The Answer Sheet: campus violence

Attackers are most likely seek out specific targets on or near college campuses because they have an intimate relationship with the victim, according to a new government report that analyzed threats and violence at schools over more than a century.

Colleges and universities should strategically review their threat assessment capacities because some of the conventional beliefs about these attacks are not accurate, a new report issued by the federal government says. For example, while much attention is given to the “traveling” attacker, such as the student who killed 32 students in a shooting spree at Virginia Tech in 2007, only 3 percent of the attackers acctually move from building to building.