| The following research focuses on the development and psychometric properties of the Communicated Threat Analysis Scale (CTAS) as a potential tool to assist with measuring the relative level of concern of a communicated threat. Communicated threats refer to threats written via emailed communication, handwritten letters, and/or typed letters. The CTAS includes five subscales based on the threat analysis model: organization, fixation, focus, action imperative, and time imperative. As stimuli, the study utilized one credible threat letter and one non-credible threat letter. Non-experts and experts in the field of threat assessment participated in the study. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) analyses revealed consistent responses among all participants, suggesting good reliability of the CTAS. However, the ICC revealed non-experts as more likely to provide consistent responses than experts. A 2 x 2 mixed factorial ANOVA revealed no statistically significant differences between expert and non-expert responses on the CTAS. However, the ANOVA revealed statistically significant differences between the credible and non-credible threat letter. All participants provided higher scores for the credible threat letter and lower scores for the non-credible threat letter. Item-by-item comparisons by use of a Wilcoxon rank test indicated a total of eight out of the 18 items on the CTAS had statistically significant differences in which participants provided higher mean rankings for the credible threat letter and lower mean rankings for the non-credible threat letter. To measure validity of the CTAS, I compared the subscales to relevant items on the Workplace Assessment of Violence Risk (WAVR-21). Calculating Spearman's rho revealed no correlation among the subscales and items on the WAVR-21. Described in the research are limitations and suggestions for future research. |
