AN EXAMINATION OF SCHOOL CHARACTERISTICS, SHOOTER CHARACTERISTICS, AND INCIDENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SCHOOL MASS SHOOTINGS

Abstract

School Mass Shootings (SMS) continue to be an ongoing issue for k-12 schools, technical/vocational schools, and on college campuses in the United States. Recent studies have shown that these crimes are increasing in both frequency and lethality. However, SMS are still considered to be statistically rare events making them difficult to study quantitatively. Many extant studies use an exclusive definition of SMS where an incident must have four or more deaths to be categorized as this type of crime. The present study utilizes an inclusive definition of 2 or more deaths, where every four injuries count as a death in order to have a larger dataset for analyses. This study uses a dataset of 60 SMS cases that occurred between 1927-2019. The data were collected from news sources, online journals, etc. as well as Census data. Research questions relate to characteristics of the schools where the shootings occurred, characteristics of the shooters themselves including mental health status, and incidental characteristics. Findings and policy implications are discussed.