Development

The Violent Extremism Risk Assessment approach was developed in 2009 in response to the need for a risk assessment tool specifically relevant to individual violent extremist action. General violence risk assessment tools and their indicators were not appropriate in assessing the risk of violent extremists (Pressman, 2009).

The evidence-based VERA-2R and earlier versions of the VERA are developed to apply to all types of violent extremist ideologies. The structured professional judgement (SPJ) approach is a combination of empirical knowledge and professional judgment (Hart & Logan, 2011; Douglas et al., 2013).

Risk indicators

The SPJ assessment of the nature of and severity of the risk of violent extremist actions of an individual follows from the overall consideration of all included evidence-based relevant risk promoting and risk mitigating indicators for an individual (Pressman & Flockton, 2012; Pressman, Duits, Rinne & Flockton, 2018).