Fig 2 - uploaded by Denise Whitford
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
The deadliest U.S. school shooting to date, occurring on February 14, 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida serves as a powerful reminder that school violence is ever present. Addressing school violence, however, has been an elusive endeavor. The purpose of this review is to provide a historical examination of United Sta...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) does not have a definition for mass school shootings. They do however, define mass murder as the killing of four or more people in the same incident (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2005). Based on this criteria, we define mass school shooting as a situation in which one or more people intentionally plan and execute the killing or injury of four or more people, not including themselves, using one or more guns, with the killings or injuries taking place on school grounds during the school day or during a school-sponsored event on school grounds. For the purposes of this paper, we focus on mass shootings perpetrated by adolescents and adults at K- 12 schools, and excluded organized gang shootings and those that occurred at universities. Figure 2 shows the increase in mass school shootings and their related deaths from the first one in 1940 to the most current in early 2018. The United States had no mass school shootings that fit our criteria until 1940, when a junior high school principal killed the superintendent, the high school principal, the district business manager, and two teachers, before attempting suicide, because he thought he was going to be fired at the end of the school year (Williams 2017). The United States had no mass school shootings in the 1950's and 1960's, but started a steady increase beginning with a school shooting in 1979 orchestrated by a 16-year- old female with mental health issues who began shooting at an elementary school, killing two adults and injuring eight students and one adult (Daly 2014). Since 1979, the number of shootings increased and then decreased, with the 1990's being a peak period. However, deaths from shootings went from 12 in the 1980's, to 36 in the 1990's, 14 in the 2000's, and a high of 51 in the ...
Context 2
... Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) does not have a definition for mass school shootings. They do however, define mass murder as the killing of four or more people in the same incident (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2005). Based on this criteria, we define mass school shooting as a situation in which one or more people intentionally plan and execute the killing or injury of four or more people, not including themselves, using one or more guns, with the killings or injuries taking place on school grounds during the school day or during a school-sponsored event on school grounds. For the purposes of this paper, we focus on mass shootings perpetrated by adolescents and adults at K- 12 schools, and excluded organized gang shootings and those that occurred at universities. Figure 2 shows the increase in mass school shootings and their related deaths from the first one in 1940 to the most current in early 2018. The United States had no mass school shootings that fit our criteria until 1940, when a junior high school principal killed the superintendent, the high school principal, the district business manager, and two teachers, before attempting suicide, because he thought he was going to be fired at the end of the school year (Williams 2017). The United States had no mass school shootings in the 1950's and 1960's, but started a steady increase beginning with a school shooting in 1979 orchestrated by a 16-year- old female with mental health issues who began shooting at an elementary school, killing two adults and injuring eight students and one adult (Daly 2014). Since 1979, the number of shootings increased and then decreased, with the 1990's being a peak period. However, deaths from shootings went from 12 in the 1980's, to 36 in the 1990's, 14 in the 2000's, and a high of 51 in the ...
Similar publications
Citations
... That is, schools sometimes struggle to meet the demands of students' mental health needs even as the prevalence of school shootings increases and as the consequences of school mass shootings become more dire. 21 Successful school-based interventions and responses are possible, and they can lessen the probability of further trauma among youth impacted by gun violence. 22 Such interventions are needed in addition to broader policy changes and further restrictions in access to firearms. ...
OBJECTIVES
Gun violence in the United States is a public health crisis. In 2019, gun injury became the leading cause of death among children aged birth to 19 years. Moreover, the United States has had 57 times as many school shootings as all other major industrialized nations combined. The purpose of this study was to understand the frequency of school-related gun violence across a quarter century, considering both school shootings and school mass shootings.
METHODS
We drew on 2 publicly available datasets whose data allowed us to tabulate the frequency of school shootings and school mass shootings. The databases contain complementary data that provide a longitudinal, comprehensive view of school-related gun violence over the past quarter century.
RESULTS
Across the 1997–1998 to 2021–2022 school years, there were 1453 school shootings. The most recent 5 school years reflected a substantially higher number of school shootings than the prior 20 years. In contrast, US school mass shootings have not increased, although school mass shootings have become more deadly.
