School Shooters: History, Current Theoretical and Empirical Findings, and Strategies for Prevention

SAGE Open

Caitlin M. Bonanno¹ 

关键词: applied psychology;    psychology;    social sciences;    forensic psychology;    clinical psychology;    abnormal psychology;    experimental psychology;    criminology;    criminal justice;    sociology;   

DOI  :  10.1177/2158244014525425

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Sage Journals

【 摘 要 】

Situations involving active shooters in schools have increased in recent years. We define an “active shooter incident” as an occurrence where one or more individuals participate in an ongoing, random, or systematic shooting spree with the objective of multiple or mass murders. Attempts to build a profile of active school shooters have been unsuccessful to date, although there is some evidence to suggest that mental instability, social isolation, a self-perception of catastrophic loss, and access to weapons play a role in the identification of the shooter in a school shooting incident. This article details theories and after-the-fact findings of investigations on previous school shooters, and we offer an application of Levin and Madfis’s Five Stage Sequential Model to Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December, 2012. Prevention strategies, suggestions for positive school climates, school security for the physical plants, and threat assessments are discussed, and implications for future research are offered.

【 授权许可】

CC BY