DePaul University Newsline > Sections > Blue Demon Spotlight > Building safer communities: Training programs aim to stop violence before it escalates

Building safer communities: Training programs aim to stop violence before it escalates

DePaul’s Megan Alderden discusses violence prevention work

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Megan Alderden sits in a chair in her office.
Megan Alderden is an associate professor and director of DePaul's criminology program. (DePaul University/Keeton Holder)
“Whenever we see school shootings or terrorist attacks in the news, I think all of us wonder what could have been done to prevent these events from happening,” says Megan Alderden​, associate professor of criminology at DePaul. “The fact is that many of the individuals who end up engaging in these activities had others around them before the incident took place noting concerning behaviors like written and verbal threats of violence.”

Alderden directs DePaul’s criminology program and is working to improve Illinois' framework for preventing targeted violence and terrorism. Alderden, along with colleagues from the University of Illinois Chicago, have received multiple grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to develop training for professionals and the public to better recognize and report behavioral signs of targeted violence and terrorism, including behaviors that indicate research and planning or preparing for a violent attack. The grants also help implement whole of society approaches to prevent these types of acts.

The current grant focuses on designing training curriculum to help community members and professionals recognize sources of potential biases and supporting the implementation of multidisciplinary teams to help identify and respond to persons displaying concerning behaviors.  

In this Q&A, Alderden discusses how the new grant builds on previous funding that allowed Alderden and colleagues to create a free online training​. Alderden and her supporting authors wrote about the results in a 2023 paper about how bystanders and gatekeepers can prevent and identify these acts of mass violence.

What is targeted violence?
Targeted violence is a planned event in which the perpetrator(s) specifies the intended victim or victims based on actual or perceived identity traits or group affiliation. Included in this definition are acts of terrorism and violent extremism when individuals use violence against others in support of ideologies. This is usually part of an effort to bring about specific outcomes, such as political change.

What is the goal of the violence prevention trainings?
As professionals, or even during our everyday activities as community members, we may come across individuals who are displaying concerning behaviors. Sometimes we decide not to share our concerns with others for seemingly good reasons: Maybe we don’t want to get that person into trouble. Maybe we feel it is not our responsibility. Or maybe we fear for our safety. What we know from the literature is that not sharing can inhibit our ability to engage in early prevention and intervention with individuals.

Educating people and encouraging them to share their concerns, however, is not enough. In many cases, individuals displaying concerning behaviors came to the attention of professionals, but those professionals either did not recognize the danger they posed, potentially because they didn’t have all the information needed to identify the threat they posed or were only able to respond within a narrow context of their profession. The siloed nature of our professional fields makes us effective in some areas, but it can make responding to persons who are at risk for committing acts of violence more challenging. The current grant is being used to support the development of multidisciplinary teams, teams that include law enforcement as well as mental health professionals, to help communities identify and respond when concerning behaviors are noticed before individuals go on to commit acts of violence.

We believe that targeted violence can be prevented if we educate the public on what behaviors are worthy of concern and train professionals on how to respond effectively. This includes recognizing when and responding to someone who may be on the pathway to violence and then working to help those individuals move off the pathway using intervention strategies that uphold their dignity.

What does the training look like for different communities?
We offer targeted violence training and education for community members, frontline practitioners, mental health specialists, youth and caregivers. Each group receives a tailored training to best meet their needs.

For example, community members learn about behaviors that are concerning or the signs of distress to look for, are given information on how to engage with and refer individuals to services and helped with identifying immediate threats and when to contact law enforcement.

For youth and caregivers, we build awareness about violence prevention, resilience, and protective factors, provide opportunities for mastery by learning and applying positive coping, interpersonal and parenting skills, facilitate youth and caregiver engagement and contribution in positive social climates and structure youth and caregiver opportunities for becoming positive agents of change.

The goal of these trainings is to empower and support communities to prevent targeted violence incidents and terrorist attacks.

Russell Dorn is a senior manager of media relations in University Communications.