A Preliminary Report on the Police Foundation's Averted School Violence Database

The Police Foundation, in collaboration with the COPS Office, implemented the Averted School Violence (ASV) database to provide a platform for sharing information about averted incidents of violence in institutions of elementary, secondary, and higher education. The ASV project defines an incident of averted school violence as a violent attack planned with or without the use of a firearm that was prevented before any injury or loss of life occurred. This preliminary report analyzes 51 averted incidents of school violence selected from the ASV database to begin to improve our understanding of averted school attacks. The report begins with a case study of one averted attack and then details findings on the 51 averted incidents in the study. It concludes with recommendations for law enforcement and school administration to improve school safety. A companion report (Langman and Straub 2018) compares these 51 averted attacks with 51 completed attacks and presents findings on the similarities and differences.

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Author: Jeffrey A. Daniels

Federal Sponsor Agency: COPS Office

Provider: Police Foundation

Publication Date: February 2019