Violence is predictable. Girls can rely on an intuition that is properly informed to assess the threat of violence and avoid it. Among the tools used by violence prediction and prevention expert Gavin de Becker are what he refers to as Pre-Incident Indicators, or PINs:

“Pre-incident indicators are those detectable factors that occur before the outcome being predicted. Stepping on the first rung of a ladder is a significant pre-incident indicator to reaching the top; stepping on the sixth even more so. Since everything a person does is created twice – once in the mind and once in its execution – ideas and impulses are pre-incident indicators for action…” Gavin de Becker, from The Gift of Fear, 1997.

Mr. de Becker incorporated his principles of violence prediction into an artificial threat assessment system called MOSAIC, which is used by the United States Supreme Court (among many other agencies) to assess threats against officials. Mr. de Becker is America’s leading expert on predicting violent behavior. Advising such clients as the C.I.A. and the United States Supreme Court, this three-time presidential appointee has changed the way the United States government protects its highest officials. He is a senior fellow at UCLA’s School of Public Policy and Social Research.

Elements of this program were adopted from many different sources. The concepts of informed intuition and pre-incident indicators, as well as other important lessons and elements in this curriculum, were derived from the violence prediction and prevention principles of Mr. de Becker. Mr. de Becker did not develop this curriculum; his organization, de Becker & Associates, generously permitted the use of his material and ideas, as presented his books The Gift of Fear and Protecting the Gift, in the development of the VSAP Project.