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Mass Killings in the United States from 2006 to 2013: Social Contagion or Random Clusters?
Abstract
In line with previous research on suicide and social contagion, there has been widespread speculation that mass killings-which often involve suicidal offenders-are socially contagious for up to 14 days. This study tested these claims by making comparisons (i) between observed chronological clusters of mass killings in the United States from 2006 to 2013 and clusters in 500 simulations containing 116,000 randomly generated dates, and then (ii) between observed mass killings receiving varying levels of public attention. No evidence of short-term contagion was found, although longer term copycat effects may exist. Further scholarly and policy implications are discussed.
... Vuorio et al. instead demonstrated an association between the increase in pilot aircraft-assisted suicides and the copycat phenomenon after terrorist a acks (such as 11 September 2001) [22]. Lankford et al. hypothesized a correlation between mass killings (including suicides) and subsequent suicidal phenomena, especially in the time frame represented by 14 days after the event [23]. A study by Lindberg et al. demonstrated an association between the copycat effect and suicidal/homicidal plans among Finnish adolescents with mental disorders [24]. ...
... Vuorio et al. instead demonstrated an association between the increase in pilot aircraft-assisted suicides and the copycat phenomenon after terrorist attacks (such as 11 September 2001) [22]. Lankford et al. hypothesized a correlation between mass killings (including suicides) and subsequent suicidal phenomena, especially in the time frame represented by 14 days after the event [23]. A study by Lindberg et al. demonstrated an association between the copycat effect and suicidal/homicidal plans among Finnish adolescents with mental disorders [24]. ...
... Psychological factors, such as mental health disorders like depression or anxiety, increase susceptibility to emulation, especially when individuals view suicide as a solution to their distress. Personality traits like impulsivity or imitation tendencies further predispose individuals to engage in copycat suicides [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Social isolation and poor coping mechanisms also play a role. ...
Background: The “copycat effect” is a psychological phenomenon in which a person’s actions influence the behavior of others, leading to imitations of behaviors, events, or ideas. It is often observed in contexts such as crimes, suicides, or violent behaviors, where media coverage of an event can trigger similar reactions in other people. Usually, many studies associate the copycat phenomenon with homicide or serial crimes. Little attention is paid to the phenomenon of emulation in suicide and, therefore, to the copycat phenomenon in this context. Methods: In our study, a systematic review of the literature was carried out using keywords related to copycat and suicide. Subsequently, each study was read and analyzed. Results: The results were compared with each other and demonstrated how it is essential to mitigate the resonance of suicidal events, especially through the media and social networks. In particular, this risk of emulation is greater among young people who are exposed to a continuous external source of information through news from the web in an incessant and constant way. This risk increases most immediately after the publicity of the suicidal event in a limited period of time. Conclusions: Unfortunately, little attention is given to the analysis of the copycat phenomenon, which causes an underestimation of the data related to suicide emulation, especially from the preventive perspective of a phenomenon that is still widespread.
... Often, mass killings are pooled in this time frame, and family, felony, or public mass killings are not distinguished from one another. Repeated studies have shown no generalized social contagion effects during this short period in overall violence, specifically mass killings [9] or even more specifically, public mass killings. However, there is often little effort to differentiate different kinds of public mass killings from one another [8], as is done in terror contagions. ...
... Both imitation and general social contagion perspectives rely on the traditional tools of sociology, criminology, and statistics and have struggled to find evidence of contagion effects [6], [7] in mass killings. The terror contagion perspective described above arises from a systems science approach and, relying on computer simulations and calculus, suggests a complex, dynamic system of violent radicalization, where, under certain conditions, a terror contagion as a specific form of public mass killing emerges [8], [9]. ...
... This included scripts related too: "cybercrime (24 scripts) and corruption and fraud offences (23), followed by robbery and theft offences (19), drugs offences (14), environmental crime (14), violent crime (13), sexual offences (9), and other (13) [24, p. 510]." Approaching the elephant of public mass killings from this review and more recent work identifies crime script approaches for school shootings [25], violent and non-violent extremists [26], ideologically motivated mass shootings [27], vehicular ramming's [28], incel attacks [29], and a singular script on the Norway attack of 2011 [30]. ...
The terror contagion hypothesis is a novel approach to understanding public mass killing terrorism that spreads as a form of social contagion through cultural scripts. These attacks, though less frequent than other forms of mass killings, are often far more violent and target our schools, universities, grocery stores, houses of worship, and public places. In this work, we demonstrate preliminary results through two experiments that terror contagions can be differentiated from one another, as well as from all other mass killings. We conduct these experiments by developing a traditional criminology tool, a crime script, which is a model of a criminal act. By developing a very high-fidelity terror contagion script model and populating it with robust, high-quality data from two existing field-recognized data sources, we demonstrate how the Columbine-style school shooting, VA Tech, and Incel terror contagions are not only different in key ways from one another but also from all other mass shootings in the US from 1995-2022. Though these findings are not statistically significant due to the low sample size of available incidents, they demonstrate the promise of using crime scripts as a model of terror contagions to inform previously developed system dynamics computer simulation models. This improves the fidelity of the model, allows simulation of the crime script, and builds confidence in criminologists more familiar with this method than a computer simulation. This is a novel merging of criminology and system dynamic methods, both in general and specifically related to public mass killings.
... Hence, it is very likely that potential copycat shooters are exposed to initial attacks and inspired to imitate them. Follman and Andrews (2015), and Lankford and Tomek (2018) study the so-called "Columbine effect" which denotes the hypothesis that the Columbine school shooting influenced several subsequent school shootings. Some perpetrators referred directly to Columbine when they described the motivation for their actions. ...
... Some perpetrators referred directly to Columbine when they described the motivation for their actions. Lankford and Tomek (2018) report that the Columbine shooting inspired at least 21 copycat shootings and 53 thwarted plots in the United States over a 15-year period. ...
