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Mass Shooters in the USA, 1966–2010: Differences Between Attackers Who Live and Die
Abstract
Previous research suggests that there are fundamental psychological and behavioral differences between offenders who commit murder and offenders who commit murder-suicide. Whether a similar distinction exists for rampage, workplace, and school shooters remains unknown. Using data from the 2010 NYPD report, this study presents results from the first regression analysis of all qualifying mass shooters who struck in the USA between 1966 and 2010 (N = 185). Findings suggest that there are fundamental differences between mass shooters who die as a result of their attacks and mass shooters who live. Patterns among offenders, the weapons they use, the victims they kill, and the locations they attack may have significant implications for scholars and security officials alike.
... The use of a firearm also increases the likelihood of an offender committing suicide after the attack or being killed by police (Hagan et al., 2015). Suicidal motives can play a major role in offender behaviours (Lankford, 2015b). Almost two-thirds of LAGFH offenders in this study died at the scene, by suicide or police intervention. ...
... Almost two-thirds of LAGFH offenders in this study died at the scene, by suicide or police intervention. This is mirrored in LAGFH literature, where a similar outcome was noted in one-to two-thirds of LAGFH cases (Meloy et al., 2004;Lankford, 2015b;Taylor, 2018). Our review showed substantially lower rates of suicide for the FFV cases though this was dependent on the type of FFV. ...
... Studies, supported by this review, have consistently found that most LAGFH offenders are male (Lankford, 2015b;Hamm and Spaaij, 2017;Liem et al., 2018;Capellan et al., 2019;Duwe, 2020;Kenyon et al., 2021). Similarly, most acts of homicides against family members are committed by males, though there is more gender discrepancy in parents who kill children (Daly and Wilson, 1988;Bourget et al., 2007;Liem and Koenraadt, 2008;Heide and Frei, 2010;Heide, 2013;Duwe, 2020). ...
Introduction
The concept of lone actor grievance fuelled violence assumes that homicides that occur in very different contexts can be thought about in a consistent manner because they share common motivations and resultant emotional states like resentment, outrage or revenge. Fatal family violence has been largely excluded from discussions of lone actor grievance-fuelled homicide, based on the assumption that it is conceptually different. This scoping review examines similarities and discrepancies between the characteristics and motivations of perpetrators of fatal family violence and those who have engaged in lone actor grievance-fuelled homicide outside the family context, and the relevance of the concept of grievance-fuelled violence to fatal family violence.
Methods
This study reviewed published case studies and case series, resulting in a dataset of 102 homicide cases from 36 studies, of which there were 38 fatal family violence cases and 64 categorised as lone actor grievance-fuelled homicide.
Results
Twenty of the 38 fatal family violence cases were identified as being grievance-fuelled, based on the presence of motivations consistent with definitions in the grievance literature. Whilst there were some offence similarities between the fatal family violence cases (e.g., location of offence), those driven by grievance were more similar to lone actor grievance-fuelled homicide in other ways (e.g., offender’s gender and offence methods). In both these categories violence was predominantly motivated by grievance and a desire for revenge, whereas non-grievance fatal family violence cases were predominantly motivated by altruism.
Discussion
The motivations that defined behaviour as lone actor grievance-fuelled homicide were equally apparent in a sub-group of fatal family violence, implying that some family violence cases can be integrated into the construct of lone actor grievance-fuelled homicide in future research and theorising.
... Mass gun violence research has predominantly focused on schools (Kimmel & Mahler, 2003;Leary, Kowalski, Smith, & Phillips, 2003;Muschert 2007;Newman, Fox, Roth, Mehta, & Harding, 2004;Wike & Fraser, 2009), but other important locations include workplaces, religious institutions, government buildings, and "open-spaces" (e.g. malls, restaurants, clubs, bars, and events) (Capellan, 2015;Lankford, 2013Lankford, , 2015Lankford, , 2016Silva & Capellan, 2018). ...
... Finally, ideological shooters are motivated by extremist views including religious, political, racist, and single-issue ideologies (Osborne & Capellan, 2015). While definitions of mass murder have traditionally excluded terrorist-sponsored killings (Levin & Madfis, 2009), some scholars have suggested the inclusion of ideologically motivated lone-wolf terrorist shootings in mass gun violence data (Bowers, Holmes, & Rohm, 2010;Capellan, 2015;Duwe, 2004;Fox & Levin, 1998;Kelly, 2012;Lankford, 2015;Osborne & Capellan, 2015). Capellan (2015) finds that in all ideologically motivated active shooter incidents occurring in the US from 1970 to 2014, not one was executed under the direct command of a terrorist organization. ...
... The limited access to government documents, court records, and police reports should not discourage comprehensive data collections. Researchers building mass gun violence databases should begin by searching openly available databases from previous research (see for example Lankford, 2013Lankford, , 2015Lankford, , 2016, government reports (see Blair & Schweit, 2014;Kelly, 2012), and news outlets (see Follman, Aronsen, & Pan, 2017;Schaul, 2015). This provides a strong foundation for datasets and contributes to advancing the study of mass gun violence. ...
The excessive media coverage of mass gun violence has contributed to the public perception of an epidemic. These senstionalized media accounts highlight statistics suggesting a dramatic rise of the phenomenon. This chapter provides an in-depth analysis and comparison of open-source datasets to identify methodological weaknesses and clarify the prevalence of the problem. Findings illustrate the definitional, temporal, and data collection issues impacting the accuracy of assessment. This deconstruction of research counters the perception of a substantial rise in mass gun violence and suggests rates will vary depending on the typological phenomenon being investigated. A discussion of findings illustrates the importance of continuing the examination of mass gun violence and provides comprehensive guidelines for future research assessing the frequency of the phenomenon.
... The extant literature has largely focused on estimating the prevalence of the crime (Duwe, 2004;Liem et al., 2013), identifying risk factors and developing a basic offender profile (Fox & Levin, 1998;Knoll, 2010aKnoll, , 2010bKnoll & Meloy, 2014;McPhedran, 2017), and classifying incidents into unique subcategories (Bowers et al., 2010;Petee et al., 1997). With a few notable exceptions (Fridel, 2021;Lankford, 2015Lankford, , 2016, this work has almost exclusively been descriptive in nature and relies heavily on case studies. While these types of analyses provide rich detail on specific incidents, they overemphasize the most atypical and extreme cases, are not representative of or generalizable to the population as a whole, and may propagate stereotypes. ...
... It is equally crucial to consider the role that suicide plays in distinguishing homicide from mass murder. While only 4% of homicides are followed by the perpetrator's suicide (Liem et al., 2011), over one-third of mass murderers take their own lives (Lankford, 2015;Taylor, 2018), with some estimates as high as 50% for familicides and public massacres (Kelly, 2010;Liem & Reichelmann, 2014;Stone, 2015). Lankford (2015, pp. ...
... Perhaps the most striking difference between mass murderers and other killers, however, is the former's tendency to take his or her own life immediately following the crime. While only 4% of homicides are followed by the perpetrator's suicide, over one-third of mass murderers commit suicide and as many as 10% intentionally provoke law enforcement officers to kill them via "suicide-by-cop" (Lankford, 2015;Taylor, 2018). This estimate may even be low, as certain subtypes (e.g., family and public killers) have an even higher suicide rate (Kelly, 2010;Liem & Reichelmann, 2014), and some studies estimate that between half to two-thirds of all mass murderers take their own lives (Meloy et al., 2004;Stone, 2015). ...
Although mass murder is traditionally examined as a separate construct from homicide generally, few studies have explored their similarities and differences. This study compares the incident, victim, and offender characteristics of: (1) mass murderers and homicide offenders; and (2) mass murder-suicide offenders and homicide-suicide perpetrators. Mass murderers are more likely to be male; commit suicide; kill young, white, and female victims; use firearms; co-offend; operate in public places; and kill as part of drug trafficking and/or gang warfare. The analysis demonstrates that mass murderers are distinct from both homicide and homicide-suicide perpetrators, and represent a unique type of violent offender.
... To develop a comprehensive database, this study used three opensource data collection strategies to identify and validate all relevant incidents and variable information. First, in line with previous research (Lankford, 2013(Lankford, , 2015Osborne & Capellan, 2017), the foundation of incidents was identified via the FBI and NYPD active shooter datasets (Blair & Schweit, 2014;Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2016Kelly, 2012;O'Neill et al., 2016). Cases that were not relevant to the study were dropped (e.g., incidents with fewer than four victims). ...
... Cases that were not relevant to the study were dropped (e.g., incidents with fewer than four victims). Next, incidents were identified and validated via other government reports (e.g., Hamm & Spaaij, 2015;Peterson & Densley, 2019), scholarly datasets (e.g., START, 2018; Stanford Mass Shootings of America, 2017), peer-reviewed articles (e.g., Lankford, 2013Lankford, , 2015Lankford, , 2016b, books (e.g., Schildkraut, 2018), news outlets (e.g., Follman et al., 2018), and online crowd-funded sources (e.g., Mass Shooting Tracker, 2019) (see Capellan & Gomez, 2018 for a comprehensive list of other publicly available mass shooting datasets reviewed for this study). Finally, specific terms (e.g., mass shooting, active shooter, rampage shooting, etc.) were employed in seven search engines (Lexis-Nexis, ProQuest, Yahoo, Google, Copernic, News Library, and Google Scholar) to identify other incidents and incident information that may have been overlooked in previous datasets. ...
... This work also supports previous research (Blau et al., 2016;Lankford, 2015) finding those who die tend to perpetrate attacks with higher fatality rates. One reason for this may be that since they are willing to die, they do not stop the attack when police arrive. ...
This study uses the routine activities framework to identify motivation, target, and guardian characteristics influencing the severity of mass shooting fatalities and injuries. Significant findings indicate media-driven motivations, particularly fame-seeking perpetrators, produced more casualties. Open-spaces and schools provided more suitable targets, with open-spaces incurring more fatalities and schools incurring more injuries. Guardianship variables indicated perpetrators with a history of mental illness, as well as incidents involving rifles, more than one gun, and ending in the perpetrator's death, all resulted in higher rates of victimization. A discussion of findings highlights targeted policy and security strategies aimed at reducing the victim-counts attributed to mass shooting attacks.
... While scholars have collected extensive information on mass shooters, the focus is on mostly trend data, basic descriptors, and demographics (Duwe, 2007;Fox & DeLateur, 2014;Fox & Levin, 2012). Offender motivation is rarely examined, in part because many public mass shooters die at the scene (Lankford, 2015). Where motive has been studied, it is usually in the context of mass murderer typologies, which conceptualize motivation broadly and prioritize sociological over psychological explanations (Dietz, 1986;Fox & Levin, 1985). ...
