Fixated and grievance-fuelled persons: considerations on the dangers of gaps, silos and disconnects

Abstract

To prevent and mitigate fixated and grievance-fuelled violence, law enforcement has moved towards collaborative policing that seeks to identify and gather information for early and timely responses. At the centrepiece of prevention efforts is the reliance on the identification of risk indicators or warning behaviours. These behaviours are often considered to represent pre-attack signals or accelerating patterns towards violence. However, there remain many challenges to detecting early risk indicators particularly in relation to the processes of information sharing. The current review examines warning behaviour amongst fixated and grievance-fuelled persons, reviewing the myriad of issues that have persisted from the Columbine School Shootings through to the Lindt Café Siege. The analysis considers the challenges that are facing police in seeking to detect and respond to early warning behaviours; specifically examining how gaps, silos and disconnects can inhibit detection and prevention efforts.

Keywords:

• fixated
• grievance fuelled
• lone actor
• policing
• silos
• threat assessment
• warning behaviours

Ethical standards

Declaration of conflicts of interest

Nathan Brooks declares no conflicts of interest

Rick Shaw is the founder of Awareity and acknowledges financial interests in the organisation. No other conflicts of interest are declared.

Ethical approval

The article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and they may not necessarily reflect those of the New Zealand Police.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.