... The literature on violent crimes and mass shootings uses the terms copycat effects and social contagion to describe the spatio-temporal dependence of these incidents (see, e.g., Towers et al., 2015, Kissner, 2016, Lankford & Tomek, 2018, Loeffler & Flaxman, 2018, and Torrecilla et al., 2019. We adopt the definition of copycat crimes from (Helfgott, 2008, p. 377) stating that "[c]opycat crime is crime inspired by another crime that has been publicized in the news media or fictionally or artistically represented whereby the offender incorporates aspects of the original offense into a new crime" and follow Lankford and Tomek (2018) stating that "[…] the social contagion thesis suggests that perpetrators receive so much attention for their attacks that each high-profile killer ends up "infecting" the minds of other impressionable individuals." ...
School shootings are often motivated by the perpetrators' desire for media attention and notoriety. As school shootings receive intense regional and national media coverage, a high likelihood for copycat attacks can be expected. We investigate whether a copycat effect can be detected in US state‐level school shooting data from 1990 to 2017. We do so by estimating spatio‐temporal panel count models and control for socio‐economic characteristics, as well as state and Federal gun control laws. Positive spatial and temporal dependence indicate that the risk for additional school shootings in the same and neighboring states increases after the initial attack.
... Hence, it is very likely that potential copycat shooters are exposed to initial attacks and inspired to imitate them. Follman and Andrews (2015), and Lankford and Tomek (2018) study the so-called "Columbine effect" which denotes the hypothesis that the Columbine school shooting influenced several subsequent school shootings. Some perpetrators referred directly to Columbine when they described the motivation for their actions. ...
... Some perpetrators referred directly to Columbine when they described the motivation for their actions. Lankford and Tomek (2018) report that the Columbine shooting inspired at least 21 copycat shootings and 53 thwarted plots in the United States over a 15-year period. ...
... The literature on violent crimes and mass shootings uses the terms copycat effects and social contagion to describe the spatio-temporal dependence of these incidents (see, e.g., Towers et al., 2015, Kissner, 2016, Lankford & Tomek, 2018, Loeffler & Flaxman, 2018, and Torrecilla et al., 2019. We adopt the definition of copycat crimes from (Helfgott, 2008, p. 377) stating that "[c]opycat crime is crime inspired by another crime that has been publicized in the news media or fictionally or artistically represented whereby the offender incorporates aspects of the original offense into a new crime" and follow Lankford and Tomek (2018) stating that "[…] the social contagion thesis suggests that perpetrators receive so much attention for their attacks that each high-profile killer ends up "infecting" the minds of other impressionable individuals." ...
... The literature on mass shootings has given us valuable insights on the incidence (1), demographic and background characteristics of offenders (2), motivations (3), and individual, and macrolevel processes that may be responsible for their incidence and distribution (4)(5)(6). While their findings have been instrumental for our understanding, this body of research implicitly ignores the heterogeneity found in the characteristics, behaviors, and motivations of mass shooters. ...
... Consistent with the growing literature, we define a mass public shooting as an incident of targeted violence where an offender has killed or unequivocally attempted to kill four or more victims on a public stage (e.g., workplace, schools, parks, and businesses) in one or multiple closely related locations within a 24-h period (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(9)(10)(11)(12). Both familicides and felony-related mass shootings are excluded from this operationalization (12). ...
... Consistent with most studies on the subject (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19), we 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 1966 to 2017. Open-source data are information that is open to the public (20). ...
This study compares the demographic, background, motivation, and pre‐event and event‐level behaviors across four types of mass public shooters: disgruntled employee, school, ideologically motivated, and rampage offenders. Using a database containing detailed information on 318 mass public shootings that occurred in the United States between 1966 and 2017, we find systematic differences in the characteristics, motivations, target selection, planning, and incident‐level behaviors among these offenders. The results show that ideologically motivated shooters to be the most patient, and methodical, and as a result the most lethal. Conversely, disgruntled employees, who are driven by revenge, tend to have little time to plan and consequently are the least lethal shooters. These, among other differences, underscore the need for prevention strategies and policies to be tailored to specific types of offenders. Furthermore, the results also highlight commonalities across offender type, suggesting that the social and psychological pathways to violence are universal across offenders.
... As an example of the advantages of unbinned likelihood methods in increasing the statistical power of an analysis, here we compare and contrast two recent analyses of contagion in mass killings in America, both of which were based on exactly the same data, but used different methodology. One concluded that there was evidence of contagion in mass killings [6], while the later analysis contradicted this claim [7]. ...
... Using the same data presented in Towers et al (2015), Lankford & Tomek (2017) published a subsequent analysis that claimed to find no significant evidence of contagion in mass killings [7]. They primarily based their conclusion on a simple analysis of how many events occurred within 14 days of a prior event, under the null hypothesis assumption that the data were randomly Uniformly distributed in time. ...
... It is somewhat rare to find in the literature two analyses based on exactly the same data that come to differing conclusions when testing essentially the same hypotheses. The differing results of the analyses of Towers et al (2015) and Lankford & Tomek (2017) are thus an excellent example of the advantages of unbinned likelihood methods in optimizing the statistical power of an analysis. ...
Background
When attempting to statistically distinguish between a null and an alternative hypothesis, many researchers in the life and social sciences turn to binned statistical analysis methods, or methods that are simply based on the moments of a distribution (such as the mean, and variance). These methods have the advantage of simplicity of implementation, and simplicity of explanation.
However, when null and alternative hypotheses manifest themselves in subtle differences in patterns in the data, binned analysis methods may be insensitive to these differences, and researchers may erroneously fail to reject the null hypothesis when in fact more sensitive statistical analysis methods might produce a different result when the null hypothesis is actually false.
Here, with a focus on two recent conflicting studies of contagion in mass killings as instructive examples, we discuss how the use of unbinned likelihood methods makes optimal use of the information in the data; a fact that has been long known in statistical theory, but perhaps is not as widely appreciated amongst general researchers in the life and social sciences.