... 31% of them experienced severe childhood trauma (in K-12 school shooters that number was 68%) and over 80% of mass shooters were in crisis prior to their crime, which was communicated to the people around them through a marked change in behavior. Mass shooters often commit suicide after their attacks, or at least provoke law enforcement to do it for them (known as "suicide by cop"; Lankford, 2015) and ...
... Prior research suggests there may be fundamental psychological and behavioral differences between offenders who commit murder and offenders who commit mass murder or murdersuicide (e.g., Lankford, 2015), or shooters who target their school or workplace versus those who kill indiscriminately in other public spaces (Fox & Levin, 2012). At the same time, other fields with small Ns and hidden populations, like terrorism studies, have transitioned away from early studies of "profiles" toward more complex studies of "pathways" (Horgan, 2008). ...
In November 2019, The Violence Project will publicly release the largest, most comprehensive database of mass shooters in the United States, developed by professors Jillian Peterson and James Densley and a team of students at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. The entire database is downloadable for free at www.theviolenceproject.org, but it is vital that it is only used for the purpose of better understanding or preventing mass shootings. This report accompanies the public launch, providing some background on the project and a summary of topline findings.
The Violence Project Database of Mass Shootings in the United States, 1966–2019, was supported by Award No. 2018-75-CX-0023, awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice.
... Mass gun violence research has predominantly focused on schools (Kimmel & Mahler, 2003;Leary, Kowalski, Smith, & Phillips, 2003;Muschert 2007;Newman, Fox, Roth, Mehta, & Harding, 2004;Wike & Fraser, 2009), but other important locations include workplaces, religious institutions, government buildings, and "open-spaces" (e.g. malls, restaurants, clubs, bars, and events) (Capellan, 2015;Lankford, 2013Lankford, , 2015Lankford, , 2016Silva & Capellan, 2018). ...
... Finally, ideological shooters are motivated by extremist views including religious, political, racist, and single-issue ideologies (Osborne & Capellan, 2015). While definitions of mass murder have traditionally excluded terrorist-sponsored killings (Levin & Madfis, 2009), some scholars have suggested the inclusion of ideologically motivated lone-wolf terrorist shootings in mass gun violence data (Bowers, Holmes, & Rohm, 2010;Capellan, 2015;Duwe, 2004;Fox & Levin, 1998;Kelly, 2012;Lankford, 2015;Osborne & Capellan, 2015). Capellan (2015) finds that in all ideologically motivated active shooter incidents occurring in the US from 1970 to 2014, not one was executed under the direct command of a terrorist organization. ...
... The limited access to government documents, court records, and police reports should not discourage comprehensive data collections. Researchers building mass gun violence databases should begin by searching openly available databases from previous research (see for example Lankford, 2013Lankford, , 2015Lankford, , 2016, government reports (see Blair & Schweit, 2014;Kelly, 2012), and news outlets (see Follman, Aronsen, & Pan, 2017;Schaul, 2015). This provides a strong foundation for datasets and contributes to advancing the study of mass gun violence. ...
The excessive media coverage of mass gun violence has contributed to the public perception of an epidemic. These senstionalized media accounts highlight statistics suggesting a dramatic rise of the phenomenon. This chapter provides an in-depth analysis and comparison of open-source datasets to identify methodological weaknesses and clarify the prevalence of the problem. Findings illustrate the definitional, temporal, and data collection issues impacting the accuracy of assessment. This deconstruction of research counters the perception of a substantial rise in mass gun violence and suggests rates will vary depending on the typological phenomenon being investigated. A discussion of findings illustrates the importance of continuing the examination of mass gun violence and provides comprehensive guidelines for future research assessing the frequency of the phenomenon.
... There are presumedly many differences between the behaviours of shooters who intend to commit suicide and those who want to stay alive. However, these differences are not very clear in school shootings (Lankford, 2015). Interestingly, both the Russian school shooters in our study attempted to commit 'murder-suicide' and demonstrated other brutal forms of auto-aggressive behaviours and excessive cruelty. ...
... However, researchers lack a fundamental understanding of how risk factors contribute to school shootings given their random and unpredictable nature. Before 2019, only three studies had provided large-scale comparative analyses of mass shootings in the US and other countries (Lankford, 2015;Lankford, 2016;Lemieux, 2014). ...
Background: The Cumulative Strain Theory (CST) is a multi-stage explanatory model which is used to analyse students' involvement in mass shootings at schools across the world. School shootings were once considered a uniquely American phenomenon. However, over the last decade, the incidence of these violent attacks has spiked around the globe. In particular, recent reports from Russia have demonstrated a worrying increase in the number of school shootings despite efforts to implement policies to prevent them. Aim: The aims of this report are (1) to discuss the genesis of school mass murders in the context of cumulative strain theory, and (2) to analyse the scope of the problem in the US versus Russia. Methods: We used the five-stage cumulative strain theory to analyse the factors contributing to school shootings using two case studies from each country. We gathered information and evidence from a variety of sources including interview transcripts, statistical data, journal articles, reviews, and other secondary sources published in Russian and English. Results: Our analysis revealed some common features among the school shooters in Russia and the US, such as the self-perception of superiority, vindictiveness and a lack of social support, including challenging relationships with parents and peers. However, the American shooters displayed a readiness for encounters with and possible firearm use against law enforcement officers during the mass murders. We further found that auto-aggressive behaviours were prevalent in the attacks that occurred-in Russia in particular. Unlike those from the US, the reports from Russia pointed towards an association between cumulative economic hardships and various behavioural outcomes ranging from poor psychological health to severe behavioural outbursts and violent behaviours. Conclusion: We believe that the cult of weapons and militarism increase the risk of school shootings in both countries. Neither a single stage of CST nor all five stages together can predict or confirm the association with mass shootings.
... This work supports previous research finding incidents with high rates of victim casualties are more likely to resolve in the offender's death (Blau, Gorry, and Wade 2016;Lankford 2015). These offenders may be more willing, expecting, and potentially hoping to die (Peterson and Densley 2019), and as such, they may not stop the attack until police intervene. ...
... This is consistent with previous completed (Yelderman et al. 2019), completed + some attempted (Greene-Colozzi and Silva 2020; Silva and Greene-Colozzi 2021b), and completed + attempted + failed (Blair, Sandel, and Martaindale 2020) research measuring casualties as continuous variables. Multiple guns have also been linked to higher rates of offender gun proficiency and incident planning, which may explain these shooters' ability to reach the completed outcome threshold (Lankford 2015;Peterson and Densley 2019;Silva and Greene-Colozzi 2021a). Importantly, the link between multiple guns and planning also offers insight into the link between completed and foiled outcomes having multiple guns, given foiled offenders are inherently caught during the planning of their attack. ...
This study examines completed, attempted, failed, and foiled mass shooting outcomes in the United States (2000-2019). Comparative analyses of these four outcomes determine differences in the offender, motive, gun, target, and resolution. Findings indicate predictors of completed outcomes included open-space targets and offender death. Attempted outcome predictors included older offenders, victim-specific motives, and workplace targets. Failed outcomes were more likely than completed and attempted outcomes to involve school targets, although still less likely than foiled outcomes. Foiled outcome predictors included younger white co-offenders, fame and ideological motives, multiple guns, and school and religious targets. A discussion of findings provides implications for justice officials and scholars seeking potential procedures for mass shooting harm mitigation and prevention.
... Data collection used these datasets for two reasons. First, these two datasets are the only sources (see for example Duque et al. 2019;Lankford 2015;Osborne and Capellan 2017) or primary sources used in the majority of investigations of the phenomenon. Second, the other mass shooting datasets commonly used for data collection (e.g., The Violence Project, Mother Jones, Gun Violence Archive, Mass Shooting Tracker) do not include failed attacks (see Huff-Corzine and Corzine 2020; Silva and Greene-Colozzi 2019a for in-depth discussions of current issues with mass shooting data collection). ...
... For instance, the Farm King Store shooter still shot dozens of bullets in the public store occupied with 75 customers and employees, as well as firing a dozen bullets at responding police. Scholars find suicidality is common amongst completed mass shooters (Lankford 2015;Newman et al. 2004;Peterson and Densley 2019;Vossekuil et al. 2004), and to a certain degree, potential victims in instances of failed mass shootings may have just been fortunate to not be struck by a bullet. Nonetheless, the implications of these findings suggest intervention efforts may want to focus on suicide prevention. ...
The current study examines failed mass shootings in the United States between 2003 and 2018. This exploratory research provides a summary of failed mass shooting perpetrator and incident characteristics, drawing from crime script analysis to examine the preparation, attack, and conclusion stages, as well as points of failure. Findings indicate suicidal ideation, attack realities, and weapon preparedness may play a role in attack failures. Furthermore, situational crime prevention (SCP) techniques including target hardening and access control contributed to harm mitigation when individuals without legitimate access conducted attacks. Internal SCP measures, including lockdowns, place managers, and armed security, helped prevent victimization in open access or semi-protected locations once the perpetrator entered the building. A discussion of findings highlights implications for public safety and policy.
... Moreover, the odds of violent acts increase with the availability and appeal for weapons or the proximity of firearms (Carlson et al., 1990;Killias and Haas, 2002;Newman et al., 2004;Newman and Fox, 2009;Monuteaux et al., 2015;Benjamin and Bushman, 2016;Benjamin et al., 2017;Emmert et al., 2018). In particular, additional evidence indicates a positive relationship between carrying weapons and school shootings (Dumitriu, 2013;Celis, 2015), homicides (Stroebe, 2013), and suicides (Burgess et al., 2006;Lankford, 2014Lankford, , 2015. ...
... Data provided by the present study coincide with other findings on gender differences reported in the literature (Buss and Perry, 1992;Anderson and Bushman, 2002;Lankford, 2015), which is why it is recommendable to repeat this same study on a larger sample that includes as many men and women as possible in an effort to establish possible differences in the alignment of factors. Another suggestion is to carry out a test of validity on actual perpetrators of predatory violence. ...
The objective of this study was to develop and determine the psychometric properties of an instrument designed to detect traits and behavior that are associated with predatory violent behavior, which is defined as a determined, planned, controlled, and proactive aggression. The sample was comprised of 564 students, mostly in their last year of high school, or in their first year of college. The initial instrument had 78 items, ultimately resulting in 13 with good internal consistency (α = 0.825). Factor analysis showed four factors: anger-in, appeal for weapons, suicidal ideation, and the tendency to take into one’s own hands. Said factors showed significant correlations of convergent validity. Data shown here allows inferring that the instrument is a novel and concise tool that evaluates and detects the potential of predatory violent behavior.
