Risk Assessment & Mitigation Flashcards

In mass casualty incident planning, 'mitigation' as a phase of emergency management refers to:

Answer: Actions taken before a disaster to reduce its impact

Mitigation encompasses pre-event actions—such as building codes, hazard mapping, and public health preparedness—aimed at reducing the severity or likelihood of disaster impacts.

A forensic toxicologist is asked to assess worker risk from chronic low-level solvent exposure. The most appropriate metric to reference is:

Answer: Threshold Limit Value-Time Weighted Average (TLV-TWA)

The TLV-TWA represents the average airborne concentration to which nearly all workers may be repeatedly exposed over an 8-hour day without adverse health effects.

In the START triage system used in mass casualty events, a patient who is breathing, has a respiratory rate >30/min, and cannot follow commands is classified as:

Answer: Immediate (Red)

In START triage, breathing >30/min or absence of radial pulse, or inability to follow simple commands, places a victim in the Immediate (Red) category requiring urgent intervention.

Which ethical principle most directly governs the forensic physician's obligation to disclose limitations of a risk assessment to the court?

Answer: Honesty and striving for objectivity

AAPL and ABFM ethical guidelines require forensic physicians to be honest and strive for objectivity, which includes transparently communicating the limitations and uncertainty inherent in risk assessments.

A risk-needs assessment determines an offender has low risk but high needs. According to the RNR model, the recommended intervention intensity is:

Answer: Low to moderate intensity intervention matched to risk level

The Risk Principle states that the level of intervention should match the offender's risk level; over-treating low-risk offenders can increase recidivism by disrupting prosocial networks.

In the forensic assessment of workplace violence risk, the concept of 'targeted violence' is distinguished from general violence because it involves:

Answer: Premeditated acts directed at a specific person or location

Targeted violence is purposeful and directed—the attacker chooses a specific target based on grievance—and typically involves a discernible pathway from ideation to action.

Which of the following would be classified as a 'scenario-based' approach to risk assessment rather than an actuarial or SPJ approach?

Answer: Constructing likely future situations that might trigger violence and planning interventions accordingly

Scenario-based risk assessment involves anticipating specific future situations in which risk may escalate and developing individualized case management plans to address those scenarios.