CONCLUSIONS
School shootings have risen in frequency in the recent 25 years and are now at their highest recorded levels. School mass shootings, although not necessarily increasing in frequency, have become more deadly. This leads to detrimental outcomes for all the nation’s youth, not just those who experience school-related gun violence firsthand. School-based interventions can be used to address this public health crisis, and effective approaches such as Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports and services should be used in support of students’ mental health and academic and behavioral needs.
... The school police officer intervenes only when it is necessary and in order to protect students and the school property. One of the reasons is that the crime rate in schools is not high, and the forms of criminal acts are not as extreme as in other countries (Stevanović and Zečević 2020); so, for example, in Serbia, there had not been a problem of mass school shootings, such in the USA (Crawford and Burns 2016; Katsiyannis et al. 2018). ...
... When it comes to the qualities of a school police officer, 26.4% believe that he should be familiar with the premises as well as with students and school employees, should be communicative and tolerant (20.2%), have self-initiative (9.6%) and be open to new knowledge (11%). We further examined different attitudes and found the following: 45.6% believe that the school police officer is an important participant in the process of creating a safe and secure environment and that his presence contributes to increasing the safety around the school, while 2.6% believe that his role is not important. ...
The study aims to determine the trust and presence of police officers in schools in Serbia, as well as the perception of the principals and secretaries, teachers and staff, parents and students on how successful the certain police units dedicated to schools were in fulfilling their tasks. The ex-post analysis was conducted through PEST/SWAT analysis, mapping of the key actors and using batteries of online questionnaires. Besides interviews with the MOI representatives, there were conducted: Survey with personal interviewing, Computer-aided surveying and Desk analysis and content analysis. The survey was conducted in the period from September 2021 to June 2022. The research methods were implemented in 1140 schools in Serbia and 8,617 people were included in surveys: police officers (308); principals and secretaries (1085); the team for protection against discrimination (982); teachers and staff (2988); parents (938) and students (2316). The relationships between the covariates and perception were investigated using the t-test, one-way ANOVA, multivariate linear regression, and binary regression. The results showed that a project of school police officers was not fully recognized as one of the strategically important instruments for safe schools, trust is low but presence is high. Besides that, the results suggest that the entire public believe that a police is needed in schools and that it has a very positive effect on school safety. Regarding school safety policy, it is necessary to undertake three types of measures for sustainable development of trust and presence of police in school: regulatory, informative-educational and institutional-organizational.
... According to Smith and Riley (2010), the question of how to develop appropriate crisis attributes and skills for both present and future leaders has not been addressed in the literature. Moreover, the existing literature on crisis leadership concentrates mainly on crises triggered by natural hazards, such as Hurricane Katrina (Boin et al., 2010), earthquakes (Much, 2015), or human interventions (Katsiyannis et al., 2018) rather than on crisis similar to the one caused by COVID-19 pandemic. ...
The present study aimed to describe school principals’ perceptions of the changes and challenges they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and what kinds of support and new competences they found important for managing their work. Fifty-five Finnish principals completed an online questionnaire that included open-ended questions. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. The results showed that principals experienced changes mainly in their workload, in the nature of their work, and at an individual level, such as in family-work balance and increased motivation. Information and communication technology skills were mentioned most often as new skills needed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though some principals argued that no new skills were needed. Principals highly valued support from the school community through discussions, flexibility, and teamwork, as well as clear instructions and guidelines from the upper-level administration. The results help in planning crisis leadership to ensure the continuity of high-quality education during exceptional circumstances. As other educational crises may follow the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis and change management are essential skills for principals, these skills should be taken into account when revising the pre- and in-service training curricula.
... The school police officer intervenes only when it is necessary and in order to protect students and the school property. One of the reasons is that the crime rate in schools is not high, and the forms of criminal acts were not as extreme as in other countries [1], so for example in Serbia there had not been a problem of mass school shootings, such in the USA [19,39]. ...