... The 1966 Texas Sniper shooting is largely considered the incident that introduced mass public shootings into the cultural lexicon (Kelly, 2012;Lankford, 2015;Schildkraut & Elsass, 2016). A former Marine sharpshooter climbed the clock tower at the University of Texas and opened fire on students, eventually killing 14 people and injuring 32 others. ...
... This study includes all mass public shootings that occurred in the United States between 1966 and 2016. In line with previous data sets, this work began with the year the Texas Sniper introduced the social problem into the cultural lexicon (Kelly, 2012;Lankford, 2015;Schildkraut & Elsass, 2016). A mass public shooting was defined as an incident of targeted violence where an offender had killed or attempted to kill four or more victims on a public stage. ...
This study provides a comparative analysis of news media coverage across four types of mass public shootings: rampage, disgruntled employee, school, and lone-wolf terrorist. This research analyzes the agenda-setting function of the media and identifies differences in coverage and the salience of coverage, proportionality of coverage, changes in coverage over time, and factors influencing levels of coverage. Findings indicate school shootings and lone-wolf terrorist shootings receive disproportionate amounts of news media coverage. This suggests media coverage may be contributing to setting the public and policy agenda concerning the phenomenon. These findings have important implications for public perceptions of risk, conceptualizations of potential perpetrators, and the implementation of security measures.
... Second, definitions of mass shootings have traditionally excluded terrorist-group sponsored killings (Levin & Madfis, 2009) but have included ideologically motivated mass killers in their definitions (Bowers, Holmes, & Rhom, 2010;Capellan, 2015;Duwe, 2004;Fox & Levin, 1998;Kelly, 2012;Lankford, 2015;Osborne & Capellan, 2017). The difference between the two is the latter develops tactics and methods that are absent of direct outside support, command, or direction from terrorist networks (Capellan, 2015). ...
... Similar to previous studies on the subject (Capellan, 2015;Lankford, 2015Lankford, , 2016Osborne & Capellan, 2017), this study used an open-source data collection strategy to identify and collect information on mass public shootings that occurred in the United States from 1966 to 2016. To identify all relevant cases, specific search terms (e.g. ...
This study uses a media distortion analysis to examine the New York Times coverage of mass public shooting incidents occurring in the United States from 1966 to 2016. A comparison between media coverage and actual incidents is used to identify the characteristics influencing the newsworthiness of mass public shootings. This work expands the breadth and depth of media and mass public shooting research, strengthening the validity of previous findings, and identifying new characteristics influencing newsworthiness. Findings indicate significant predictors of newsworthiness include higher casualties and injuries, as well as perpetrators that are young, Middle Eastern, and ideologically motivated. School shootings are more likely to receive any coverage, and all non-workplace shootings receive salient levels of coverage. An incident is also more likely to receive any coverage if a combination of weapons is used. These findings have important implications for public knowledge and perceptions of mass public shootings.
... Public mass shooters seek out random and targeted victims (Fox & Levin, 2022), but should their attacks result in a non-completed fatality outcome, it becomes difficult to assess the intent of the attack. Suicide is a common comorbidity with public mass shooting attacks (Lankford, 2015;Newman et al., 2004;Peterson & Densley, 2019), and in the absence of expressed intent, suicide notes, or legacy tokens, the motive and intention of a suicidal attack can be frustratingly abstruse to law enforcement and researchers. Nonetheless, we believe the benefits outweigh the costs, and we propose considerations when curating data collection, as well as strategies for addressing these potential limitations. ...
In this commentary, we propose a unifying public mass shooting definition that captures the generally conceptualized phenomenon but also expands the inclusion to all incidents regardless of casualty count. We suggest that public mass shootings be broken down into four outcome categories – completed, attempted, failed, and foiled – which have unique incident outcomes but share a common thread of mass intent. We argue for the importance of a no-minimum casualty count definition (thus including zero casualties) that emphasizes mass intent rather than the completion of the shooting. We highlight the value of and rationale for this definition by discussing the limitations of current victim criteria, and we conclude with a proposed strategy that emphasizes objective indicators of mass intent.
... Public mass shooters seek out random and targeted victims (Fox & Levin, 2022), but should their attacks result in a non-completed fatality outcome, it becomes difficult to assess the intent of the attack. Suicide is a common comorbidity with public mass shooting attacks (Lankford, 2015;Newman et al., 2004;Peterson & Densley, 2019), and in the absence of expressed intent, suicide notes, or legacy tokens, the motive and intention of a suicidal attack can be frustratingly abstruse to law enforcement and researchers. Nonetheless, we believe the benefits outweigh the costs, and we propose considerations when curating data collection, as well as strategies for addressing these potential limitations. ...
In this commentary, we propose a unifying public mass shooting definition that captures the generally conceptualized phenomenon but also expands the inclusion to all incidents regardless of casualty count. We suggest that public mass shootings be broken down into four outcome categories – completed, attempted, failed, and foiled – which have unique incident outcomes but share a common thread of mass intent. We argue for the importance of a no-minimum casualty count definition (thus including zero casualties) that emphasizes mass intent rather than the completion of the shooting. We highlight the value of and rationale for this definition by discussing the limitations of current victim criteria, and we conclude with a proposed strategy that emphasizes objective indicators of mass intent.
... 15 On the other hand, perpetrators of mass shootings are often actively suicidal prior to their attack, and many take their own lives-or provoke law enforcement to do so, known as suicide by cop-during them. 16 Warning signs often are different when an attacker has suicidal motives vs a desire for attention or fame. 17 Publicly leaking plans may function as a cry for help when perpetrators become increasingly suicidal and hopeless. ...
Importance
Understanding the motivation of a mass shooter’s intent to do harm can help practitioners and policy makers develop more effective intervention strategies.
Objective
To examine the prevalence of communication of intent to do harm, known as leakage, in a sample of 170 mass public shooters from 1966 to 2019; the characteristics of perpetrators who do and do not leak their plans; and whether leakage is a form of fame-seeking behavior or a cry for help among individuals who are in crisis or suicidal.
Design, Setting, and Participants
This cross-sectional study included perpetrators who killed 4 or more people in a public space from 1996 to 2019 and were included in a comprehensive database of US mass shootings. That database was built from August 2017 to December 2019, and analysis took place from January to May 2021.
Main Outcomes and Measures
Leakage was identified and coded using publicly available records. Any communication to a third party of an intent to do harm prior to the shooting was coded as leakage. Logistic regression models were used to examine the risk factors associated with leakage. Models estimating leakage were examined to assess the 2 hypothesized pathways to leakage (the cry-for-help model and the fame-seeking model).
Results
The 170 participants in this sample included 166 (97.7%) male perpetrators and 3 (2.3%) female perpetrators, with a mean (SD) age of 34 (12) years. Overall, 161 participants had known race and ethnicity: 11 (6.8%) Asian individuals, 35 (21.7%) Black individuals, 14 (8.7%) Latinx individuals, 7 (4.4%) Middle Eastern individuals, 3 (1.9%) Native American individuals, 89 (55.3%) White individuals, and 2 (1.2%) individuals with other race and ethnicity. Overall, 79 mass shooters (46.5%) leaked their plans. Of perpetrators who leaked their plans, 35 (44.3%) leaked specific plans about a mass shooting, and 44 (55.1%) leaked nonspecific plans about generalized violence. The study findings indicate that leakage was associated with receiving counseling (odds ratio, 7.0; 95% CI, 2.0-24.8) and suicidality (odds ratio, 3.7; 95% CI, 1.0-13.6), suggesting that leakage may best be characterized as a cry for help from perpetrators prior to their act.
Conclusions and Relevance
In this study, nearly half of the perpetrators of mass shootings leaked their plans. Leakage was associated with receiving counseling and suicidality. Leakage is a critical moment for mental health intervention to prevent gun violence. Opportunities to report threats of violence need to be increased. Traditional threat assessment models focused on specific threats of violence may miss critical opportunities for intervention.
... Multiple data sources indicate that active and public mass shootings committed with semiautomatics rifles and assault weapons result in more victims killed, on average, than attacks with less powerful weapons (de Jager et al., 2018;Follman, Aronsen, & Pan, 2018;Klarevas, 2016). Similarly, previous research findings have revealed that active and public mass shootings committed by perpetrators with multiple firearms also result in more victims killed, on average, compared with attacks with a single firearm (Klarevas, 2016;Lankford, 2015Lankford, , 2016a. The results of our analysis of all public mass shootings (n = 165) compiled by Berkowitz et al. (2019) also revealed the same relationship between multiple firearms and higher fatality counts. ...
Research Summary: Public mass shootings in the United States have become substantially more deadly over time. We document this increase, offer a model to explain it, review supporting evidence for the model, and present new findings on offenders from 1966 to 2019. It appears that societal changes have led to more public mass shooters who are motivated to kill large numbers of victims for fame or attention, as well as to more shooters who have been directly influenced by previous attackers. They often spend extended time planning their attacks and are increasingly likely to acquire powerful weapons and develop specific strategies to enhance their lethality. Policy Implications: New policies should be aimed at addressing the aforementioned factors. For instance, the deadliest public mass shooters' desires for fame and attention might be countered by a change in media coverage policies. Additionally, the deadliest perpetrators' lengthy planning periods have been associated with more warning signs being reported to police, so that type of information could justify denying many potential attackers access to firearms through extreme risk protection orders and red flag laws.
... Like most studies on the subject, this study employed an open-source data collection strategy to identify and collect information on both failed and successful mass public shootings that occurred in the United States from 1984-2015 (Capellan, 2015;Duwe, 2004;Kelly, 2012;Lankford, 2015;Osborne & Capellan, 2015. Open-source data is information that is open to the public (Chermak, Freilich, Parkin, & Lynch, 2012). ...
In the last 40 years, social scientists have provided important insights into the different characteristics of mass public shootings. Despite these efforts, we still lack a fundamental understanding of the processes that shape its incidence and spatial distribution. In this chapter, the author argues that the failure to tap into these dynamics is rooted in our inability to escape a risk-factors paradigm in which this phenomenon has been examined. The goal of this study is to step away from this paradigm and recast these shootings as a social phenomenon, shaped by social forces. This investigation is couched on two major sociological/criminological theoretical perspectives: social integration and social disorganization. A continuous-time event history model (or hazard/survival model) is used to test the influence of social integration and social disorganization forces on the prevalence of mass public shootings in the contiguous United States for the 1970-2014 period. The results paint a mixed but rather interesting picture.
