The principal focus of most risk assessment tools, and indeed many risk assessment companies, tends to be violence risk, or proxies for violence, such as approach. For those charged with planning the protection of politicians and royalty, the likelihood of the worst happening is and always has been, quite rightly, of vital importance.
But the concerns of security and legal risk managers, charged with protecting prominent individuals and brands across the corporate, talent and private client/family office sectors, are not only broader in nature, but are far more likely to impact lives and workplaces.
Clients cite a range of concerns when referring issues to Theseus. The prevalence of those concerns is instructive.
The most frequent concern we are asked to address is that of persistence: “How long is this going to go on for; when is this going to stop?”. It features in over 90% of cases referred to us for risk assessment, regardless of whether a case concerns an ex/employee, customer, supplier, former business associate, ex-intimate or a stranger. Intrusion and threats can often endure for years, the most acute cases tending to be fuelled in the corporate sector by grievance, and in the talent management by delusional love.
Such is the day-to-day impact these cases can have, that the next most frequently cited concern (75%) is disruption of business function, followed very closely by distress caused to employees. Whether one is the focus of threatening and harassing behaviour, or it is part of one’s job to manage complaints, it can be upsetting and anxiety-inducing to experience, particularly if, as has been the case for the last two years, one is isolated from colleagues.
Slightly over half our case assessments include concerns about violence, usually because a clear physical threat has been made. Interestingly, the sector in which a referring company operates appears to have a bearing on the likelihood of subsequent approach.
And at a time when it has never been easier to threaten hard-won reputations, such concerns feature in almost half of our risk assessment referrals, usually from lawyers charged with containing the threat or managing the fallout.
Financial risk also features as a concern, usually in cases of blackmail or in unusually persistent cases that have not proven amenable to legal management.
So violence is a concern in the private sphere, but by no means the foremost or the only one. It is the more frequently disruptive and distressing risks that demand attention. For this reason, Theseus focuses on the range of risks, not simply that of violence.
