Understanding the Potential for Multidisciplinary Threat Assessment and Management Teams to Prevent Terrorism: Conducting a Formative Evaluation of the MassBay Threat Assessment Team

• NCJ Number: 309063
• Author(s): B. Heidi Ellis
• Date Published: 2023
• Length: 16 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2020-ZA-CX-0002
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Award: Understanding the potential for Multidisciplinary Threat Assessment Teams to prevent terrorism: Conducting a formative evaluation of the MassBay Threat Assessment Team

Annotation

This research project provided a formative evaluation of the MassBay Threat Assessment Team (MassBayTAT).

Abstract

The overall purpose of this grant was to identify a model for how a community-based Multidisciplinary Threat Assessment Teams (MTAMTs), including a collaborative governance network of community agencies and providers, can identify and engage individuals at-risk for Radicalization to Violence (RV) in needed supports, e.g. mental health care. The primary goal of this grant was to conduct a formative evaluation and evaluability assessment of an FBI-convened team in Massachusetts, the MassBayTAT, and its associated multidisciplinary collaborative governance network. A secondary goal was to identify, describe and learn from diverse MTAMTs using environmental scan methods; researchers then used this information to improve and assess short-term outcomes of MassBayTAT operations, thereby building the evidence base for effective prevention of terrorism. To achieve these goals researchers used descriptive and qualitative research designs. The outcomes from the described methods led to the development of the following accomplishments: 1) Logic model specific to MassBay TAT; and 2) 1-page brief describing overall model/program of MassBayTAT.