The study aims to determine the trust and presence of police officers in schools in Serbia, as well as the perception of the principals and secretaries, teachers and staff, parents and students on how successful the certain police units dedicated to schools were in fulfilling their tasks. The ex–post analysis was conducted through PEST/SWAT analysis, mapping of the key actors and using batteries of online questionnaires. Besides interviews with the MOI representatives, there were conducted: Survey with personal interviewing, Computer–aided surveying and Desk analysis and content analysis. The survey was conducted in the period from September 2021 to June 2022. The research methods were implemented in 1140 schools in Serbia and 8,617 people were included in surveys: police officers (308); principals and secretaries (1085); the team for protection against discrimination (982); teachers and staff (2988); parents (938) and students (2316). The relationships between the covariates and perception were investigated using the t–test, one–way ANOVA, multivariate linear regression, and binary regression. The results showed that a project of school police officers was not fully recognized as one of the strategically important instruments for safe schools, trust is low but presence is high. Besides that, the results suggest that the entire public believe that a police is needed in schools and that it has a very positive effect on school safety. Regarding school safety policy, it is necessary to undertake three types of measures for sustainable development of trust and presence of police in school: regulatory, informative-educational and institutional-organizational.
... Over the past few decades, especially since the mid-20th century, rampage school shootings have increased in frequency, which peaked in the late 90's with the Columbine incident (Katsiyannis et al., 2018;Schultz et al., 2013). Although the frequency of rampage school shootings has decreased, the lethality of these incidents has increased with more adolescent perpetrators (Katsiyannis et al., 2018). ...
... Over the past few decades, especially since the mid-20th century, rampage school shootings have increased in frequency, which peaked in the late 90's with the Columbine incident (Katsiyannis et al., 2018;Schultz et al., 2013). Although the frequency of rampage school shootings has decreased, the lethality of these incidents has increased with more adolescent perpetrators (Katsiyannis et al., 2018). The increase in severity and fear of rampage school shootings has districts focus on reactions and responses rather than prevention, though prevention strategies are still widespread (Carter et al., 2019;Heck, 2001;King & Bracy, 2019). ...
The current study goal was to examine the impact of routine activities theory (RAT) on school shooting injuries and fatalities to propose theoretically grounded policies. The current study involves a negative binomial analysis of 932 school shooting incidents from the K-12 school shooting database (K-12 SSDB). The results suggest that pre-planned attacks and firearm types were significantly related to the number of school shooting causalities. The findings suggest policy development and implementation should concentrate on the motivated offender and target suitability component of routine activities theory to reduce school shooting casualties. Specifically, policies should concentrate on limiting access to firearms, and specific types (i.e., rifles), and fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment for students.
... From a law enforcement perspective, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stated that an active shooter incident refers to "one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area" through the use of a firearm (FBI, 2022). In academia, researchers define mass shooting incidents as "incidents in which four or more people are killed with a firearm in a public place within 24 hours" (Fox & Levin, 2022;Katsiyannis et al., 2018). Although definitions of mass shooting diverge, the convergence is that they all suggest mass shooting is a serious threat to society that endangers modern civilization from multiple aspects. ...
When looking at mass shooting incidents, suicidal shooters seem to carry an even more extreme sense of terror and brutality. The current study aimed to examine how mass shooters' suicidality and suicide behavioral threshold influence the severity of the mass shooting. We employed Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) analytics on a dataset of 194 mass shooters (incidents with four or more victims killed) from 1966 to 2023 in the United States (U.S.). The data were retrieved from The Violence Project Database, originally supported by the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice. Based on the statistical analysis, we discovered that mass shooters with suicidal ideation were more likely to kill two more victims on average than their non-suicidal counterparts. For suicidal mass shooters found dead on the scene (either by self-killing or "suicide by cop"), their victim count rises by around four on average when compared to non-suicidal mass shooters. The findings were reasoned through the information-processing perspective of the Mindsponge Theory. Based on the findings and reasoning, we suggest that mass shootings should be considered within larger socio-cultural settings instead of attributing it to be driven primarily by diagnosable psychopathology. Also, promoting an appropriate interpretation of the values of life and death can be an effective way to alleviate the effects of suicidality on mass shooting severity.
... По статистическим данным за период с 1974 по 2000 г., в США имели место 41 вооруженное нападение на образовательные учреждения, причем 30 из них были совершены одиночками [12,14,15,23]. По последним данным (с 2014 по 2021 г.), в США было зафиксировано 11 вооруженных нападений в школах с 46 погибшими. ...
