Behavioral Threat Assessment and the Law

A Legal and Practical Guide

Edited by Molly Amman, Ronald Schouten, and Rachel Solov

• Explains the law as it relates to threat assessment and management in depth and in practical terms
• Includes knowledge of the key legal issues covered in this volume enabling BTAM practitioners to more effectively practice their discipline
• Provides a very broad range of topics ranging from civil to criminal, Constitutional to regulatory, and covers the workplace, school, in private spaces, and beyond

Behavioral Threat Assessment and the Law offers comprehensive coverage of the most common interactions between the legal system and behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM). The authors focus on how the law influences BTAM, both facilitating and limiting threat assessment and management. Legal rights and responsibilities are explained both in academic terms as well as via practical tips for navigating challenges and tasks in preventing violence and managing persons of concern. Chapters include introductions to BTAM and to the U.S. legal system, followed by the Constitution and due process, protected speech, search and seizure, criminal law, stalking cases, hate crimes, civil liability, higher education BTAM, K-12 education BTAM, employment law, defamation, privacy in personally identifying records, privacy and the Stored Communications Act, the mental health system and BTAM, and the ethics of BTAM expertise. This book’s primary intended audience includes BTAM professionals, attorneys and behavioral health specialists new to the field, and higher educational curriculums devoted to BTAM.

Introduction
Chapter 1: The Law, the Legal System, and BTAM
Chapter 2: Understanding Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management
Chapter 3: The Constitution and Due Process
Chapter 4: Protected speech and BTAM
Chapter 5: The Fourth Amendment in Threat Assessment: Search and Seizure
Chapter 6: Criminal Law and Threat Management
Chapter 7: Stalking Cases: Their Investigation and Prosecution
Chapter 8: Hate Crimes
Chapter 9: Civil Liability in Threat Assessment and Management
Chapter 10: Higher Education Threat Assessment and the Law
Chapter 11: K-12 Threat Assessment
Chapter 12: Threat Assessment and Management Concepts in Employment Law
Chapter 13: Defamation Law for the BTAM Professional
Chapter 14: The Law of Information Privacy, Part I: Institutional Records
Chapter 15: The Law of Information Privacy, Part 2: The Stored Communications Act
Chapter 16: BTAM and the Mental Health System: Legal and Clinical Considerations
Chapter 17: BTAM, Ethics, and the Law

The authors are all attorneys with decades of hands-on experience in BTAM case work and have conducted BTAM training around the world. They are uniquely positioned to convey their deep understanding of the complexities of the law and BTAM. They are all long-time members of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals and are frequently called upon to teach and train others in the field.