| U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice |
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| NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE | ||
| FIVE FACTS ABOUT |
| MASS SHOOTINGS IN K-12 SCHOOLS |
| Preventing mass shootings in the United States, particularly those occurring in school settings, is an important priority for families, government leaders and officials, public safety agencies, mental health professionals, educators, and local communities. What does the evidence say about how to detect, prevent, and respond to these tragic events? Here’s what we’ve learned through NIJ-sponsored research:[1] |
| 1. Most people who commit a mass shooting are in crisis leading up to it and are likely to leak their plans to others, presenting opportunities for intervention.
Before their acts of violence, most individuals who carry out a K-12 mass shooting show outward signs of crisis. Through social media and other means, they often publicly broadcast a high degree of personal instability and an inability to cope in their current mental state. Almost all are actively suicidal. Case studies show that most of these individuals engage in warning behaviors, usually leaking their plans directly to peers or through social media.[2] Yet most leaks of K-12 mass shooting plans are not reported to authorities before the shooting. |
Research shows that leaking mass shooting plans is associated with a cry for help.[3] Analyses of case reports from successfully averted K-12 mass shootings point to crisis intervention as a promising strategy for K-12 mass shooting prevention.[4] Programs and strategies found to prevent school shootings and school violence generally could hold promise for preventing school mass shootings as well.
2. Everyone can help prevent school mass shootings. Most individuals who carry out a K-12 mass shooting are insiders, with some connection to the school they target. Often, they are current or former students. |
Learn more from these NIJ reports:
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| National Institute of Justice • Strengthen Science • Advance Justice August 2022 NCJ 305045 |
NIJ.OJP.GOV |
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- ↑ National Institute of Justice funding award description, “Student Threat Assessment as a Safe and Supportive Prevention Strategy,” at the Rector & Visitors of the University of Virginia, award number 2014-CK-BX-0004, https://nij.ojp.gov/funding/awards/2014-ck-bx-0004; National Institute of Justice funding award description, “Understanding the Causes of School Violence Using Open Source Data,” at the Research Foundation of the City University of New York, award number 2016-CK-BX-0013, https://nij.ojp.gov/funding/awards/2016-ck-bx-0013; National Institute of Justice funding award description, “Mass Shooter Database,” at Hamline University, award number 2018-75-CX-0023, https://nij.ojp.gov/funding/awards/2018-75-cx-0023; and National Institute of Justice funding award description, “Improving the Understanding of Mass Shooting Plots,” at the RAND Corporation, award number 2019-R2-CX-0003, https://nij.ojp.gov/funding/awards/2019-r2-cx-0003.
- ↑ Meagan N. Abel, Steven Chermak, and Joshua D. Freilich, “Pre-Attack Warning Behaviors of 20 Adolescent School Shooters: A Case Study Analysis,” Crime & Delinquency 68 no. 5 (2022): 786-813, https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128721999338.
- ↑ Jillian Peterson et al., “Communication of Intent To Do Harm Preceding Mass Public Shootings in the United States, 1966 to 2019,” JAMA Network Open 4 no. 11 (2021): e2133073, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.33073.
- ↑ Abel, Chermak, and Freilich, “Pre-Attack Warning Behaviors”; and Jillian Peterson and James Densley, The Violence Project: How To Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic (New York: Abrams Press, 2021)