... По последним данным (с 2014 по 2021 г.), в США было зафиксировано 11 вооруженных нападений в школах с 46 погибшими. По сообщениям американского медиахолдинга CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System Corporation), в США в 2021 г. на территории школ страны произведено больше выстрелов, чем когда-либо в истории, и зафиксировано 139 инцидентов, в результате которых погибли 28 человек и были ранены еще 80. Общий итог школьных расстрелов в США насчитывает больше сотни людей [14,29]. Наиболее известный трагический случай, который упоминается в большинстве статей, -«Колумбийский расстрел» -произошел в США в 1999 г. ...
... Именно этот феномен и создает ощущение нерацио нальности произошедшего: пришел наказать обидчика, а массово расстрелял всех тех, кто попался на его пути. Кстати, в западной тер минологии даже введено понятие «Rampage School Shooting» (дословно «школьные рас стрелы в приступе безумства») [14,16]. ...
Relevance. The history of armed attacks on educational institutions originated in the United States, but in recent decades this social phenomenon has spread widely to other countries, including Russia. Mass social tragedies associated with deaths of the youth cause great concern among all groups of population and require comprehensive prevention measures. The objective of the study is to identify social environmental factors that shape school shooter mentality, as well as to explore various strategies to prevent attacks in educational institutions of different levels (kindergartens, schools, universities). Methods. Armed attacks in educational institutions are the focus of our research. The material includes published research data (articles, dissertations and monographs) in English and Russian. The set of methods included generalizing conclusions published by peer investigators regarding the considered matter. Bibliographic databases (i.e. Federal State Institution “Russian State Library”, library platforms of Lomonosov Moscow State University and Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia) and scientific networks (ResearchGate, Web of Knowledge, Scopus, Google Scholar, Academia.edu, Mendeley) were used to explore research data. The findings present over 127 thousand publications regarding meta-analysis of armed attacks and mass shooting that occurred in educational institutions, as well as their social, psychological, cultural, and informational implications. Results and Discussion. The analysis of data regarding armed attacks in educational institutions demonstrates a very specific phenomenon that belongs to a specific type of crimes. Findings show that mass shootings of schoolchildren and students occur annually in the United States, apparently due to the free circulation of firearms and the cult of the guns. From 1974 to 1921 the US witnesses over 50 major armed attacks causing over a hundred deaths. In China, this problem is also substantial due to the country’s rapid and profound social changes (reforms, gender imbalance and demographic policy). Cold arms (knives, hammers) is the major weapon of assault in China, which caused deaths of at least a hundred children. In Europe, school shooting is not a critical problem, with only few cases reported by a few countries (Germany, Denmark and Finland). Russia shows no increase in the number of armed attacks using firearms or cold arms. In general, such incidents occur annually (1 to 4 violence cases) and are associated with slumped standards of living, increased aggression, social and psychological maladaptation among the population. To solve this problem, an integrated approach is needed, which could bring together technical and social aspects. The technical aspects imply broader use of video surveillance security systems and barriers, as well as regular profound inspections of school grounds (the venue and inside the school building). However, preventive measures should effectively provide for the social aspect to ensure expanded and deeper social and communicative relations within the student – administration / school teacher – parents paradigm. Taken together, these measures are bound o mitigate many factors of antisocial, aggressive, and violent behaviors in schools. Conclusion. A comprehensive analysis of Russian and foreign literature regarding armed attacks in educational institutions suggests that this is an independent psychosocial phenomenon. A system approach of the study allowed to establish a school shooter’s presumable portrait, as well as to identify typical social and personal characteristics of a shooter’s personality (i.e. social isolation; lack of individual ability to cope with life difficulties, such as study failures, conflicts at school or in the family; weak social integration at school and in other communities; decreased self-esteem and identity-related problems, in particular gender-related issues).
... Another investigation reports the statistics of EIs shootings since 2009, showing that the US has the most incidents (288 incidents), followed by Mexico (8), South Africa (6), India (5), Pakistan and Nigeria (4 incidents each), Afghanistan (3) and finally France, Canada and Brazil (2 incidents each) [29]. Katsiyannis et al. [30] report that more people have died or been injured in mass EIs shootings in the US in the past 18 years than in the entire 20th century. Statistics from a database going back to 1970 show that 2018 was by far the worst on record for gun violence in the US, with 94 school shooting incidents, a near 60% increase from the previous high record (59 in 2006) [31]. ...