Methods
In 2015, Towers et al published a paper that quantified the long-suspected contagion effect in mass killings. However, in 2017, Lankford & Tomek subsequently published a paper, based upon the same data, that claimed to contradict the results of the earlier study. The former used unbinned likelihood methods, and the latter used binned methods, and comparison of distribution moments.
Using these analyses, we also discuss how visualization of the data can aid in determination of the most appropriate statistical analysis methods to distinguish between a null and alternate hypothesis. We also discuss the importance of assessment of the robustness of analysis results to methodological assumptions made (for example, arbitrary choices of number of bins and bin widths when using binned methods); an issue that is widely overlooked in the literature, but is critical to analysis reproducibility and robustness.
Conclusions
When an analysis cannot distinguish between a null and alternate hypothesis, care must be taken to ensure that the analysis methodology itself maximizes the use of information in the data that can distinguish between the two hypotheses.
The use of binned methods by Lankford & Tomek (2017), that examined how many mass killings fell within a 14 day window from a previous mass killing, substantially reduced the sensitivity of their analysis to contagion effects. The unbinned likelihood methods used by Towers et al (2015) did not suffer from this problem.
While a binned analysis might be favorable for simplicity and clarity of presentation, unbinned likelihood methods are preferable when effects might be somewhat subtle.
... In addition to providing fame and generating competition, perpetrator-focused coverage may inspire future attacks by others, leading to media contagion and copycat effects in mass killings (Kissner 2016;Langman 2017;Towers et al. 2015). Media contagion, as it applies to mass shootings, is defined as the influence of mass shooting coverage on increasing the likelihood that similar incidents or acts of violence will occur in the near future (Lankford and Madfis 2017;Lankford and Tomek 2017). Copycat effects are a more specific form of contagion in that it refers to the imitation of distinct behaviors and actions of previous perpetrators (Langman 2018;Lankford 2016;Lankford and Madfis 2017;Meindl and Ivy 2018). ...
... The authors suggest clustering of mass shooting events may be better attributed to social and environmental factors (Fox et al. 2021). In contrast to recent disagreement on contagion effects, research shows consistent support for the presence of copycat effects, which may have the potential to span many years (Lankford and Tomek 2017). ...
Since the Columbine school shootings more than two decades ago, advocates have called for mass shooting coverage at local and national levels to reduce focus on perpetrators and instead increase focus on victims. Given these recommendations, the present study explored the degree to which recent local and national news coverage of the Parkland school shooting is consistent with suggested best practice compared to the precedent-setting Columbine coverage. Newspaper coverage following both shootings was examined, resulting in an analysis of 641 national and local print news articles. Results indicate local Parkland coverage exhibited a greater percentage of articles that referenced the perpetrator by name compared to local Columbine coverage, and references were in more prominent locations, such as the article title and lead paragraph. No other statistical differences were found in perpetrator and victim references between Columbine and Parkland coverage. Findings suggest that despite continued calls to give less focus to perpetrators of mass shootings in local and national news, perpetrators still perpetuate in coverage. Results highlight the need to identify barriers to implementing recommendations for responsible reporting of mass shooting events.
... Mass shootings are tragic, infrequent and constitute a small fraction of the total number of gun deaths. There are an estimated 300 million guns in the possession of 80 million people in the USA and approximately 38,658 annual gun deaths of which the largest number (22,938) are suicides [2,3]. Homicides account for the next largest number leading the causes of death among African American males ages 18 to 34; in 2016, 5424 African American men were homicide victims [3]. ...
... Towers et al. reported significant evidence of new shooting events (0.22 (p = 0.0001)) as evidence of contagion in 2 weeks after a school shooting [19]. The validity of this finding was disputed by Lankford et al. in their study of mass shootings from 2006 to 2013 [22]. They did not find any significant shortterm contagion effect (within 2 weeks) after a mass shooting but proposed that a long-term copycat effect may persist. ...
... As Duwe (2004) found, mass murderers from 1976 to 1999 who killed and wounded more victims were significantly more likely to be featured in The New York Times than offenders who caused less bloodshed. Other scholars have similarly found strong statistical associations between the number of victims offenders killed and the amount of attention they received (Lankford & Tomek, 2017;Maguire, Weatherby, & Mathers, 2002;Schildkraut, Elsass, & Meredith, 2017). These offenders are not only being rewarded for committing mass killings, but they are also getting a strong incentive to kill as many victims as possible. ...
... Using advanced mathematical models, some scholars have found that active shootings, school shootings, and other mass killings are now so "contagious" that a single incident increases the risk of subsequent attacks for the next 2 weeks (Kissner, 2016;Towers et al., 2015). Other researchers have documented longer term copycat effects, for which the evidence is even clearer (Lankford & Tomek, 2017). For example, Follman and Andrews (2015) found that the Columbine school shooters inspired at least 21 copycat shootings and 53 thwarted plots in the United States over a 15-year period. ...
Prior research has shown that many mass shooters have explicitly admitted they want fame and have directly reached out to media organizations to get it. These fame-seeking offenders are particularly dangerous because they kill and wound significantly more victims than other active shooters, they often compete for attention by attempting to maximize victim fatalities, and they can inspire contagion and copycat effects. However, if the media changes how they cover mass shooters, they may be able to deny many offenders the attention they seek and deter some future perpetrators from attacking. We propose that media organizations should no longer publish the names or photos of mass shooters (except during ongoing searches for escaped suspects), but report everything else about these crimes in as much detail as desired. In this article, we (1) review the consequences of media coverage of mass shooters, (2) outline our proposal, (3) show that its implementation is realistic and has precedent, (4) discuss anticipated challenges, and (5) recommend future steps for consensus building and implementation.
