showing that the varied motivations of perpetrators make it difficult to adequately assess the risk posed. The next chapter will illustrate that threat assessment is a more useful approach to determine whether an individual intends to perpetrate a mass shooting.