"With yet another young White man in police custody and charged with first-degree murder after a mass shooting — this time at a supermarket in Buffalo on Saturday — the police and the public are again asking: Why? Law enforcement officials were quick to label the massacre, which left 10 people dead, a hate crime. The suspect, who has pleaded … [Read more...]
Hate is not at the root of most mass shootings
‘Constant state of anxiety.’ Yet another school shooting takes its psychological toll
"More than half of American teenagers worry about a shooting at their school, and a lifetime of active shooter drills, locker searches, and locked school doors has engendered in them an overwhelming fear of imminent death." This article discusses the rise of school shootings and threats along with the psychological impact that has on students. … [Read more...]
Grievances, access to guns, notoriety associated with shootings
The Violence Project's finding that mass shooters usually have four common characteristics was quoted in Paul Scott's article following the shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. Drs. Peterson and Densley's research was featured alongside remarks from Grant Duwe, a researcher at the Minnesota Bureau of Corrections and national authority on … [Read more...]
Mental Illness isn’t main driver of mass shootings, experts say
Dr. Jillian Peterson shares The Violence Project’s research on mass shootings and the four key commonalities that perpetrators have: (1) early childhood trauma and exposure to violence at a young age; (2) an identifiable grievance or crisis point; (3) validation for their beliefs, having studied past shootings to find inspiration; and (4) the means … [Read more...]