An active shooting emergency requires an effective strategy to increase the chances of survival of the attacked population. Educational environments are one of the most common locations of such events. To reduce the impact of these disasters, several emergency plans have been developed and put in place. Traditionally, these emergency plans are taught to occupants using non-interactive videos, drills, etc. However, these conventional methods present many limitations regarding trainees' knowledge acquisition, engagement and self-efficacy. To overcome them, this paper presents the prototype of an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) Serious Game (SG) for counterterrorism training. A user-centred evaluation of the proposed training SG was conducted with 32 participants. The experiment aimed to investigate the impact of the proposed tool on participants' knowledge regarding the safest actions to take in case of an active shooter attack. Participants' intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy levels were also assessed before and after the VR-based training. Findings indicate that participants’ knowledge, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy significantly increased immediately after the training.
... "Schools should be enabled to hire more school-based mental health professionals (i.e., school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers), and funds should be allocated specifically for hiring these professionals" (NASP, 2013, p. 2). Katsiyannis et al. (2018) argue that schools are uniquely able to offer multi-leveled mental health services in order to address aggressive behaviors. ...
Mental health services are frequently scrutinized following mass school shootings. Subsequently, national, federal, state, and local commissions convene to identify preventative measures including implications for mental health. In order to address the question of what recommendations were offered to mental health professionals, a systematic review of commission reports covering multiple school shootings was conducted. After a comprehensive database search, 16 qualifying reports covering incidents from 1974 through 2018 were identified and reviewed. Several themes emerged, which are pertinent to mental health providers. Suggestions included expanding access to counseling, increasing training of school personnel on threat assessment and mental illness, using interdisciplinary threat assessment teams, monitoring and following up on treatment plans, expanding involuntary treatment, implementing bullying prevention, and increasing interdisciplinary communication.
... Mass shootings in the USA have steadily increased in recent years, rising from 269 in 2013 to 611 in 2020. Mass shootings are typically defined as incidents in which four or more people are killed (Katsiyannis et al., 2018a). However, the Gun Violence Archive considers mass shootings to be incidents in which four or more people are injured (Gun Violence Archive, 2022b). ...
... Regarding school-based shootings, to date in 2022, there have been at least 95 incidents of gunfire on school premises, resulting in 40 deaths and 76 injuries (Everytown Research & Policy, 2022b). Over the past few decades, school shootings in the USA have become relatively commonplace: there were more in 2021 than in any year since 1999, with the median age of perpetrators being 16 (Washington Post, 2022; see also, Katsiyannis et al., 2018a). Additionally, analysis of Everytown's Gunfire on School Grounds dataset and related studies point to several key observations to be considered in addressing this challenge. ...
... These traumatic events have resounding consequences for youth development and well-being. However, schools continue to struggle to meet the demands of student mental health needs as they lack adequate funding for resources, student support services, and staff to provide the level of support needed for many students (Katsiyannis et al., 2018a). Despite these limiting factors, children and youth continue to look to adults for information and guidance on how to react to adverse events. ...
Objectives
Gun violence in the USA is a pressing social and public health issue. As rates of gun violence continue to rise, deaths resulting from such violence rise as well. School shootings, in particular, are at their highest recorded levels. In this study, we examined rates of intentional firearm deaths, mass shootings, and school mass shootings in the USA using data from the past 5 years, 2017–2022, to assess trends and reappraise prior examination of this issue.Methods
Extant data regarding shooting deaths from 2017 through 2020 were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the web-based injury statistics query and reporting system (WISQARS), and, for school shootings in particular (2017–2022), from Everytown Research & Policy.ResultsThe number of intentional firearm deaths and the crude death rates increased from 2017 to 2020 in all age categories; crude death rates rose from 4.47 in 2017 to 5.88 in 2020. School shootings made a sharp decline in 2020—understandably so, given the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent government or locally mandated school shutdowns—but rose again sharply in 2021.Conclusions
Recent data suggest continued upward trends in school shootings, school mass shootings, and related deaths over the past 5 years. Notably, gun violence disproportionately affects boys, especially Black boys, with much higher gun deaths per capita for this group than for any other group of youth. Implications for policy and practice are provided.
