Hostile Intent

Criminals and terrorists attempting to board an airplane, pass a border crossing, or become an employee at a highly sensitive workplace may not obviously signal an impending attack, even to trained professionals. They may not be carrying explosive materials, or other contraband to be used in a crime. However, there will be one critical element carried by a premeditated criminal at any checkpoint or job interview: hostile intent.

‘Hostile intent' can be defined as the purposeful aim of an individual to inflict specific damage to another individual, business or object. This intention to cause harm is stored squarely within the mind of a potential perpetrator, who is knowingly focused on a destructive goal.

Simply put, a criminal is well aware of the crime he or she intends to commit. This ‘guilty knowledge' is stored within the brain of a perpetrator, and can affect various thought patterns and nervous reactions to stimulants.

The concept of guilty knowledge is not a new one. Law enforcement has been exposing the guilty knowledge of criminals and witnesses for decades through advanced interrogation tactics and polygraph machines. However, within these applications, law enforcement is only taking advantage of guilty knowledge after damage has already caused. But hostile intent can also appear well before an act takes place.

In many cases, hostile intent is the only evidence that exists on the body of a criminal or terrorist before they strike. Therefore, exposing hostile intent can be extremely useful in preventing crime and terror attacks.

Focusing efforts on detecting hostile intent is a conceptual breakthrough that can assist aviation, defense, and homeland security authorities in their attempts to foil increasingly sophisticated means of international terrorism and organized crime.

The ability to expose hostile intent can give law enforcement a significant edge in their efforts to avert potential disasters. However, even with the tools necessary to detect guilty knowledge at airports and crossings, etc., hostile intent must be exposed in ‘real-time' to prevent a criminal from reaching a target.