... Since then, scholars have debated the formal definition or classification of the phenomenon. However, current research-Lankford (2016a,b), Lott and Moody (2019), Peterson and Densley (2022), and Lankford and Tomek (2018)follow what has become a synthesis in the United States, a definition advanced by the United States Congress. Mass shootings refer to shootings with four or more casualties, excluding the shooter/shooters, "not including the offender(s)-within one event, and at least some of the murders occurred in a public location or locations in close geographical proximity (e.g., a workplace, school, restaurant, or other public settings), and the murders are not attributable to any other underlying criminal activity or commonplace circumstance (armed robbery, criminal competition, insurance fraud, argument, or romantic triangle)" (Krouse and Richardson, 2015, p. 4;Peterson and Densley, 2022). ...
News frames play a vital role in shaping the audience's interpretation of the news, their participation in policy discussions, and their engagement in public discourse. This study uses the Analysis of Topic Model Networks (ANTMN) frame analysis grounded approach and examines the 2017 Sutherland Springs, Texas, mass shooting coverage in a house of worship by three U.S. cable television networks—CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. News reports for the first seven days following the shooting were collected from the cable networks' Twitter, YouTube, and website accounts. A total of 290 news reports were analyzed and 760 aggregate units for frames were coded. The results demonstrate that ANTMN grounded approach is an effective method for frame analysis and support research about the news media's emphasis on victims, community, and individual frames in cases of mass shootings. They identify differences in the issue-based frame of gun vs. mental health debates. Additional new frames of empathy, interventions, reactions, and security were discovered. Results also show differences in frames used and their frequency between the digital platforms of Twitter, YouTube, and websites and cable organizations. These differences show each media network's ideological perspectives or competing news narratives. The findings raise relevant questions to news coverage, policy debates about mental health and gun violence, and cultural awareness of the problem of mass shootings and public safety as the world becomes more global.
... A contagion effect has been suggested in which the occurrence of a mass shooting increases the likelihood of another mass shooting in the future. For instance, Lankford & Tomek (2018) found that media coverage of a mass shooting may increase the frequency and lethality of future shootings in more than two weeks. Jetter & Walker (2018) presented that 58% of mass shootings can be explainable by news coverage, which will systematically cause future mass shootings. ...
Social media plays a prominent role in the spread of mass shootings. It brought about a significant contagious effect on future similar incidents. Therefore, we explore Machine Learning (ML) models to forecast the change in the public’s attitudes about mass shootings on social media over time. These ML models include Support Vector Machine (SVM), Logistic Regression (LR), and the optimized Deep Neural Networks based on an Improved Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (IPSO-DNN). We then propose a self-excited contagion model to predict the number of mass shootings by focusing on the spread of public attitudes on Twitter. Moreover, we also improve the proposed contagion model with the consideration of social distancing and the daily growth rate of COVID-19 cases, to predict and analyze mass shootings under the COVID-19 pandemic. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed contagion models perform very well in predicting future mass shootings in the United States.
... The origin of the Christchurch Call in Aotearoa New Zealand, with the personal investment in it of its prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is pivotal to creating a new impetus and new space for a familiar discussion. The refusal of the Aotearoa New Zealand administration to use the attacker's name ensured that the focus of media attention remained on the attack itself (Lankford and Tomek, 2018). Aotearoa New Zealand is an unlikely incubator environment for terrorism and all New Zealanders can be seen as victims of this intrusive violence. ...
... For example, one frequently considered factor is the presence (or absence) of mental illness (Dutton et al., 2013;Fox & Fridel, 2016;Gill et al., 2017;Lankford & Cowan, 2020;Metzl & MacLeish, 2015;Vossekuil et al., 2002). The spectrum of factors considered also includes criminal histories (DeLisi & Scherer, 2006;DeLisi & Walters, 2011), fameseeking behaviors (Lankford, 2016;Silva & Greene-Colozzi, 2019b), illegal drug use (Miller et al., 2020), masculinity norms (Kalish & Kimmel, 2010;Madfis, 2014;, and contagion and copycat effects (Boyd & Molyneux, 2021;Lankford & Tomek, 2018;Towers et al., 2018). Findings from these studies are commonly couched in terms of frequencies. ...
Researchers of public mass shooters are increasingly focusing on the pre-attack behaviors and experiences of these offenders. Varying in scope from consideration of individual factors to more generalized life course and threat assessment analyses, their scholarship has identified behavioral and experiential factors associated with public mass shooters. However, what is generally missing from this body of research is consideration of the order in which the offender encounters these factors, and prior related research has shown that analyzing sequences allows for insights not available from a catalogue of common characteristics. To address this shortcoming, we use a sample of offenders from 1999 to 2020 for whom the most detailed data is available and conduct a sequence analysis of their stressors, antisocial behaviors, mental health issues, and planning and preparation activities. We calculate proximity coefficients for each variable in relation to all others, capturing both local and distant connections between and among them. Our findings reveal relatively coherent phases in the lives of attackers, highlight the centrality of family problems and interest in past mass killings in the overall sequence, and provide new context to understanding the effect of mental health issues and firearms acquisition in the lives of offenders. A discussion of findings illustrates potential intervention points that may have been overlooked, as well suggestions for future research.
... So, when repeating misinformation in order to debunk it, people may just hear the misinformation. A more effective approach is a combination of positive messaging that emphasizes the protective (individual, family, and community) benefits of the vaccine and the loss associated with not being vaccinated (death, poor health, loss of freedom and social solidarity, inability to travel, etc.) [22,23]. ...
This paper makes the case for immediate planning for a COVID-19 vaccination uptake strategy in advance of vaccine availability for two reasons: first, the need to build a consensus about the order in which groups of the population will get access to the vaccine; second, to reduce any fear and concerns that exist in relation to vaccination and to create demand for vaccines. A key part of this strategy is to counter the anti-vaccination movement that is already promoting hesitancy and resistance. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a tsunami of misinformation and conspiracy theories that have the potential to reduce vaccine uptake. To make matters worse, sections of populations in many countries display low trust in governments and official information about the pandemic and how the officials are tackling it. This paper aims to set out in short form critical guidelines that governments and regional bodies should take to enhance the impact of a COVID-19 vaccination strategy. We base our recommendations on a review of existing best practice guidance. This paper aims to assist those responsible for promoting COVID-19 vaccine uptake to digest the mass of guidance that exists and formulate an effective locally relevant strategy. A summary of key guidelines is presented based on best practice guidance.
