The Violence Project: How To Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic

Peterson (criminology and criminal justice, Hamline Univ.) and Densley (criminal justice, Metropolitan State Univ.) report on their research examining the root causes of mass shootings. Frustrated by policies that were created only after shootings occurred, Peterson and Densley decided to study every mass shooter (defined as anyone who “killed four or more people in a public space”) since 1966. They gathered information to “see if profiles emerged that might point us to new ideas for prevention”; the result was a database of shooters, with basic demographics (age, education, gender, race, etc.) and more in-depth information (whether the perpetrator had been institutionalized for mental illness; whether they had told anyone about their plans in advance). The authors found that killers often follow a pattern: Many were abused as children, reached a crisis point in the weeks or months before the shooting, and blamed an individual or group for their rage and frustration. This is a thorough, groundbreaking work that attempts to understand mass shootings and ways to prevent them.