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Specialized units for the assessment and management of concerning behaviors towards public figures have been set up in various jurisdictions. Their efficacy has been demonstrated descriptively and in terms of reduction in concern rates. This study of 100 consecutive cases from the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC) in the UK uses a novel measure of outcome in the form of reduction in behaviors of concern and in police call-outs/stops, using data culled from police and health service records. It adopts a mirrored design, comparing individuals over 12-month and 2-year periods before and after FTAC intervention. It demonstrates significant reductions in both numbers of individuals involved in, and number of actual incidents of, concerning communication and problematic approach, as well as police call-outs/stops. Most results are consistent across subgroups with regard to gender, previous convictions, concern level, compulsory hospitalization and grievance-driven behavior. Such threat assessment units reduce risky behavior and save police time and, possibly, costs. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the authors discuss various topics within the issue on topics including international efforts to protect public officials from terrorist attacks, counterterrorism research from the U.S. and Europe, and targeted violence against law enforcement officials.

Politicians suffer intrusive and aggressive behaviours from members of the public, often lone actors fixated on personal grievances. Few explorations of intrusive behaviours towards politicians have been published; their results are not directly comparable. We surveyed intrusive/aggressive behaviours towards UK members of parliament (MPs); our survey instrument was then administered to MPs at three other parliaments (Queensland, New Zealand, and Norway), providing a cross-national, four-site comparison. 239 MPs completed the UK survey. This 38% response rate produced prevalence rates remarkably similar to the other sites, New Zealand having an 84% response rate. 81% of UK MPs had experienced one or more of the 12 behaviours specified, the mean being five. 18% had been subject to attack/attempted attack, 42% to threats to harm and 22% to property damage. In 53% of respondents, experiences met definitions of stalking or harassment. This has implications for the provision of risk assessment and management. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Editorial. Provides information about excited delirium as a state of mental and physiological arousal, agitation, hyperpyrexia with epiphora and hostility. Reasons why collapse can occur in acute excited states such as mania and catatonic excitement; Safest and most dignified intervention for acute excited states; Causes of acute excited states.

Comments on a law in Great Britain that reflects major changes in patterns of care in mental health services as of fall 2001. Proposal in a white-paper to incarcerate people according to opinions of others as to their propensity to behave dangerously at some point in the future; Reference to an article in this issue by Buchanan et al on the detainment of people with dangerous severe personality disorder (DSPD); Concern of the author about loss of liberty.

Focuses on the attitudes of patients to psychiatric hospital admission. Issues of coercion and voluntary admission; Perception of patients concerning need for hospitalization; Stigma surrounding mental illness; Effect of condition of psychiatric units on a positive therapeutic experience.

50 stalkers were assessed before their trials. Serious violence was significantly associated with previous sexual intimacy between stalker and victim; such stalkers were significantly less likely than those who stalked strangers to have psychotic illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey concerning intrusive/aggressive behaviours towards MPs was administered at Westminster, and in Queensland, New Zealand and Norway. Follow-up interviews were conducted with a sample at Westminster. This paper examines the experiences and associations of the 239 Westminster responders, of whom 81% had experienced intrusive/aggressive behaviours, 18% been subject to attack/attempted attack, and 53% stalked or harassed. Being stalked and subject to certain types of intrusive/aggressive behaviour were associated with younger age and being in the Commons five years or less, but serious incidents were more common in those who had been MPs for longer. There were no associations with brief periods of harassment. Some differences with party and constituency type emerged. Mental illness was prominent amongst perpetrators. Motives predominantly concerned personal grievances. Significant proportions of MPs suffered psychological ill-effects, necessitating inconvenient behaviour changes. Internal consistencies in these results and similarities to other sites are explored, and their implications discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Looks at the case of a young man arrested for stalking a woman. His apparent problem as erotomania and stalking behavior secondary to an undiagnosed vascular lesion; His history of deteriorating epilepsy; The link between epilepsy and psychosis; An association between epilepsy and criminal behavior long debated.

Seventy per cent of general practitioners (GPs) were found in an earlier study to have been subject to aggressive/intrusive behaviours by patients, with nearly 20% stalked and 20% harassed. Using the same sample, an exploration was undertaken of patterns of behaviour, patient characteristics, including mental illness and motivation, GP characteristics, and effects upon them of aggression/intrusion. There were significant differences in patterns of behaviour between stalking and harassment. Nearly half the patients involved were suspected to be mentally ill, including 54.5% of stalking cases. Stalking was significantly associated with intimacy-seeking motivation, and harassment with resentful motivation. No significant associations emerged between sex of patients or GPs and aggressive/intrusive behaviours. Measures of GP time-at-risk were associated with higher prevalence of individual behaviours. GPs’ responses to aggressive/intrusive behaviours included increasing security and changing routines, with small minorities afraid to go out or be at home alone, and a proportion experiencing adverse effects on personal relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study on threats, attacks, and assassinations of public figures in the U.S. Relationship between threats and approach behavior; Nature of the threatened harm; Importance of the threat findings in understanding the mode of violence of attackers and assassins of public figures.

Detailed comparison of factors associated with abnormal approach to the prominent and with escalation from communication to approach has not hitherto been undertaken. This partially reflects the failure of individual studies to adopt compatible terminologies. This study involves a careful dissection of six public figure studies, three involving U.S. politicians, two Hollywood celebrities, and one the British Royal Family. Common findings were unearthed across six headings. Approachers were significantly more likely to exhibit serious mental illness, engage in multiple means of communication, involve multiple contacts/targets, and to incorporate into their communication requests for help. They were significantly less likely to use threatening or antagonistic language in their communications, except in those cases involving security breaches. These results emphasize the importance of integrating mental health findings and preventive measures into risk management. Approach should not be regarded as a single behavioral category and has multiple motivations. Future studies should adopt standard terminology, preferably taken from the general stalking research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study of risk factors for violence to prominent people is difficult because of low base rates. This study of harassers of the royal family examined factors suggested in the literature as proxies for violence-breaching security barriers, achieving proximity, approach with a weapon, and approach with homicidal ideation. A stratified sample of different types of approach behaviour was randomly extracted from 2,332 Royalty Protection Police files, which had been divided into behavioural types. The final sample size was 275. Significant differences in illness symptomatology and motivation were found for each proxy group. Querulants were significantly over-represented in three of the four groups. There was generally little overlap between the proxy groups. There is no evidence of the proxy items examined being part of a 'pathway to violence'. Different motivations may be associated with different patterns of risk. Risk assessment must incorporate knowledge of the interactions between motivation, mental state, and behaviour. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]