... In accessing the Stanford MSA, we had to rely on data derived from online resources. Online sources have been widely used in several other studies of violence (Lankford & Tomek, 2018;Lankford, 2016;Capellan, 2015, Blair & Schweit, 2014Kelly, 2012) though to our knowledge, there is no published study using the MSA database. As with much publicly available sources of information, there may be some discrepancies in reporting. ...
As mass shootings increase in frequency, they continue to baffle public officials and the media who often portray such incidents as random and senseless acts of violence. Abundant evidence points to a co-occurrence or association of violence and anger; yet, anger is inadequately examined in mass shootings.
Objective
This study was designed to determine the presence of anger in US mass shootings between 2000 and 2015, the elicitors of such anger, and aspects of the expression of such anger.
Method
The Stanford MSA database was accessed for information on these variables. A total of 132 cases were evaluated by two independent judges using a coding system for presence/absence of anger, elicitors of anger and dimensions of anger expression. Kappa coefficients were computed to establish reliability of judgments. The Chi-square tested whether a statistically significant number of mass shootings evidenced anger.
Results
Clear presence of anger was identified in 70% of cases (p < .001) the majority of whom were demographically similar in age, sex, and race. Most common elicitors were abandonment/rejection (38%) and insults/affronts (34%) whereas the least common was physical assault (5%). In most cases, the anger expression was regarded as controlled (80%), externalizing (72%) and punitive (81%). Inter-judge reliability ranged from κ = 0.80–0.97.
Conclusions
Findings indicate a high prevalence of anger in mass shootings and the predominantly psychological rather than physical provocation therein. The modal expression style does not suggest random and senseless acts but relatively controlled behavior intended to inflict serious harm. These features of anger and demographics of mass shooters warrant consideration in risk assessment and treatment of this population.
... Many school shooters are motivated by a desire for fame and are likely to exhibit extreme forms of narcissism characterized by grandiosity in thought or behavior, constantly seeking admiration, and a lack of empathy (American Psychiatric Association 2013; Bushman 2018; Lankford and Tomek 2018). It is possible that the media may serve the narcissistic and fame-seeking tendencies of school or mass shooters. ...
... First, the focus of the current analysis is solely on media influence on imitative mass killing. Not all mass killings are imitated (Lankford & Tomek, 2017), and not all mass killings are influenced by media. At a broader level, there are myriad variables that affect mass killings and many additional avenues for intervention. ...
A mass killing is a complex behavior that is the product of a range of variables. Recent research suggests one such variable by showing that when a mass killing occurs there is a heightened chance of another occurring in the near future. This increase in probability has been referred to as contagion and one possible mechanism for contagion may be generalized imitation. Generalized imitation requires the presence of some model to prompt imitation, and we suggest media reporting methods as a prominent model inspiring future mass killings. This article analyzes mass killings as the culmination of a sequence of thoughts and actions that are influenced by environmental events including media reports of mass killings. We then evaluate media reporting guidelines and research related to the prevention of suicide and other imitational behaviors to identify reactive and proactive strategies that could minimize the likelihood of one mass killing inducing another.
... Beyond simply documenting this influence, however, the article seeks to demonstrate the many variations of role-modeling, imitation, and inspiration. Most studies of mass shooting contagion and copycat effects have focused on establishing whether or not previous attackers influenced subsequent attackers, in what is essentially a binary fashion (Kissner, 2016;Lankford & Tomek, 2017;Towers et al., 2015). This is an important first step, and potential copycat cases could certainly be categorized as simply a "yes" if there was evidence of direct influence from a previous attacker, or "no" if there was no such evidence. ...
Contagion and copycat behavior among mass killers is often discussed in the media when there are multiple attacks within a short span of time. Proximity in time, however, does not necessarily mean that one attack inspired another. This study examines the clearest cases of role modeling and fame seeking among mass killers in which the perpetrators personally acknowledged these types of influence and motivation in their own lives. Instead of simply categorizing potential copycat offenders in a “yes”/“no” binary fashion, it outlines many different types of influence, imitation, and inspiration and then provides evidence on perpetrators who represent examples of each type. Overall, findings suggest that most killers were not gaining insights into attack methodology from their role models, but rather were drawn to the prior perpetrators for a variety of personal reasons. Looking ahead, because of the frequency of mass killers citing previous perpetrators as role models or sources of inspiration, it is critical that media outlets give careful consideration to how they cover such incidents.
... For instance, Kissner (2016) found that the occurrence of a mass public shooting significantly increased the hazard of experiencing another mass public shooting for 2 weeks. However, Lankford and Tomek (2017) found no evidence of such a short-term contagion effect. Capellan (2016) did not find evidence of contagion; rather, he found that the occurrence of a mass public shooting has a deterrent effect on future ones. ...
For the last 40 years, the general profile of mass public shooters has enjoyed enduring consensus by experts, and as a result, it has remained static over this time. However, a recent string of mass public shootings perpetrated by “atypical” offenders bring into question the stability of the characteristics, motivations, and methods employed by these offenders. The goal of this study is to examine the stability and change of these characteristics and behaviors over the last 32 years (1984–2015). Using an open-source database, this study compares mass public shootings in 2000–2015 time period to the attacks committed in 1984–1999. The results illustrate not only sharp increase in number of mass public shootings in the last 16 years but also a significant growth in the racial heterogeneity and background characteristics of these offenders, clearly marking a departure from the general accepted profile of mass public shooters and mass murderers. The results also point to key characteristics, and behaviors that have remained static during the analysis time. Additionally, this study explores the implications these changes and stability on crime prevention strategies, as well as strategies to mitigate the lethality of these attacks.
