Exceptional Case Study Project

Protective Intelligence and Threat Assessment Investigations: A Guide for State and Local Law Enforcement Officials (July 1998) is the seminal publication in the field of threat assessment that shares findings and implications from the Secret Service’s Exceptional Case Study Project.

To further understand the relationship between behavioral assessment and violence prevention, the Secret Service convened a conference in 1981 involving agency representatives and leading behavioral scientists from across the country. One of the resulting recommendations was that the Secret Service establish an internal behavioral science research capacity to continue advancing the agency’s ability to prevent violence.

Relatedly, participant feedback from a subsequent Secret Service conference on stalking behaviors encouraged the agency to conduct an in-depth examination of the most serious known cases of assassination.

These two events led to the Exceptional Case Study Project (ECSP), a research study initiated in 1992 that sought to provide operationally relevant information and guidance to law enforcement agencies and other organizations with protective responsibilities.

The ECSP coined the term targeted violence and established the foundational model of the Secret Service’s behavioral threat assessment approach, which is still in use today.