... However, a few findings related to age have emerged. For instance, it appears that mass shooters who survive their attacks tend to be younger than those who die (Lankford 2015), that fameseeking shooters tend to be younger than the average mass shooter (Lankford 2016a), and that mass shooters who admit copying or being inspired by previous offenders tend to be young as well (Langman 2018). ...
As the threat of public mass shootings continues to be on the forefront of Americans’ minds, it begs the question whether there are differences between young and older mass shooters. In general, earlier research suggests that young people are more likely than their older counterparts to commit crimes because of immaturity, lack of impulse control, rebelliousness, peer pressure, poor role models, and the influence of what they see on television or consume through other media content. When it comes to mass shooters, however, the answer to this question may depend on whether ‘‘young’’ offenders are defined using the legal age of adulthood or the scientific definition of when brain development typically reaches maturity. This study aims to determine whether significant differences exist between public mass shooters who were younger than or older than 18 years when they attacked, or younger than or older than 25 years when they attacked, by examining 88 offenders who struck in the United States from January 1982 to March 2018. Tests of statistical significance suggest that with both definitions, young mass shooters are more likely than older mass shooters to obtain their weapons illegally, attack at schools, have a reported history of animal abuse, and admit copying or being inspired by previous attackers. These results are interpreted in the context of previous scholarship, and recommendations are provided for future research.
This study provides an in‐depth analysis of American mass public shooting conclusions between 1966 and 2017. Specifically, this work examines differences in factors contributing to the perpetrator's likelihood of surviving, being killed, and committing suicide. Ten hypotheses, rooted in previous homicide, suicide, homicide‐suicide, and mass public shooting literature consider different psychological, situational, and background factors shaping the outcome of mass public shootings. Significant findings indicate factors influencing perpetrators' suicide include suicidal ideation, higher victim counts, and suicide copycat effects. Factors influencing perpetrators being killed similarly include higher victim counts, the arrival of law enforcement, lethal/non‐lethal resistance, and government targets. This investigation provides practical implications for practitioners and policymakers, especially law enforcement and mental health practitioners, seeking to develop intervention and prevention strategies for addressing suicidal ideation and its most lethal outcome: mass public shootings.
Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar as ocorrências de assassinatos em massa no Brasil e as características desses crimes na literatura internacional. Foi realizada uma pesquisa on-line com base na análise temática sobre os assassinatos em massa ocorridos no Brasil, que datam de 1999 a 2019, com um total de seis casos. Todos eles foram perpetrados por homens, com idades entre 14 e 50 anos, com características narcísicas, isolamento e alienação social segundo informações obtidas no noticiário. Os textos consultados também sugerem que os transtornos mentais podem predispor ao crime, assim como o bullying. Verificou-se também que nenhuma das notícias mencionava programas de prevenção, apenas enfatizando o crime e a comoção provocada. Sugere-se novas pesquisas sobre o assunto, notoriamente escassas no Brasil, para compreender esse fenômeno à luz da cultura do país e poder atuar preventivamente para evitar desfechos semelhantes no território brasileiro.
Recent work by Allison and Klein examining violence and homicide introduced the concept of strained masculinity, a theoretical integration of general strain theory and hegemonic masculinity. Using qualitative data collection ( n = 63), the current study considers strained masculinity themes in the context of mass shootings and the gender gap. Findings demonstrated support for the prevalence of Allison and Klein’s themes in mass shootings. The men who committed mass shootings in our sample responded to challenges to their masculinity (62%), pursued hegemonic masculinity through “sport” (33%), and pursued hegemonic masculinity through controlling space (27%). In addition, qualitative analysis revealed overlaps in strained masculinity themes for mass shooting cases, demonstrating the complexity of this type of violence. There were six outlier cases identified that did not display strained masculinity, rather the perpetrators in these cases suffered from psychological or emotional troubles before opening fire. Overall, findings indicate that the integration of traditional criminology theories and gender theories is warranted.
This chapter offers a review of the literature of the nature of studying mass violence. It is often problematic, difficult, or nearly impossible due to small sample sizes, incomplete or inaccurate information, or discrepancies even deciding what exactly “mass violence” is. This chapter reviews the literature for methodological approaches, summarizes qualitative and quantitative methods and findings, and discusses the challenges of mass violence methodologies while also proposing solutions, suggestions, and directions for future research.
This chapter addresses various methods used by law enforcement to examine mass shootings. It reviews the fact that there is not one consistent definition of mass shootings, and that lacking this definition it makes it a true challenge to identify events that are mass shootings for assessment and analysis. It further discusses the fact that the inability to consistently obtain, assess, analyze, and glean necessary information leading to the understanding of the mindset of mass murders results from the lack of a clear and totally accepted definition of mass shootings. The chapter specifically discusses and examines several methods used by law enforcement in their attempt to prevent and respond to mass shootings. The chapter also provides an understanding that law enforcement must rely on a multiplicity of entities to assist them in trying to prevent and responding to mass shootings to include everyday citizens.
Following high-profile mass shootings in the United States, there are policy debates about gun regulation; yet, for the most part, these stall. This chapter suggests that an alternative way to frame this issue would be through “bullet control,” centering on the ammunition used. In order to inflict the greatest degree of damage possible, mass shooters tend to carry large quantities of bullets and large-capacity magazines with them. Harm-inducing bullets, such as hollow-points which penetrate certain parts of the body, have been used in previous mass shootings. Policy proposals could center on these areas to reduce harm in a mass shooting. Another regulation could focus on mandating background checks for ammunition. Interviews were conducted with six participants with knowledge of gun policies and/or gun violence prevention advocacy. Findings from interviews indicate support for these policy proposals. Discussed are ways to increase public support for these proposals via framing strategies. Also deliberated is whether the current political climate is conducive to pass legislation.
“Active shooter” events are amongst the most dangerous an educational institution can face. Planning for emergencies like this can, to some extent, mitigate the level of harm faced. Using the two cases of shootings at Columbine High School and Virginia Tech University, this chapter exemplifies how these incidents highlighted flaws in emergency management planning, training, and communication. Also discussed are the advances in law enforcement tactics following the Columbine shooting. The policy responses to improve emergency management planning, training, and communication are discussed. The work of school safety foundation, I Love U Guys, and smartphone application, LiveSafe, is detailed in relation to ongoing developments in planning for emergencies and communicating threats to the affected populations.
This study examines the reality and news media coverage of all mass shootings in the
United States from 1966 to 2016. It employs agenda-setting and framing theoretical frameworks to determine the social construction of mass shootings via the mass media. The project uses open-source data to create a comprehensive list of mass shooting incidents. It then identifies all published New York Times articles on each incident. The study summarizes both the reality of the social problem (i.e. incidents) and the news mediated reality (i.e. New York Times). Next, this dissertation conducts a media distortion analysis to determine the perpetrator, motivation, and incident characteristics influencing media selection, prominence, and framing. The purpose is to illustrate the media’s social construction of mass shootings that in turn shapes public perceptions, political discourse, and public policies. The study concludes by highlighting the findings and implications for scholars, practitioners, policy-makers, media outlets, and the general public.
We present outcomes from a field test of a student-centered and technology-driven school safety framework. We describe the framework components rooted in school violence prevention. Results from our field test indicate moderate student and teacher use of the framework components, improvements in student perceptions of school safety, reductions in student reported peer victimization, and reductions in teacher and parent reported inappropriate student behavior. Consumer satisfaction rating were adequate. We present recommendations for implementing a school safety framework emphasizing student voice.
Mass public shootings have drawn considerable attention from the public, policymakers, and researchers, yet despite what is known about these events, assessments to date have failed to consider their timing as a function of the locations where they occur. Using data on 401 U.S. mass public shootings occurring between 1966 and 2020, we examine these events’ temporal patterns. The findings suggest that the occurrence of mass public shootings may not be as random as once assumed but instead mirror the routine activities of the perpetrators, their victims, and the shootings’ locations. Considerations for prevention and response policies also are offered.
Since the Tarasoff case of 1976, mental health professionals are recognized to have a “duty to protect” third‐party targets from violence‐threatening patients, but little is known about what happens after clinicians warn law enforcement. In 2000, Huber et al. published a study that surveyed Michigan police about “Tarasoff warnings.” We conducted a 20‐year follow‐up study, inviting all Michigan police and sheriff departments to participate. There were no significant differences between studies about knowledge of Tarasoff‐related policies, which was low in both surveys. We found significant decreases in the number of officers who had ever intervened due to warning calls. Of the survey respondents, 83% supported documenting warning calls. For those who received warnings, 96% followed up with at least one intervention. In both studies, notifying other officers was the most common action taken. 56% said they would take action to remove a firearm. We identified opportunities for training law enforcement.
In the decade since the publication of the first edition of The Cambridge Handbook of Forensic Psychology, the field has expanded into areas such as social work and education, while maintaining the interest of criminal justice researchers and policy makers. This new edition provides cutting-edge and comprehensive coverage of the key theoretical perspectives, assessment methods, and interventions in forensic psychology. The chapters address substantive topics such as acquisitive crime, domestic violence, mass murder, and sexual violence, while also exploring emerging areas of research such as the expansion of cybercrime, particularly child sexual exploitation, as well as aspects of terrorism and radicalisation. Reflecting the global reach of forensic psychology and its wide range of perspectives, the international team of contributors emphasise diversity and cross-reference between adults, adolescents, and children to deliver a contemporary picture of the discipline.
Homicide is as old as human existence and, likewise, mass murder and serial killings are not recent phenomena. Having adopted formal definitions in the 1980s’s both mass murder and serial homicide are often mistakenly equated; however, the two phenomena are distinct as evidenced by wider patterns of violence, victimization, and psychopathology. This chapter provides an overview of mass murder and serial homicide including definitions and selected case studies. Seeking to clarify the distinctions between perpetrators of mass murder and serial homicide, this chapter also provides information on the psychopathology of each type of offender and provides a brief examination of the developmental experiences and victim choice of the perpetrators.