... Studies have found mass shootings may be socially contagious (Towers et al., 2015) or that copycat effects exist (Follman, 2015;Lankford & Tomek, 2017). Socalled "fame-seeking" public mass shooters appear more common in recent decades and tend to be significantly younger and more likely to kill and wound more victims than other offenders . ...
This report examines the history of guns in the United States, the prevalence of gun violence in our communities, trends in mass shootings, and the rise of “performance violence” in an age of social media. This report also analyses what works in gun violence prevention and intervention.
Background: Although an important subset of mass shooters has admitted copying previous shooters, there has been almost no empirical research on the similarities between mass shooting role models and their copycats. Such analysis is essential for understanding who is most susceptible to the influence of high-profile mass shooters and what behaviors they are likely to copy.
Methods: We first compiled all documented instances we could find globally of public mass shooters and active shooters becoming a role model for a copycat from 1966 to 2022 (n = 205) and calculated how often their risk profiles and behaviors were similar. Next, we ran simulated matches (n = 2000) and used binary logistic regression to test whether copycats were significantly more similar to their role models than to a random shooter.
Findings: Compared to a random shooter, copycat attackers were significantly closer to their role models in age and more likely to share the same sex, race, country, incident location type, and offender outcome. Nearly 80% of copycats attacked more than one year after their role model, and the average temporal gap was approximately eight years. Copycats averaged significantly fewer victims killed and wounded than their role models.
Conclusions: The risk that high-profile mass shooters influence copycat attackers persists for many years, with the most susceptible individuals sharing characteristics of the role model shooters themselves. These findings could be used to make media coverage of mass shootings safer and to inform triage and case prioritization for threat assessment and violence prevention.
Although representing a rather small percentage of gun deaths in the United States, mass shootings receive a disproportionate share of crime news coverage, with the fears of countless Americans at a level well above the actual risk. This article attempts to clarify some of the wide-ranging confusion regarding what exactly is a mass shooting, how often they occur, and whether they have been on the rise over the past several years. After discussion of some methodological issues associated with measuring prevalence, trends exhibited in several reliable data sources on mass shooting are presented. The article concludes with a brief discussion of contagion and whether it is reasonable to expect that the recent spike in mass shootings will persist.
The relevance of the research is connected with the necessity to counteract mass shootings of schoolkids and teachers that are carried out by the students themselves. In spite of the undertaken measures, the likelihood of armed attacks against Russian educational establishments remains high. The author describes a complex of factors that provoke adolescents to carry out mass shootings using information about similar crimes committed in the USA. The goal of this research is to describe the risk factors for armed attacks on educational establishments connected with the problems of the social environment of adolescents and difficulties in their social interactions. The research is based on the principles and theories of social sciences, the theoretical research methods - generalization and systematization of information. Empirical research methods are descriptive statistics, calculation of mean values and standard deviations. The conducted work allowed the author to identify a complex of characteristics describing the circumstances of mass shootings committed by adolescents in the USA. Features of mass shootings in educational establishments are presented, parameters of armed attacks, factors influencing the choice of attack target and types of weapons are described. Age and social characteristics of attackers and their motives are given. Sociocultural, psychological and sociopsychological causes of armed attacks are defined. The role of mass media and means of communication in the propaganda of armed attacks are shown, and trends for the legitimization and gamification of violence are analyzed. Psychological and clinical prerequisites of attacks are determined, and the negative impact that the environment has on an adolescent is established, which is manifested in physical, psychological, sexual and other types of violence, as well as permissiveness in meeting the social needs of adolescents. The obtained results widen our understanding of risk factors instigating adolescents to carry out attacks on educational organizations: problems in interacting with the social environment, the psycho-emotional state of students, a destructive orientation of the adolescent. The practical results of this research are recommendations for ensuring the safety of the information space, the educational establishment, and the development of measures for the psychological-pedagogical support of students.
This study examined fame-seeking mass shooters worldwide who attacked from 1999 to 2022 to identify their profiles, behaviours, influences, and trends. Quantitative analyses revealed many similarities between fame-seeking shooters in the United States and in other countries: compared to other mass shooters, they were more frequently young and more likely to target schools, commit suicide, and kill and injure many victims. Fame-seeking mass shooters who attacked outside the United States appeared more likely to have been influenced by American mass shooters than by perpetrators from all other countries, combined. Findings also showed a substantial rise in the number of fame-seeking shooters over time, along with increases in the proportion of mass shooters who sought fame and the average number of victims they killed. We discuss the implications of these disturbing trends and offer an assessment for the future.
Mass public shootings in the United States have increased in number and severity in recent years, and there has been a corresponding rise in media reporting of such incidents. Does media coverage of these events lead to a short‐term increase in the probability of additional shootings? James Alan Fox, Nathan E. Sanders, Emma E. Fridel, Grant Duwe and Michael Rocque investigate Mass public shootings in the United States have increased in number and severity in recent years, and there has been a corresponding rise in media reporting of such incidents. Does media coverage of these events lead to a short‐term increase in the probability of additional shootings? James Alan Fox, Nathan E. Sanders, Emma E. Fridel, Grant Duwe and Michael Rocque investigate.
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.
Mass public shootings have generated significant levels of fear in recent years, with many observers criticizing the media for fostering a moral panic, if not an actual rise in the frequency of such attacks. Scholarly research suggests that the media can potentially impact the prevalence of mass shootings in two respects: 1) some individuals may be inspired to mimic the actions of highly publicized offenders; and 2) a more general contagion process may manifest as a temporary increase in the likelihood of shootings associated with a triggering event. In this study of mass shootings since 2000, we focus on short-term contagion, rather than imitation that can traverse years. Specifically, after highlighting the sequencing of news coverage prior and subsequent to mass shootings, we apply multivariate point process models to disentangle the correlated incidence of mass public shootings and news coverage of such events. The findings suggest that mass public shootings have a strong effect on the level of news reporting, but that news reporting on the topic has little impact, at least in the relative short-term, on the subsequent prevalence of mass shootings. Finally, the results appear to rule out the presence of strong self-excitation of mass shootings, placing clear limits on generalized short-term contagion effects.
