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Disaggregating Mass Public Shootings: A Comparative Analysis of Disgruntled Employee, School, Ideologically motivated, and Rampage Shooters
Author(s) -
Capellan Joel A.,
Johnson Joseph,
Porter Jeremy R.,
Martin Christine
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/1556-4029.13985
Subject(s) - ideology , criminology , psychology , human factors and ergonomics , social psychology , event (particle physics) , poison control , suicide prevention , injury prevention , political science , environmental health , politics , medicine , law , physics , quantum mechanics
This study compares the demographic, background, motivation, and pre‐event and event‐level behaviors across four types of mass public shooters: disgruntled employee , school , ideologically motivated, and rampage offenders. Using a database containing detailed information on 318 mass public shootings that occurred in the United States between 1966 and 2017, we find systematic differences in the characteristics, motivations, target selection, planning, and incident‐level behaviors among these offenders. The results show that ideologically motivated shooters to be the most patient, and methodical, and as a result the most lethal. Conversely, disgruntled employees , who are driven by revenge, tend to have little time to plan and consequently are the least lethal shooters. These, among other differences, underscore the need for prevention strategies and policies to be tailored to specific types of offenders. Furthermore, the results also highlight commonalities across offender type, suggesting that the social and psychological pathways to violence are universal across offenders.