This chapter identifies a gap in knowledge of mass shootings that arose across central and eastern European contexts through reviewing literature on this form of violence. There is a major gap in research which is not only attributable to our knowledge of the total amount of cases that have arisen in CEE contexts, but also on their frequency, severity, and offender characteristics. The chapter then presents a comprehensive overview of scholarship on mass shootings. It explains trends pertaining to the histories, experiences, and motivations of perpetrators of mass shootings as well as geo-spatial characteristics of where incidents occurred in, the legislative barriers (or lack thereof) on gun acquisition, and trends pertaining to socio-economic conditions that offenders experienced. The chapter then overviews estimates of gun ownership rates across the countries under attention drawn from the Small Arms Survey, along with an explanation of regulatory guidelines on firearm acquisition in the CEE regions. It demonstrates that gun regulations are much stricter, on average, in CEE states than in the United States.
Aim: To study the signs of destruction of mental ecology of the Russian society after the terrorist attack on 17 October 2018 in Kerch by the assessment of the changes in values, perceptions, and attitudes of the population after the terrorist act, as well as the influence of the mass media and Internet resources. Methods: We performed a population-based cross-sectional survey of residents of the Irkutsk region (n = 1 200) as well as content analysis of the media and Internet resources (n = 61) shortly after the attack. Data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis. Unpaired t-test was used to study differences between the means of continuous variables. Results: We revealed a significant impact of the college shooting incident in Kerch on personal and social attitudes, perceptions and expectations being mostly negative in their nature, reinforce fears, alienation and anxiety contributing to the destruction of the mental ecology of the society. It was revealed that fear (P = 0.06), depression (P = 0.004) and activity (P = 0.002) were more important factors for the males, although not always reaching the level of statistical significance while anxiety (P = 0.05), indifference (P = 0.007) and empathy (P = 0.002) were more important for the females. The dominant state during an act of mass violence was fear for both the younger- (P = 0.05) and the older- (P=0.04) generations. At the same time, the younger generation was better characterized by activity (P = 0.006), indifference (P = 0.004) and empathy (P = 0.005) while depression (P = 0.003) and anxiety (P = 0.004) were more typical for the older generation. Conclusions: Our study demonstrate that mass violence, constantly discussed in the media and on the Internet, increases the level of anxiety and depression among the people and destroys mental ecology of the society. Significant differences in the reaction on the information across genders and generations were observed.
Although it is important to know what public mass shooters have in common, it is also helpful to understand when different variables were present on their pathways to violence. This study explored the timing of key life events for the deadliest public mass shooters in the United States since Columbine (N = 14). Using data from official reports and supplementary sources, we found perpetrators’ mental health contacts often began more than a decade before their mass shootings, and often ended more than a year before their attacks. Mental illness was typically a constant in their lives, not something that automatically caused them to attack. While treatment may help prevent some mass shootings, mental health professionals have limited influence over patients they have not recently seen. In turn, perpetrators’ work and school problems also typically began long before their mass shootings, but these issues continued closer to their attacks. Employers and educators may therefore have an opportunity to intervene later in the process. Firearms acquisition often occurred in the final stages, after perpetrators were already interested in mass murder. Red flag laws and ERPOs which prohibit sales to explicitly dangerous individuals may therefore help reduce the prevalence of these attacks.
Due to the devastating impact on victims and society, scholars have started to pay more attention to the phenomenon of mass shootings (MS) in the United States. While the extant literature has given us important insights, disparities in conceptualizations, operationalizations, and methods of identifying and collecting data on these incidents have made it difficult for researchers and audiences to come to a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the characteristics of offenders, causes and consequences. Using a mixed-method systematic review, this study seeks to assess the state of scholarly research in journal articles regarding MS in the United States. Using SCOPUS as the search database, a total of 73 peer-reviewed journal articles on MS within the United States published between 1999 and 2018 were included in this study. This study finds the number of articles published on MS has increased dramatically between 1999 and 2018. Also, most of the MS studies tend to rely heavily on open-source data using the different definitions of MS. We further examined and discussed theoretical frameworks, methodology, and policy suggestions used in each study. Based on the findings of this study, we suggested implications for future research.
This study provides a quantitative examination of gender-based mass shootings in America from 1966-2018. Gender-based mass shootings refer to attacks motivated by grievances against women, divided into four categories based on a specific woman or women in general, as well as whether they directly target the source of their grievances. Findings indicate that specific woman-targeted shooters were the most common and significantly different from their counterparts in their domestic violence history, racial diversity, and engagement in spree attacks. When comparing all gender-based attacks against other mass shootings, significant differences include relationship status, children, domestic violence history, substance abuse history, and suicide. This investigation provides implications for gender and mass shooting scholars, as well as practitioners developing strategies for intervention and prevention.
This chapter examines biographical information about the shooters in the context of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. By using a qualitative approach to search for patterns and themes, this study offers a comprehensive evaluation of the presence or absence of many important factors that are found in the reporting of active and mass shooters. Rather than focusing on one major contributing factor, this chapter describes a number of factors, offers descriptive, specific accounts about individual shooters, and organizes a wealth of information from over 1200 news articles, books, and journals into a concise study for future research and evaluation.
With nearly 97% of incidents within the past 40 years committed by men, mass public shootings are a gendered social problem. Yet, empirical research on this phenomenon largely neglects gender hierarchy and cultural factors as predictors, in favor of individual- and event-level characteristics. Despite calls from scholars to place masculinity and threats to patriarchal hegemony at the center of analyses, no empirical studies to our knowledge have examined the role of gender inequality in mass public shootings. The findings indicate that gender inequality, structural and ideological, are important predictors of mass public shootings and that future research should continue to investigate such violence from a gendered lens.
Active shooter events have captured the public’s attention since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. Although there has been research on various aspects of these events, only a single study has attempted to identify factors that are related to the number of people injured or killed in these events. This study was limited in that it only considered the presence or absence of a semi-automatic rifle. This paper expands on the existing research by examining several other factors that may impact the total number of people shot or killed during active shooter events.
The current study provides a quantitative examination of 634 firearms used in 348 mass shootings (1966-2018) through a unique firearm-level database. Specifically, this work identifies the relationship between the types of firearms, methods of obtainment, firearm regulations, and incident outcomes. Findings indicate the most common firearms were handguns. They were often legally obtained by the perpetrator, from independently owned or operated federally licensed firearms dealers. Although handgun-specific regulations did not appear to impact the legality of firearms , assault weapons bans were associated with an increase in illegal obtainment. Furthermore, the presence of a semiautomatic rifle and a higher number of guns were associated with increased casualties. A discussion of key findings provides important implications and future directions for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.
The present study uses a media distortion analysis to examine the news media’s framing of gun access, mental illness, violent entertainment, and terrorism in New York Times coverage of mass shootings in America between 2000 and 2016. Specifically, this work examines these four frames to identify the news media’s framing of the overall mass shooting problem, changes in framing over time, mass shooting characteristics influencing coverage including each of the four frames, and potential news media distortions of the phenomenon. Findings illustrate gun access frames were the most
commonly used of the four frames and increased the most over time. Mental illness frames were slightly more common than terrorism frames, although terrorism frames increased more over time. Violent entertainment frames were the least common overall. The most significant predictors of the four frames, across three comparative analyses, include Arab descent perpetrators (terrorism), jihadist-inspired motivations (terrorism), mental illness (mental illness), school targets (gun access, mental illness, violent entertainment), and government targets (gun access, terrorism). A discussion of
findings identifies news media distortions in mass shooting framing and provides implications for scholars, media outlets, and the public.
In this article, the case of Mr. Holmes is discussed in detail with a particular focus on the treatment he received when he was at graduate school in the months leading up to the shooting and, primarily, the findings from the sanity evaluation carried out by Dr. Metzner. In this article the I³ model is applied to the case of Mr. Holmes. His attack can be seen as resulting from an increase in dispositional and situational impelling factors, presence of instigation factors and a decrease in inhibiting factors, based on a detailed review of available information. The instigation, impellance and inhibition factors potentially present during the lead up to the shooting (approximately five months) and present at the time of the shooting are explored in this article. Instigation factors included a breakup with his girlfriend and academic failure at graduate school. Impellance factors included chronic (i.e., persistent) and severe mental illness associated with psychotic features (e.g., delusions, hallucinations and disordered thinking); social anxiety disorder (and trichotillomania); chronic suicidal thinking; chronic homicidal thinking and his perceived biological shortcomings. Inhibition factors included experiencing a “loss of fear” or “overcoming fear” of the consequences of killing people (in other words, he was becoming disinhibited); prescription medication which may have decreased his inhibition (specifically, antidepressant medication, sertraline — he was eventually prescribed 150 mg of sertraline) and individuals with ASD may be ‘more readier’ compared to others to act on psychotic impulses. This may have been what was happening in the case of Mr. Holmes. Specifically, why he was potentially more vulnerable to acting on his psychotic ideas and beliefs. Also, disinhibition caused by his severe mental illness associated with psychotic features (later diagnosed by the four psychiatrists before the trial as either schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or schizotypal personality disorder) may also have been an important contributory factor.
A growing literature has revealed that not all mass shootings are covered equally by the media. Thus far, endogenous and contextual characteristics of mass shootings have been causally associated with heightened print and online news coverage such as offender identity, weapon usage, motivations, shooting location and fatality count. This study utilizes univariate logistic regression to investigate whether the occurrence of exogenous events can offset coverage of mass shootings as measured through article counts drawn from the New York Times counts on 68 different cases. Results reveal that the odds of a given mass shooting being newsworthy are 12 times higher in absence of an exogenous event the day prior, the day of, or day after the shooting. These findings also support previously identified statistical trends. Cases featuring Middle-Eastern offenders have 28 times greater odds of being highly newsworthy. Large fatality counts also tend to attract news attention with each additional fatality in a shooting increasing the odds of it being highly newsworthy by one.
This study examined the 15 deadliest public mass shootings in the United States from March 1998 to February 2018 to assess (a) leakage of violent thoughts/intent, (b) leakage of specific interest in mass killing, (c) concerning behaviors reported to law enforcement, (d) concerning interest in homicide reported to law enforcement, and (e) firearms acquisition. We then compared our findings on the deadliest public mass shooters with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) findings on active shooters in general. Overall, the results suggest that most incidents were indeed preventable based on information known about offenders in advance, and that the deadliest mass shooters exhibited more warning signs and were more often reported to law enforcement than other active shooters. Future prevention efforts should aim to educate, encourage, and pressure the public to report warning signs to law enforcement, educate and train law enforcement so that they can more effectively investigate potential threats, and limit firearms access for people who have admitted having homicidal or suicidal thoughts or being interested in committing a mass shooting. These relatively straightforward steps could significantly reduce the prevalence of future attacks.