These are proceedings of the Second Annual Data Science Symposium held at Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA on May 4, 2019
Mixed evidence has been found for a positive relationship between mass shootings and civilian armament. This study suggests that the causal effect of mass shootings on subsequent societal gun acquisition is non-linear and asymmetric. Different shootings spur pathways that in turn, have variant impacts on civilian armament. Through utilization of directed acyclic graph (DAG) software, several causal models featuring pathways and mechanisms are presented. All three pathways feature a latent variable of fear, and are endogenous to a historical period marked by a discourse of fear that became embedded in U.S. political discourse after the 9/11 attacks. Along with an overview of potential confounding factors, analysis of data on background checks from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (1999–2016) lends support to the argument.
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
Murder of individuals is already well documented in Biblical times. Are any mass murders described in the Bible? Who were the victims? What were the motives for these killings? What weapons were used? Is the mass killing continuing?
The Biblical texts were examined and verses dealing with mass killing were studied closely from a contemporary viewpoint.
This document provides evidence to support the idea that school shooters have been influenced by previous perpetrators.
With the continuous growth of internet usage, Google Trends has emerged as a source of information to investigate how social trends evolve over time. Knowing how the level of interest in conservation topics-approximated using Google search volume-varies over time can help support targeted conservation science communication. However, the evolution of search volume over time and the mechanisms that drive peaks in searches are poorly understood. We conducted time series analyses on Google search data from 2004 to 2013 to investigate: (i) whether interests in selected conservation topics have declined and (ii) the effect of news reporting and academic publishing on search volume. Although trends were sensitive to the term used as benchmark, we did not find that public interest towards conservation topics such as climate change, ecosystem services, deforestation, orangutan, invasive species and habitat loss was declining. We found, however, a robust downward trend for endangered species and an upward trend for ecosystem services. The quantity of news articles was related to patterns in Google search volume, whereas the number of research articles was not a good predictor but lagged behind Google search volume, indicating the role of news in the transfer of conservation science to the public.
Several past studies have found that media reports of suicides and homicides appear to subsequently increase the incidence of similar events in the community, apparently due to the coverage planting the seeds of ideation in at-risk individuals to commit similar acts.
Here we explore whether or not contagion is evident in more high-profile incidents, such as school shootings and mass killings (incidents with four or more people killed). We fit a contagion model to recent data sets related to such incidents in the US, with terms that take into account the fact that a school shooting or mass murder may temporarily increase the probability of a similar event in the immediate future, by assuming an exponential decay in contagiousness after an event.
We find significant evidence that mass killings involving firearms are incented by similar events in the immediate past. On average, this temporary increase in probability lasts 13 days, and each incident incites at least 0.30 new incidents (p = 0.0015). We also find significant evidence of contagion in school shootings, for which an incident is contagious for an average of 13 days, and incites an average of at least 0.22 new incidents (p = 0.0001). All p-values are assessed based on a likelihood ratio test comparing the likelihood of a contagion model to that of a null model with no contagion. On average, mass killings involving firearms occur approximately every two weeks in the US, while school shootings occur on average monthly. We find that state prevalence of firearm ownership is significantly associated with the state incidence of mass killings with firearms, school shootings, and mass shootings.
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.
Significance
Media coverage of collective traumas may trigger psychological distress in individuals outside the directly affected community. We examined whether repeated media exposure to the Boston Marathon bombings was associated with acute stress and compared the impact of direct exposure (being at/near the bombings) vs. media exposure (bombing-related television, radio, print, online, and social media coverage) on acute stress. We conducted an Internet-based survey 2–4 wk postbombings with a nationally representative sample and representative subsamples from Boston and New York (4,675 adults). Repeated bombing-related media exposure was associated with higher acute stress than was direct exposure. Media coverage following collective traumas can diffuse acute stress widely. This unique study compares the impact of direct vs. indirect media-based community trauma exposure on acute stress responses.
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.
There has been a substantial increase in the number of mass shooting incidents on college campuses in the United States in recent years. Although empirical research examined the impacts of secondary school shootings on student fear, there have been no comparable studies of the impacts of campus shootings. This study began to fill this void by examining responses to surveys administered to convenience samples of students enrolled at the University of South Carolina prior to and following the mass shooting incidents on the campuses of Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. Findings indicated that both shootings were associated with modest increases in various measures of fear. Other findings were that the impacts of the shootings depended on both the type of fear measured (e.g., general fear versus fear of being a victim of specific crimes) and student characteristics such as age, sex, and race.
Media reporting of suicide has repeatedly been shown to trigger suicidal behaviour. Few studies have investigated the associations between specific media content and suicide rates. Even less is known about the possible preventive effects of suicide-related media content.
To test the hypotheses that certain media content is associated with an increase in suicide, suggesting a so-called Werther effect, and that other content is associated with a decrease in suicide, conceptualised as a Papageno effect. Further, to identify classes of media articles with similar reporting profiles and to test for associations between these classes and suicide.
Content analysis and latent class analysis (LCA) of 497 suicide-related print media reports published in Austria between 1 January and 30 June 2005. Ecological study to identify associations between media item content and short-term changes in suicide rates.
Repetitive reporting of the same suicide and the reporting of suicide myths were positively associated with suicide rates. Coverage of individual suicidal ideation not accompanied by suicidal behaviour was negatively associated with suicide rates. The LCA yielded four classes of media reports, of which the mastery of crisis class (articles on individuals who adopted coping strategies other than suicidal behaviour in adverse circumstances) was negatively associated with suicide, whereas the expert opinion class and the epidemiological facts class were positively associated with suicide.
The impact of suicide reporting may not be restricted to harmful effects; rather, coverage of positive coping in adverse circumstances, as covered in media items about suicidal ideation, may have protective effects.
