“I think in many ways people view mass shootings as a part of American society in the way baseball, apple pie and the Fourth of July are,” says Jaclyn Schildkraut, associate professor of criminal justice at the State University of New York at Oswego and an expert on mass shootings. “It’s just something that’s expected as ‘who we are as a … [Read more...]
Mass shootings are contagious. How can they be stopped?
Germany shooting livestreamed despite efforts by tech firms
The livestreamed video of Wednesday's deadly shooting in Halle, Germany has potentially been viewed by millions of people after being posted on the Twitch gaming platform. A Twitch spokesperson has said that "Twitch has a zero-tolerance policy against hateful conduct, and any act of violence is taken extremely seriously." After the Christchurch … [Read more...]
We analyzed 53 years of mass shooting data. Attacks aren’t just increasing, they’re getting deadlier
If you look at mass shootings over time, two things are alarmingly clear: The attacks are becoming far more frequent and they are getting deadlier. Our society must rewrite the violence script to stop the contagion. Read More Source: Los Angeles Times Authors: James Densley and Jillian Peterson … [Read more...]
Have police really thwarted more mass shootings since El Paso and Dayton, or are we just paying closer attention?
With mass shootings becoming more prevalent in the mainstream media, it is important to look into these threats and take them seriously. “In 80% of the mass shooting cases that we studied the person leaked their plans ahead of time and made a specific threat,” Jillian Peterson, an assistant professor of criminology and Criminal Justice at Hamline … [Read more...]
Mass shootings can be contagious, research shows
Are mass shootings truly contagious? According to expert, Dr. Jillian Peterson, it's a form of social contagion, somewhat like a suicide contagion - that's when a high-profile suicide leads to more people to take their own lives. For example, following the suicide of actor Robin Williams, researchers documented a 10% spike in suicides in the months … [Read more...]