Scholars have urged a shift in research on mass murder from the creation of typologies to theoretically rich, data-driven comparative examinations of the phenomenon. We seek to redress such calls in two ways. First, we analyze a unique sample of public mass murderers through the multistage explanatory model of cumulative strain theory. Second, we use a comparison group of similarly violent offenders—lone actor terrorists—to provide context to our findings. The results demonstrate that cumulative strain theory usefully describes the trajectory toward violence of public mass murderers, more so when a concept implicit in the theory—grievance—is made explicit.
Researchers have extensively studied the tendency of certain violent criminals to hurt or torture animals, primarily focusing on domestic abusers and serial killers. However, little is known about the extent or nature of prior animal abuse among active shooters and public mass shooters. Public mass and active shooters essentially represent a single offender type: they are people who commit rampage attacks in public places and attempt to harm multiple victims beyond a single target. The only difference is that “mass” shootings are traditionally defined as cases resulting in the death of four or more victims, while “active” shootings have no minimum threshold. This study aimed to identify all publicly reported cases of active and mass shooters who engaged in animal cruelty, describe the nature of their violence toward animals and humans, and examine how they differ from other perpetrators without this history. Overall, this study found 20 cases of offenders with a publicly reported history of animal abuse. Comparisons between offenders with and without this history indicated that animal‐abusing offenders were more likely to be young and White, less likely to die at the crime scene, and more likely to kill and wound a large number of victims. While this finding supports the idea that animal abuse might be a warning sign for a small but deadly minority of mostly youthful offenders, it is likely not a robust signal of future shooters in general because animal abuse is rarely reported in this population of offenders at large.
This special issue includes:
"Media Coverage of Mass Killers: Content, Consequences, and Solutions" by Adam Lankford and Eric Madfis; "Visually Reporting Mass Shootings: U.S. Newspaper Photographic Coverage of Three Mass School Shootings" by Nicole Smith Dahmen; "Covering Mass Murder: An Experimental Examination of the Effect of News Focus -- Killer, Victim, or Hero -- on Reader Interest" by Jack Levin and Julie B. Wiest; "Global Online Subculture Surrounding School Shootings" by Jenni Raitanen and Atte Oksanen; "Different Types of Role Model Influence and Fame Seeking Among Mass Killers and Copycat Offenders" by Peter Langman; "Narcissism, Fame Seeking, and Mass Shootings" by Brad J. Bushman; "Reducing Media-Induced Mass Killings: Lessons From Suicide Prevention" by James N. Meindl and Jonathan W. Ivy; "Don’t Name Them, Don’t Show Them, But Report Everything Else: A Pragmatic Proposal for Denying Mass Killers the Attention They Seek and Deterring Future Offenders" by Adam Lankford and Eric Madfis
The litany of public mass murders, from Aurora, Newtown, Charleston, Las Vegas, and Parkland to less well-known incidents that occur yearly, has focused national attention on federally mandated mental health background checks of prospective gun purchasers. The call has been to put more gun-disqualifying mental health records into the Instant Criminal Background Check System database to prevent “deranged” murderers from buying guns and running amok. Our study examines whether increasing the robustness of the mental health background database will likely prevent potential public mass murderers from buying guns. Building on research that shows that serious mental illness contributes little to the risk of interpersonal violence and, further, that few persons with serious mental illness acquire gun-disqualifying mental health records, we examine whether public mass murderers are among the small percentage of those with serious mental illness who do have gun-disqualifying mental health records. Using a large sample of 106 US offenders who used a firearm to commit a public mass murder from 1990 to 2014, we find that half of the offenders had a history of mental illness or mental health treatment but that less than 5% had gun-disqualifying mental health records. Implications of these findings and recommendations for further research are discussed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
In the United States and Europe, the distinction between public mass shooters and suicide terrorists no longer seems particularly meaningful. A number of public mass shooters have considered using bombs and claimed to be sacrificing themselves for an ideological cause, and many suicide terrorists have attacked without organizational support, using firearms, for what appear to be largely personal reasons. Previous research has also documented several common factors in these offenders’ lives, including (a) suicidal motives and life indifference, (b) perceived victimization, and (c) desires for attention or fame. These factors are not always easy for observers to recognize in advance, so mental health professionals, the public, and law enforcement officials might need help from experts to more successfully identify at-risk individuals. This article reviews the evidence of each factor, provides a list of specific warning signs, and offers recommendations for future research. Ultimately, an evidence-based approach to prevention could help save both the lives of many potential victims and the lives of the would-be attackers themselves.
Mass shootings at a Connecticut elementary school, a Colorado movie theater, and other venues have prompted a fair number of proposals for change. Advocates for tighter gun restrictions, for expanding mental health services, for upgrading security in public places, and, even, for controlling violent entertainment have made certain assumptions about the nature of mass murder that are not necessarily valid. This article examines a variety of myths and misconceptions about multiple homicide and mass shooters, pointing out some of the difficult realities in trying to avert these murderous rampages. While many of the policy proposals are worthwhile in general, their prospects for reducing the risk of mass murder are limited.
Though Durkheim argued that strong social relationships protect individuals from suicide, we posit that these relationships have the potential to increase individuals’ vulnerability when they expose them to suicidality. Using three waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we evaluate whether new suicidal thoughts and attempts are in part responses to exposure to the suicide attempts of role models, specifically friends and family. We find that the suicide attempts of role models do in fact trigger new suicidal thoughts and in some cases attempts, even after significant controls are introduced. Moreover, we find that these effects fade with time, that girls are more vulnerable to them than boys, and that the relationship to the role model—for teenagers at least—matters. Friends appear to be more salient role models for both boys and girls. Our findings suggest that exposure to suicidal behaviors in significant others may teach individuals new ways to deal with emotional distress, namely by becoming suicidal. This reinforces the idea that the structure – and content – of social networks conditions their role in preventing suicidality. Specifically, social ties can be conduits of not just social support, but also anti-social behaviors, like suicidality.
This exploratory study examines the act of mass murder
as an attempt by the perpetrators to lay claim to a hegemonic
masculine identity that has been damaged or denied them, yet
that they feel entitled to as males in American culture.
Biographical information was gathered for 28 men who have
committed mass murder in the United States since 1970 and
examined for evidence of stressors to the perpetrators’
masculine identities. The majority of the sample demonstrated
financial (71%), social (61%), romantic (25%), and
psychological stressors (32%) and other stressors (18%) that
indicated a failure to attain the hegemonic masculine ideal in
American culture. There were co-occurring stressors such as
financial-social, financial-psychological and social psychological.
These stressors suggest that the motivations for
mass murders are numerous and complex. There is no
psychological profile unique to mass murderers and many
authors have speculated on their motivations. However, in this
study, the range of interrelated stressors experienced by the
majority of mass murderers threatened their hegemonic
masculine identity and these men engaged in violence to
protect their identity.
In this paper we examine variations in police arrest practices. Data collected in 1977 from police encounters with suspects indicate that arrest practices reflect legal and extra-legal factors. The decision to take a suspect into custody is influenced by such features of the situation as the dispositional preferences of victims, the race and demeanor of the suspect, and the presence of bystanders. Furthermore, the seriousness of the offense increases the chances of arrest. Contrary to much existing literature, males and females are equally likely to be arrested. The relevance of these findings to theoretical models of police behavior is discussed and the implications of our analysis for studies of criminal processing in general are considered.
The purpose of this article is to explore how the Columbine shootings on April 20, 1999, influenced subsequent school rampage shootings. First, school rampage shootings are defined to distinguish them from other forms of school violence. Second, post-Columbine shootings and thwarted shootings are examined to determine how they were influenced by Columbine. Unlike prior rampage shooters, Harris and Klebold committed their rampage shooting as an overtly political act in the name of oppressed students victimized by their peers. Numerous post-Columbine rampage shooters referred directly to Columbine as their inspiration; others attempted to supersede the Columbine shootings in body count. In the wake of Columbine, conspiracies to blow up schools and kill their inhabitants by outcast students were uncovered by authorities. School rampage shootings, most of which referred back to Columbine as their inspiration, expanded beyond North America to Europe, Australia, and Argentina; they increased on college campuses and spread to nonschool venues. The Columbine shootings redefined such acts not merely as revenge but as a means of protest of bullying, intimidation, social isolation, and public rituals of humiliation.
Homicides committed against supervisors and coworkers by disgruntled employees have grown at a disturbing rate in the American workplace. Increasingly, embittered employees and ex-employees are seeking revenge through violence and murder for alleged mistreatment on the job. This article examines patterns and trends in available data and presents a theoretical profile of those who kill at the work site. It suggests that the typical homicide of employers and coworkers is committed by a disgruntled, white, middle-aged male who faces termination or who has recently been fired. Recommendations are advanced for how employers might better respond to problem employees and to homicidal threats at the workplace. These include prevention strategies, such as giving higher priority to the role of human resources, affording employees due process protection against unfair terminations, and changing the importance attached to the meaning of work in people's lives.
Over the past decade the topic of multiple homicide-serial and mass murder-has attracted increased attention in the field of criminology. Though far from the epidemic suggested in media reports, it is alarming nonetheless that a small number of offenders account for so much human destruction and widespread fear. The serial killer is typically a white male in his late twenties or thirties who targets strangers encountered near his work or home. These killers tend to be sociopaths who satisfy personal needs by killing with physical force. Demographically similar to the serial killer, the mass murderer generally kills people he knows well, acting deliberately and methodically. He executes his victims in the most expedient way-with a firearm. Importantly, the difference of timing that distinguishes serial from mass murder may also obscure strong similarities in their motivation. Both can be understood within the same motivational typology-power, revenge, loyalty, profit, and terror. The research literature, still in its infancy, is more speculative than definitive, based primarily on anecdotal evidence rather than hard data. Future studies should make greater use of comparison groups and seek life-cycle explanations-beyond early childhood-which recognize the unique patterns and characteristics of multiple murderers. A research focus on murder in the extreme may also help us understand more commonplace forms of interpersonal violence.
Suicide bombing has become the most potent weapon in the arsenal of terrorist groups in the Middle East, South Asia, and elsewhere. This analysis traces the weapon’s history, both ancient and modern to the present day. It includes commentary on the benefits and costs of suicide attacks as well as the motives of the ‘martyrs’ themselves and the organizations that send them on their way. Finally, the analysis pays attention to countermeasures, policies at the disposal of the authorities to stop or at least inhibit so-called ‘martyrdom operations.’
The Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR), assembled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have for many years represented
the most valuable source of information on the patterns and trends in murder and non-negligent manslaughter. Despite their
widespread use by researchers and policy makers alike, these data are not completely without their limitations, the most important
of which involves missing or incomplete incident reports. In this analysis, we develop methods for addressing missing data
in the 1976–2005 SHR cumulative file, related to both non-reports (unit missingness) and incomplete reports (item missingness).