Previous work on publicized violence on television newcasts has been largely restricted to suicidal behavior. Many of the cases of publicized suicide, however, involve not only a suicide but a murder; they could also trigger homicides. In addition, from Menninger's perspective, suicide involves both a wish to die and a wish to kill. Hence, publicized mass murders may trigger imitiative suicides as well as imitative homicides. Focusing on mass murder-suicides, and mass murders that made two or three network news (ABC, CBS & NBC), the present study explores their impact on lethal aggression. It uses monthly data from 1968-1980. Controls are introduced for seasonal and economic predictors of aggression. Publicized mass murder/suicides are significantly associated with increases in the suicide rate. The homicide rate, in contrast, is not affected by publicized mass-murder/suicides. Publicized mass murders, in general, were unrelated to lethal aggression. One special type, publicized gangland mass murders, were, however, associated with increases in suicide.
Increasingly in America, fame is revered as the ultimate form of prestige-bearing success, and the distinction between fame and infamy seems to be disappearing. In this context, some rampage shooters succumb to “delusions of grandeur” and seek fame and glory through killing. The present study offers initial findings on the behavior of fame-seeking rampage shooters, and then tests for differences between offenders who explicitly sought fame and other offenders. The results suggest that fame-seeking rampage shooters have existed for more than 40 years, but they are more common in recent decades and in the United States than in other countries. Overall, fame-seeking offenders appear younger than other rampage shooters, and they kill and wound significantly more victims. Several empirical predictions are made about the expected frequency and characteristics of future rampage shootings.
Objective: many mass murderers appear to care more about harming others than they do about protecting themselves, and they often commit suicide or refuse to surrender and are killed by police. The present study offers the first in-depth investigation of differences between mass murderers who live and die as a direct result of their offenses. Method: data on 308 offenders in the United States from January 2006 to May 2014 are subjected to quantitative analysis, including logistic regression. Results: findings suggest that those who die are older, less likely to have co-offenders, and more likely to commit public mass killings or family killings, which corresponds with Durkheim’s theories of suicide in numerous ways. Conclusion: ultimately, several specific improvements in suicide prevention strategies could potentially help to reduce the prevalence of these high-fatality crimes.
Two general types of suicide cluster have been discussed in the literature; roughly, these can be classified as mass clusters and point clusters. Mass clusters are media related, and the evidence for them is equivocal; point clusters are local phenomena, and these do appear to occur. Contagion has not been conceptually well developed nor empirically well supported as an explanation for suicide clusters. An alternative explanation for why suicides sometimes cluster is articulated: People who are vulnerable to suicide may cluster well before the occurrence of any overt suicidal stimulus, and when they experience severe negative events, including but not limited to the suicidal behavior of one member of the cluster, all members of the cluster are at increased risk for suicidality (a risk that may be offset by good social support).
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.
“Active Shootings,” which include shootings in public, confined areas such as schools, often traumatize communities and attract intense media coverage. Proposed policy responses to the phenomenon, such as concealing information as to casualty counts and even the identities of shooters, often suppose that active shootings are “contagious,” in that previous occurrences can enhance the likelihood of subsequent occurrences. This study marks the first attempt at assessment of the contagiousness of the active shooting phenomenon, and deploys a statistical model—the series hazard model—that is well-suited to the substantive issue of contagion as well as the fine-grained nature of the active shooting data. Results indicate that the hazard of observed active shootings was a function of the number of active shootings that preceded them in the previous two weeks.
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.
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.
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.
Two general types of suicide cluster have been discussed in the literature; roughly, these can be classified as mass clusters and point clusters. Mass clusters are media related, and the evidence for them is equivocal; point clusters are local phenomena, and these do appear to occur. Contagion has not been conceptually well developed nor empirically well supported as an explanation for suicide clusters. An alternative explanation for why suicides sometimes cluster is articulated: People who are vulnerable to suicide may cluster well before the occurrence of any overt suicidal stimulus, and when they experience severe negative events, including but not limited to the suicidal behavior of one member of the cluster, all members of the cluster are at increased risk for suicidality (a risk that may be offset by good social support).
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.
İn the scientific literatüre there is no doubt that imitation effects on aggression and suicide exist. The reporting or portrayal of aggressive or suicidal behaviour might be influential in the short and long term. Previous data suggest that also amok behaviour might be imitated. An analysis of 132 reports of amok events for the time period 01. 01. 1993 - 30. 06. 2000 in two majör German nevvspapers shovved that the majority of amok events are not distributed by chance över time. Most amok events follovv an other event in a period of time vvhich is within the
A recent study reported a significant increase in teenage suicides after television newscasts about suicide in the period 1973-1979 and suggested that the increase might have resulted from an imitative effect of television. In the present study, the authors found no significant association between newscasts and subsequent teenage suicides over the period 1973-1984. Although teenage suicides increased after newscasts in 1973-1980, the authors identify reasons why this increase is not consistent with an imitative effect of television. Furthermore, during 1981-1984 teenage suicides decreased after newscasts about suicide; the reversal differs significantly from the association before 1981.
Mass killings can be of a variety of types including family slayings, cult killings, and the by-product of other criminal activities. This article focuses on massacres where the perpetrators indiscriminately kill people in pursuit of a highly personal agenda arising from their own specific social situation and psychopathology. Five cases are presented of this type of autogenic (self-generated) massacre, all of whom survived and were assessed by the author. Not only do these massacres follow an almost stereotypical course, but the perpetrators tend to share common social and psychological disabilities. They are isolates, often bullied in childhood, who have rarely established themselves in effective work roles as adults. They have personalities marked by suspiciousness, obsessional traits, and grandiosity. They often harbour persecutory beliefs, which may occasionally verge on the delusional. The autogenic massacre is essentially murder suicide, in which the perpetrators intend first to kill as many people as they can and then kill themselves. The script for this particular form of suicide has established itself in western society and is continuing to spread, and to diversify.
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