Unlike most assessment tools, many of which are paper checklists, MOSAIC automatically produces a full written report, describing the factors that were considered and the selections made by the user.
MOSAIC's on-line resources include a library of research, publications, and training videos that users can access during an assessment.
Lieutenant Tom Taylor, four-time president of the National Governor's Security Association, wrote for the Institute of Police Technology and Management: The consistent way in which MOSAIC methodically guides an evaluation and documents the findings is what sets it apart.
In fact, since it places less emphasis on the presence (or lack) of a direct threat, as well as any denials of intent that are uttered in an interview, MOSAIC forces the investigator to look at all of the factors present in the situation.
[1] In the mid-nineties, Ted Calhoun of the United States Marshals Service undertook a research project about threats and attacks on federal judges.
A study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and published by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service found that when compared to two specific instruments, the Domestic Violence Screening Instrument (DSVI) and the Kingston Screening Instrument for Domestic Violence (K-SID), DV - MOSAIC “performed best in predicting subsequent stalking or threats.” The study also reported that MOSAIC tested highest on “sensitivity,” correctly classifying most of the women that were re-assaulted; had the strongest correlation between the victims’ perception of risk of re-assault and risk of serious harm; captured relevant information equally well with victims of various ethnicities; had scores that were significantly associated with abuse; and provided uniformity of assessment (called Inter-rater Reliability) such that ten different people of different abilities and styles would come up with the same preliminary rating.
[9]" Robert Ressler, a criminologist who worked in the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit for 16 years, has referred federal agencies to de Becker.
The development of MOSAIC for threats by students (MAST) included an exploration into the pre-incident indicators of explosive school violence.
The process drew on more than two hundred experts and practitioners from the fields of education, counseling, psychology, parenting, threat assessment, law enforcement, the judiciary, and students.
[14] In an article on the method, psychologist Hill Walker, a professor at the University of Oregon who had studied behavioral disorders in schoolchildren for 34 years told Wired Magazine, "There are some serious validity issues here, some reputation-ruining implications.
[16] In an editorial, Professor Laurence Steinberg (who had never seen MOSAIC) questioned the value of the method for predicting violence: In a nation of 90,000 schools, trying to pick out the dozen or so students a year who might commit murder is like looking for a needle in a haystack the size of Kansas .