For incomplete case data (that is, missing characteristics on victims, offenders or incidents), we implement a multiple imputation
(MI) approach based on a log-linear model for incomplete multivariate categorical data. Then, to adjust for unit missingness,
we adopt a weighting scheme linked to FBI annual estimates of homicide counts by state and National Center for Health Statistics
mortality data on decedent characteristics in coroners’ reports for deaths classified as homicide. The result is a fully-imputed
SHR database for 1976–2005. This paper examines the effects of MI and case weighting on victim/offender/incident characteristics,
including standard errors of parameter estimates resulting from imputation uncertainty.
A number of researchers have sought to identify the features that school shooters have in common in terms of family life, personalities, histories, and behaviors. This article examines the cases of 10 rampage school-shooters in an effort to find out not only how they are alike, but also how they differ. Based on available information, these youths are categorized into three types: traumatized, psychotic, and psychopathic. Out of the 10 shooters discussed, three were traumatized, five were psychotic, and two were psychopathic. The three traumatized shooters all came from broken homes with parental substance abuse and parental criminal behavior. They all were physically abused and two were sexually abused outside of the home. The five psychotic shooters had schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, including schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder. They all came from intact families with no history of abuse. The two psychopathic shooters were neither abused nor psychotic. They demonstrated narcissism, a lack of empathy, a lack of conscience, and sadistic behavior. Most people who are traumatized, psychotic, and psychopathic do not commit murder. Beyond identifying the three types of rampage shooters, additional factors are explored that may have contributed to the attacks. These include family structure, role models, and peer influence.
Research carried out by the author on suicide in mass murderers and serial killers is reviewed. The incidence of suicide in rampage murderers (34.7%) is much higher than in serial killers (4.4%). Whereas all of the suicides in mass murderers occurred during attempts to arrest them, 52% of the suicides in the serial killersoccurred after arrest. Case studies are presented, and suggestions made for future research.
Suicide is difficult to predict and prevent because people who consider killing themselves often are unwilling or unable to report their intentions. Advances in the measurement of implicit cognition provide an opportunity to test whether automatic associations of self with death can provide a behavioral marker for suicide risk. We measured implicit associations about death/suicide in 157 people seeking treatment at a psychiatric emergency department. Results confirmed that people who have attempted suicide hold a significantly stronger implicit association between death/suicide and self than do psychiatrically distressed individuals who have not attempted suicide. Moreover, the implicit association of death/suicide with self was associated with an approximately 6-fold increase in the odds of making a suicide attempt in the next 6 months, exceeding the predictive validity of known risk factors (e.g., depression, suicide-attempt history) and both patients' and clinicians' predictions. These results provide the first evidence of a behavioral marker for suicidal behavior and suggest that measures of implicit cognition may be useful for detecting and predicting sensitive clinical behaviors that are unlikely to be reported.
This paper shows that suicides increase immediately after a suicide story has been publicized in the newspapers in Britain and in the United States, 1947-1968. The more publicity devoted to a suicide story, the larger the rise in suicides thereafter. The rise in suicides after a story is restricted mainly to the area in which the story was publicized. Alternative explanations of these findings are examined; the evidence indicates that the rise in suicides is due to the influence of suggestion on suicide, an influence not previously demonstrated on the national level of suicides. The substantive, theoretical, and methodological implications of these findings are examined.
The study reexamines Phillips's findings regarding the linkage between the appearance of news stories on prominent suicides and the subsequent monthly rise of national suicides-the Werther effect. Extending Phillips's original data set to 1977, and employing the quasi-experimental method, it is found that stories on prominent suicides are likely to trigger a subsequent rise in national suicides. However, this rise may be related to the linkage of suicide with the business cycle, and the fact that more prominent suicides may occur in years when there is a downturn in the economy. This study analyzes suicide rate data with a multivariate time-series model and controls for seasonal effects, the average duration of unemployment and war. No significant linkage is found between the national suicide rate and stories on prominent suicides on the front page of the New York Times. Employing Boorstin's definition of celebrities, the prominent suicides on the front page of the New York Times between 1947 and 1977 are differentiated as celebrity and noncelebrity suicides. Examining only celebrity suicides, it is found that a significant rise in the national suicide rate occurs in the month after a celebrity commits suicide. Suicidal imitation by the public is more selective than originally hypothesized by Phillips.
School shootings have become more common in the United States in recent years. Yet, as media portrayals of these ‘rampages’ shock the public, the characterisation of this violence obscures an important point: many of these crimes culminate in suicide, and they are almost universally committed by males. We examine three recent American cases, which involve suicide, to elucidate how the culture of hegemonic masculinity in the US creates a sense of aggrieved entitlement conducive to violence. This sense of entitlement simultaneously frames suicide as an appropriate, instrumental behaviour for these males to underscore their violent enactment of masculinity.
Background
Public health and clinical efforts to prevent suicide clusters are seriously hampered by the unanswered question of why such outbreaks occur. We aimed to establish whether an environmental factor—newspaper reports of suicide—has a role in the emergence of suicide clusters.
Methods
In this retrospective, population-based, case-control study, we identified suicide clusters in young people aged 13–20 years in the USA from 1988 to 1996 (preceding the advent of social media) using the time–space Scan statistic. For each cluster community, we selected two matched non-cluster control communities in which suicides of similarly aged youth occurred, from non-contiguous counties within the same state as the cluster. We examined newspapers within each cluster community for stories about suicide published in the days between the first and second suicides in the cluster. In non-cluster communities, we examined a matched length of time after the matched control suicide. We used a content-analysis procedure to code the characteristics of each story and compared newspaper stories about suicide published in case and control communities with mixed-effect regression analyses.
Findings
We identified 53 suicide clusters, of which 48 were included in the media review. For one cluster we could identify only one appropriate control; therefore, 95 matched control communities were included. The mean number of news stories about suicidal individuals published after an index cluster suicide (7·42 [SD 10·02]) was significantly greater than the mean number of suicide stories published after a non-cluster suicide (5·14 [6.00]; p<0·0001). Several story characteristics, including front-page placement, headlines containing the word suicide or a description of the method used, and detailed descriptions of the suicidal individual and act, appeared more often in stories published after the index cluster suicides than after non-cluster suicides.
Interpretation
Our identification of an association between newspaper reports about suicide (including specific story characteristics) and the initiation of teenage suicide clusters should provide an empirical basis to support efforts by mental health professionals, community officials, and the media to work together to identify and prevent the onset of suicide clusters.
Funding
US National Institute of Mental Health and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Currently there is growing professional concern in education about ‘boys’ schooling underachievement'. At the same time, popular representations are emerging in the media that position boys as the new victims of institutional gender discrimination. Implicit in these accounts is the notion of fixed gender categories for girls and boys that are in the process of changing. In contrast, recent feminist research on schooling has shown the limits of earlier sex role models of socialisation, that operated with fixed gender images of male and female pupils. It is suggested in this paper that there is a need to draw upon this literature, in order to develop a more sophisticated framework of male identity formation at a school level. The emerging thesis of ‘boys’ underachievement’ needs to be located within this framework, that suggests that schools make available a range of femininities and masculinities that young people come to occupy. This paper focuses upon an exploration of the cultural production of white working-class male students. More specifically there is a critical examination of a crisis masculinity experienced by specific sectors of young working class men, who are low academic achievers and have little prospect of future work. Of particular concern here is that new models of school masculinity are being constructed at a time of retreat from social class analysis in critical accounts of schooling.
Even though previous research has not examined mass murder prior to 1965, scholars have asserted that the mid-1960s marked the onset of an unprecedented and ever-growing mass murder wave. Using news accounts and the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) as sources of data, this study analyzes 909 mass killings that took place between 1900 and 1999. Although the mid-1960s marked the beginning of a mass murder wave, it was not unprecedented, because mass killings were nearly as common during the 1920s and 1930s. The results also show that familicides, the modal mass murder over the last several decades, were even more prevalent before the 1970s. Moreover, mass killers were older, more suicidal, and less likely to use guns in the first two-thirds of the 20th century. Although some have claimed that workplace massacres represent a new “strain” in mass murder, the findings suggest that the only new type of mass killing that emerged during the 20th century was the drug-related massacre.
In discussing the problem of mass murder, an ever increasing expression of violence in society, the typology of the perpetrators of such crimes is presented. Illustrations of some of the most notorious killers are provided and the unique case of a mass murderer who left, as a suicide “note,” a videotaped soliloquy is presented. The dynamics of mass murder and of mass murder-suicide are discussed; the killings are viewed as the outcome of deep frustration and perceived rejection in a highly narcissistic person, wounded in his ego, hostile towards society, and in search of identity and notoriety through a cathartic self assertion. Similarities are shown between the mass murderer and the mythological Norse “berserk” and it is speculated that the superman complex may be at the core of the killer's behavior. It is contended that the personal psychopathology of the killer is determinant of the destructive behavior, although social factors are highly contributory.
For years, scholars have claimed that suicide terrorists are not suicidal, but rather psychologically normal individuals inspired to sacrifice their lives for an ideological cause, due to a range of social and situational factors. I agree that suicide terrorists are shaped by their contexts, as we all are. However, I argue that these scholars went too far. In The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers, I take the opposing view, based on my in-depth analyses of suicide attackers from Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North America; attackers who were male, female, young, old, Islamic, and Christian; attackers who carried out the most deadly and the least deadly strikes. I present evidence that in terms of their behavior and psychology, suicide terrorists are much like others who commit conventional suicides, murder-suicides, or unconventional suicides where mental health problems, personal crises, coercion, fear of an approaching enemy, or hidden self-destructive urges play a major role. I also identify critical differences between suicide terrorists and those who have genuinely sacrificed their lives for a greater good. By better understanding suicide terrorists, experts in the brain and behavioral sciences may be able to pioneer exciting new breakthroughs in security countermeasures and suicide prevention. And even more ambitiously, by examining these profound extremes of the human condition, perhaps we can more accurately grasp the power of the human survival instinct among those who are actually psychologically healthy.
This study presents results from the first combined quantitative assessment and comparative analysis of suicide terrorists and rampage, workplace, and school shooters who attempt suicide. Findings suggest that in the United States from 1990 to 2010, the differences between these offenders (N = 81) were largely superficial. Prior to their attacks, they struggled with many of the same personal problems, including social marginalization, family problems, work or school problems, and precipitating crisis events. Ultimately, patterns among all four types of offenders can assist those developing security policy, conducting threat assessments, and attempting to intervene in the lives of at-risk individuals.
