The Violence Project's co-founders Jillian Peterson and James Densley sat down with Jana Shortal to discuss initial findings from their mass shooter database. The two talk about the difficulties of creating a profile of a mass shooter, commonalities between shooters, and the relationship of mental health and suicidality to mass shooters. Watch … [Read more...]
Local researchers compile mass shooting database
Active Shooter Drills are Traumatizing a Generation
Active shooter drills are designed to prepare staff and students for a school shooting. These drills are practiced in the name of safety and to set parents' minds at ease about sending their children to school. The Violence Project's Jillian Peterson discusses the risk of contagion that accompanies mass shootings and active shooter drills, as … [Read more...]
Group Aggression
Group aggression is an important concern for societies around the world. The field of intergroup relations, a sub-field of social-psychology, offers critical insight into the emergence of group conflict and aggression. This review examines the most influential theoretical frameworks from the field of intergroup relations, namely realistic conflict … [Read more...]
Why the usual approach to school security isn’t working
Mass shootings are becoming increasingly deadly. Recent studies have demonstrated that active shooter drills may increase anxiety and fear among students, as well as contribute to a negative school culture, which is a risk factor for school violence. Data indicates that before mass violence takes place, there is typically an immediate trigger in … [Read more...]
Mass shootings aren’t more frequent, but they are deadlier
It can sometimes seem as though mass shootings are occurring more frequently. Researchers who have been studying such crimes for decades say they aren't, but they have been getting deadlier. In the five years since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school, the nation has seen a number of massacres topping the … [Read more...]