Park Dietz, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D
Dr. Dietz was a pioneering researcher and leading consultant on stalking, violence prevention, and threat assessment before creating the discipline of workplace violence prevention when he founded TAG in 1987.
Educated at Cornell and Johns Hopkins, Dr. Dietz simultaneously earned an M.D., a Masters degree in public health, and a Ph.D. in sociology. He was a psychiatric resident at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Chief Fellow in Forensic Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. He served as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and as Professor of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry and Professor of Law at the University of Virginia. He is now Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine. Dr. Dietz is the founder and head of both Threat Assessment Group, Inc., and the forensic consulting firm of Park Dietz & Associates, Inc., both of which are headquartered in Newport Beach, California.
Dr. Dietz has testified and/or consulted in all 50 states, participating in such notable cases as those involving John Hinckley, Jeffrey Dahmer, Susan Smith, Polly Klaas, the Menendez brothers (retrial), John DuPont, the New York Zodiac, the Prom Mom case, the Unabomber, the shootings at the Vera Wang Bridal Salon, Empire State Building, and U.S. Capital, the DC sniper cases, the school shootings at Columbine and other locations, and workplace violence cases of every description. He has unsurpassed experience in cases involving workplace threats and violence, mass murder, and serial killings. He is widely sought after as a consultant in civil litigation arising from criminal behavior, including threats, violence, and sex crimes in workplaces, educational institutions, churches, youth organizations, and residential properties, and in claims of negligent hiring, supervision, and security.
Threat Assessment Group (TAG) works with corporations, educational institutions, and government agencies to develop programs to prevent and manage violence and other misconduct through management consulting, training, and case consultation. More than 100 Fortune 500 companies and hundreds of other organizations use TAG’s services in managing misconduct and risks. TAG has handled thousands of threat, domestic violence, and stalking cases on behalf of corporations, celebrities, high-net-worth individuals, and public officials. TAG is also often involved in helping organizations cope with change and crises, such as extortion, disruptions to annual meetings, sabotage, and product tampering.
Dr. Dietz is a Past President of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. He is a forensic psychiatrist for both the FBI’s Profiling and Behavioral Assessment Unit and the New York State Police Forensic Sciences Unit. He has authored more than 100 publications. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Trauma Research, has conducted numerous studies of sex offenders, mentally disordered offenders, and violent criminals, directed a five-year study for the National Institute of Justice on mentally disordered offenders who threaten and stalk public figures, and headed a two-year privately funded study of risks to the children and families of executives and other public figures.
Dr. Dietz’s work is often cited in scholarly and popular writings, and he has been the subject of profiles on “60 Minutes II,” the A&E network, and in the New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, Psychology Today, Biography, and other national publications. He has also consulted on films (“The Bodyguard,” “Copycat,” “Kiss the Girls,” “Primal Fear,” “Turbulence,” and “What Lies Beneath”) and for many seasons as a technical advisor to “Law and Order” and “Law and Order: Criminal Intent.”