On any given day at the University of Houston, community members may become aware of behavior that is deviant, threatening, intimidating or disruptive. The University of Houston Administration created the Conduct Assessment and Response Team (CART) to proactively intervene to ameliorate any disruption to community life. The CART is designed to assist faculty, staff, students and the administration by providing information and assistance in dealing with aberrant behavior that disrupts the educational mission of the University. The goals of the CART are multifaceted and include:
CART will use a designed process to proactively intervene in behavioral conduct that threatens members of the University of Houston Community or threatens the educational mission of the University. The CART will use a process identified in the literature as a threat assessment approach to assess conduct that raises concerns of possible violence. The literature strongly suggests that this approach is the most effective process in preventing future violence on campus. The literature proposes that other models of threat assessment such as profiling, mental health assessment and automated decision making (actuarial formulas and expert systems) are not as effective as the threat assessment model. The assessment process is designed to identify inappropriate behavior (development of an idea to commit violation and planning to commit violence) and intervene early enough to manage the case before the actor commits an act of violence. This model focuses first and foremost on the facts of the particular occurrence and the student’s behavior to guide suppositions and conclusions. This method focuses on the student's behavior by collecting information that verifies the student's progress from ideation, planning and preparation to implement the plan. In short the process is based on preventing violence and developing effective interventions, not trying to predict it. The process is designed to:
If deemed appropriate develop a management plan that gets the individual needed help and acts to reduce the threat.