Although the so-called “dark figure” crime measurement problem has never been a major concern for homicide researchers, the Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) as well as other local data series on murder still are plagued by other kinds of missing data issues. Most prominent is missingness in data pertaining to offender characteristics as well as to victim-offender relationship that results from uncleared cases. Ignoring unsolved homicides would, of course, seriously understate calculated rates of offending by particular subgroups of the population, would distort trends over time among these same subgroups, and would bias observed patterns of offending to the extent that the likelihood of missing offender data is associated with offender characteristics. This article presents several approaches for overcoming missing data problems in the 1976-2001 cumulative SHRdata file. First, a weighting procedure is described that uses characteristics of known offenders to serve as proxies for those of unidentified perpetrators. The weighting procedure included in the SHR file archived at ICPSR as well as an enhanced version are both presented and compared. Next, a “hot-deck” imputation strategy is applied to fill in missing offender attributes based on similar cases for which the offender is known. Finally, the matter of imputing victim-offender relationship data is discussed. Because this form of missingness cannot be assumed to occur at random, an ad-hoc procedure for estimating the number of intimate homicides among the pool of unsolved slayings is presented.
Much attention has been devoted in the past several years to public incidents of mass murder. Events such as the shooting on a Long Island commuter train in 1993, the massacre in Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, or the seemingly numerous workplace homicides have received intensive media coverage and public interest. As a consequence, a stereotype of mass murder has emerged that may or may not be very accurate. This study examines incidents of mass murder that occurred in public settings in the United States between 1965 and 1995 to more closely scrutinize both the events and the offenders involved.
Mass murder—the sudden, explosive killing of a group of people—when committed by adults often is followed by the offender committing suicide. Recently in the United States, frequent cases of mass murder are reported as committed by adolescents. However, among juvenile mass murderers, there are no reported suicides (or attempts) by the offenders. This article provides a typology of mass murderers and offers a dynamic interpretation of the development of conscience and moral decisional capacity in adult and juvenile offenders. Preventive measures are explored along with methodological techniques that may distinguish between adult and juvenile mass murderers in their propensity to commit suicide after the events.
The authors examine rampage shootings in American high schools after 2002 and consider whether factors identified in their prior research on rampages from 1974 to 2002 account for the more recent cases. The authors find that the five factors—social marginality, individual predisposing factors, cultural scripts, failure of the surveillance system, and availability of guns—remain important features. The authors then contrast these high school shootings with the recent spate of college rampage shootings that resemble the high school cases in some ways but differ in others. College shooters are older and therefore typically further along in the development of serious mental illness.
Since the American Bar Foundation Survey of the Administration of Criminal Justice (1953-69) "discovered" the phenomenon of discretion in criminal justice, it has become something of a truism that the administration of criminal justice in the United States consists of a series of discretionary decisions by officials in regard to police discretion, bail, plea bargaining, and sentencing. This book is a history of the attempts over the past forty years to control these discretionary powers in the criminal justice system. In a field which largely produces short-ranged "evaluation research", this study, in taking a wider approach, distinguishes between the role of the courts and the role of administrative bodies (the police) and evaluates the longer-term trends and the successful reforms in criminal justice history. It focuses on four critical decision points in the criminal justice system: police discretion, bail setting, plea bargaining, and sentencing. It examines the various reforms that have been proposed, the major ones implemented, and the impact of those reforms.
Systematic study of the decision-making process at each critical stage of the criminal justice system has been limited. Specifically, little attention has been given to the decision-making of police on whether or not to process juveniles into and through the system. Even more remarkable is the lack of research on the types of information police use to arrive at their decisions.
One device available for studying information handling in decision-making is the information or decision board developed by Leslie Wilkins. The technique simulates, as closely as possible, the real-life use of information and allows for rigorous experi mental conditions. By use of this technique, the decision- making of twenty-four policemen was studied—specifically, the amount and types of information each used to make a decision about a juvenile charged with drunk and disorderly conduct.
The results show that police use more information to make a decision than is popularly believed. On the average, five pieces of information were selected before a decision was reached. The data also indicate that younger officers (less than five years on the job) tend to use nearly twice as much information as their more experienced counterparts (five or more years on the job) and that these two groups of officers do not always reach the same final decisions.
Twenty-three of the twenty-four officers selected offense first, but the most critical topic for reaching a final decision was attitude of offender. Eighteen of the twenty-four officers made a decision when this piece of information was selected. Surprising ly, the piece of information race had little significance in the decision-making process.
This study shows that the information board can be used effectively to examine the decision-making of police in their processing of juveniles. The data suggest that future studies may be able to identify types of decision-makers among police by examining their information-search profiles.
Over the past twenty years, claimsmakers have asserted that the mid-1960s marked the beginning of an unprecedented and ever-growing mass murder wave in the United States. Recent research has shown, however, that mass murder was just as common during the 1920s and 30s as it has been since the mid-1960s. Using the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) and newspaper, network television news, and newsweekly magazine coverage as sources of data, this study examines why and how mass murder was constructed as a new crime problem. I suggest that the news media have figured prominently in the social construction of mass murder by heavily influencing which cases claimsmakers have selected as landmark narratives and, more generally, as typifying examples. Because claimsmakers have relied almost exclusively on national news coverage as a source of data, they have made a number of questionable claims about the prevalence and nature of mass murder since the high-profile cases represent the most sensational and least representative mass killings. And the news media have completed the circle of distortion by disseminating the bulk of the claims that have been made, leading to policies that have targeted the rarest aspects about mass murder. But not all of the solutions offered by claimsmakers have been accepted by policymakers. As a result, this study also looks at why claimsmakers tasted only modest success in constructing mass murder.
Previous research comparing rampage shooters in the U.S. and volunteer suicide bombers in the Middle East appears to be virtually non-existent. When these two types of suicidal killers have been mentioned in the same context, it has primarily been to dismiss any possible connections. Rampage shooters are generally assumed to be mentally unbalanced, while suicide bombers are seen as extreme, but rational, political actors. However, this review explores the possibility that the primary differences between the two types of killers are cultural, not individual, and that in terms of their underlying psychology and motivation, they are actually quite similar. In both cases, substantial evidence indicates that these perpetrators of murder–suicide share many of the following characteristics: (1) they had troubled childhoods, (2) they lived in oppressive social environments, (3) they suffered from low self-esteem, (4) they were triggered by a personal crisis, (5) they were seeking revenge, and (6) they were seeking fame and glory.
This article is an introduction to the special issue of Homicide Studies on missing data. The first section is an overview of the status of missing data approaches in homicide research. It begins by describing the importance of missing data estimation in homicide. This is followed by a discussion of missing data mechanisms, complete case analysis, imputation and weighting, and model-based procedures. The second section is a brief description of each of the articles in this issue. The conclusion describes the myth associated with imputing missing data, the use of missing data approaches in public records, the Supreme Court case that found hot-deck imputation acceptable for the census, and guidelines for handling missing data published by the American Psychological Association. This section concludes by describing the kinds of research that need to be done.
For years, it has been widely agreed on that suicide terrorists are not suicidal individuals, and that behaviorally, they are more similar to noble soldiers who are willing to sacrifice themselves for a cause. However, upon closer examination, it appears that the foundation of this conventional wisdom is extraordinarily shaky. There are many reasons to think that both event-based and psychological risk factors for suicide may drive the behavior of suicide terrorists. Furthermore, there is growing evidence that more than 75 individual suicide terrorists have exhibited these classic suicidal traits. Given the power that the stigma of suicide may have to deter future suicide terrorists, it is critical that governments, scholars, and practitioners examine this issue once again.
This paper presents a critical examination of homicide circumstances as reported in supplementary homicide reports (SHR). Different types of homicides can be distinguished by the circumstance codes and victim/offender relationship recorded on the SHR. Delineating murder by type invites analysis of this offense from a victimization perspective–homicides have much in common with nonlethal offenses. Different types of homicide present different policy problems to police. The paper also discusses various sources of error in SHR data, which must be recognized by researchers interested in theoretical or policy questions.
Because now fragmented to an unprecedented extent, sociology has a special need for a central notion. Control could be that notion, meaning that sociologists can describe and think about all or virtually all of their subject matter in terms of control. Moreover, the notion of control can be used to realize not only greater conceptual clarification and integration but also to anticipate possible empirical relations that might have otherwise gone unanticipated. Such goals are actually steps toward theories, and control or any other central notion candidate fails if it does not facilitate that pursuit.
There has been recent widespread media coverage of events that involve murder-suicide. In this paper, the author does an extensive literature review of studies about murder-suicide. The purpose is to determine whether the incidence of murder-suicide is increasing and what its risk factors are. The results of this review show that the incidence of murder-suicide remains at under 0.001%. Risk factors for murder-suicide are based on relationship between perpetrator and victims, history of domestic violence, sex or perpetrator and victim, age of perpetrator, presence of divorce/separation, use of weapon, and history of mental illness. This paper shows that the incidence of murder-suicide is low, stable, and similar to what has been reported in the past. There are, however, some distinct risk factors for murder-suicide including: substance abuse (not as common), mostly male perpetrators, depression (more common), and older male caregivers are at risk.
There has been little attempt to integrate contemporary studies of suicide and mass murder to homicide-suicides. The current research attempts to do so in the context of 19th-century parricides in America. This project uses archival records from The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, 1851-1899, resulting in a total of 231 incidents. Our results indicate that parricides, mass murders, and suicides tended to originate as spontaneous acts, usually during the course of an argument, gathering momentum as the interaction unfolded. We contend that suicide is one way of alleviating threats to offender's loss of self-identity.
The death of a patient is a catalysmic event for both the patient's family and physician. This report is about such a death. A 24-yr-old psychiatric patient who manifested great psychological distress was altruistically murdered by her father. He then turned the gun on himself. The authors report this case to alert psychiatric clinicians to some of the circumstances that might be associated with murder-suicide, and to discuss the implications of such a tragedy in relation to the current psychiatric emphasis on patients' rights, brief hospitalizations, and voluntary care in the community.
Twelve couples in cases of murder-suicide were compared to 24 couples in cases of homicide during the period 1978 to 1987 in Albuquerque, N.M. Data were obtained from police, the courts, hospital records, and interviews with friends and family of the deceased. The most striking findings were that perpetrators of murder-suicide were depressed (75%) and men (95%), while perpetrators of homicide were not depressed and one-half were women. The data indicate that the murder-suicide and homicide groups are two different populations.