Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Abstract available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2009 Dec. 27.

Targeted school violence (TSV) in the United States is increasing, causing a loss of innocent lives and challenges for teachers and students in building rapport. In addition, TSV increases levels of anxiety and makes it difficult for parents and community members to believe students are safe while at school. Several studies have highlighted the fact that age may be a factor in school shootings, calling for future research to determine if age is indeed influential. The problem is to date age has not been established as a predictive factor, even though the extant research is beginning to identify possible variances. Guided by general strain theory and ceremonial violence, this study determined statistical significance between age and select variables in the personal, event, and ecological categories. This information could be illuminating to educators, mental health professionals, and law enforcement for threat assessment purposes. The information was gathered on all TSV members within the United States from 1966 to 2015 through archival data, and the data were analyzed using logistic regression, Pearson's correlation, and Spearman's correlation. Results indicated that, as age increases, the offenders are more likely to have a higher social status, have a mental health and criminal history, carry out their act in the afternoon, and choose a knife as a weapon. In addition, older offenders are less likely to be students and less likely to have been bullied. Implications for social change include modifications to current threat assessment protocol regarding weapon choice and previous mental health or criminal history, which could be utilized to change public policy for mandatory reporting of students identified as at risk. Also, younger offenders are being bullied more often than older offenders and this could add more awareness to antibullying program procedure and earlier mental health intervention.

The purpose of this work was to investigate experiencing death and loss through school shootings from a developmental time period and theory-based perspective. This topic was chosen based on recent media coverage and controversy surrounding school shootings. This research looks at school shootings from the perspective of the Structural Functionalism Theory and applies the theory to recent situations of school shootings around the United States. From this theory, the developmental timing of loss following a school shooting was taken into account by observing the stages of development in which loss may have occurred and how each child may react to a school shooting based on their development. This research concluded that school shootings can extremely disruptive to the structure and the functioning of individuals in many roles within the school and community.

Gun-free zones have the potential to increase or decrease the risk of gun crime and active shootings that occur within their borders. People who assume that gun-free zones increase gun related outcomes believe that the lack of the ability for law-abiding citizens to carry a firearm, and thus an inability to engage in defensive gun use if a threat presented itself, makes gun-free zones a soft target for crime. Those that assume gun-free zones decrease gun related outcomes believe the absence of firearms eliminates the risk of an escalation of violence to gunfire. Up until this point, there has been no quantitative research on the effectiveness of gun-free zones, despite the topic being highly controversial. This dissertation was therefore the first to: create and describe a dataset of active shootings in the United States, and assess the extent to which defensive gun use occurs during these events (Aim 1); conduct a cross-sectional ecological analysis for the in St. Louis, Missouri (2019), both city and county, comparing the proportion of crimes committed with a firearm that occur in gun-free school zones compared to gun-allowing zones immediately surrounding the gun-free zone to quantify the effectiveness of gun-free school zones and (Aim 2); conduct a spatial ecological case-control study in the United States where cases are the locations or establishments of active shootings between 2014 and 2020, to quantify the impact of gun-free zones on active shootings, and assess if active shooters target gun-free zones (Aim 3). The results of Aim 1 of this study suggested that defensive gun use during active shootings was rare, usually does not stop the attack, and does not decrease the number of casualties compared to active shootings without defensive use. Aim 1 also thoroughly described the novel active shooting dataset. I found in Aim 2 that gun-free school zones had fewer crimes committed with a firearm than corresponding gun-allowing zones in St. Louis, MO in 2019. There were 13.4% fewer crimes involving a firearm in gun-free school zones, with a confidence interval ranging from 23.6% fewer to 1.8% fewer (p-value: 0.025). Aim 3 determined that the conditional odds of an active shooting in an establishment that was gun-free were 0.375 times the odds of an active shooting in a gun-allowing establishment with a confidence interval ranging from 0.193 to 0.728 (p-value<0.01), suggesting that gun-free zones did not attract active shooters, and may even be preventative. In conclusion, gun-free zones did not appear to increase gun related outcomes and may even be protective against active shootings. Efforts across the United States to repeal laws related to gun-free zones, due to the belief that gun-free zones are targeted for violence, are therefore not backed by data. However, these are the first quantitative studies ever conducted on the effectiveness of gun-free zones, so more research is needed to build on the results of this dissertation.

In 2022, there were forty-two mass school shootings, a record that surpassed the previous years. As of April 2023, there have already been fourteen school shootings that have resulted in injury or death. Each year, the frequency of mass school shootings and the number of victims continue to rise. Regarding the shooters' characteristics, some have reported a history of mental illness, instability within the home, poor academic performance, and more. In the United States (U.S.), one out of five children and adolescents are diagnosed with mental health disorders (Brookman, 2017). This study will examine four significant perpetrators that committed mass school shootings in the U.S. between 1991 and 2022. Through a systematic review, it will attempt to inspect common characteristics and warning signs relating to poor mental health. In addition, this study will discuss the importance of utilizing Mental Health Screenings (MHS) to assist in prevention and interventions within schools. Many adults with mental illness were once children and adolescents with emerging poor mental health. When detected early, treatment can be administered to prevent lifelong suffering and dangerous outcomes. With the implementation of MHS, schoolteachers and counselors can refer and provide necessary psychological services to promote positive mental health and early intervention, two key variables that may play a crucial role in reducing the frequency of mass school shootings in America.

No description available.

When students perceive their surroundings as being safe and comfortable, they can concentrate on higher order tasks such as learning (Bowen et al., 1998); a perception of safety is a "basic requirement" for academic success (Hernandez, Floden, and Bosworth, 2010). The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify building features that affect the safety perceptions of high school students and teachers, from one school district in rural Virginia. The study employed aspects of the methodology used by Biag (2014) in the study 'Perceived School Safety: Visual Narratives from the Middle Grades'. Comparisons were drawn between the areas and characteristics that influence the safety perceptions of students and teachers. This study was conducted in one high school (N=14) in rural Virginia. All findings and suggestions were shared with the school and district participating in order to assist with future improvements in their safety practices. Results show windows, lighting and accessibility to be among the most common items influencing perceptions of safety. Items such as cameras and proximity to administration were discussed the least for their influence. / Ed. D. / When students feel as though their surroundings are safe and comfortable, they can concentrate on learning (Bowen et al., 1998); a sense of safety is a “basic requirement” for academic success (Hernandez, Floden, & Bosworth, 2010). The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify building features that affect the safety perceptions of high school students and teachers, from one school district in rural Virginia. The study was inspired by Biag’s (2014) study ‘Perceived School Safety: Visual Narratives from the Middle Grades’. The current study sought the opinions of students and teachers from one high school (N=14) in Rural Virginia. Comparisons were drawn between the areas and characteristics that shape the safety perceptions of students and teachers. All findings and suggestions were shared with the school and district participating in order to assist with future improvements in their safety practices. Results show windows, lighting and accessibility to be among the most common items influencing perceptions of safety. Items such as cameras and proximity to administration were discussed the least.

Mass shootings, whether on a smaller scale or a large scale, take place frequently (LaFraniere, Cohen, & Oppel, 2015). Yet the media only covers a small fraction of crime events, and those selected often gather large amounts of attention. This is problematic because by only focusing on the only most extreme and newsworthy cases, the media distorts the general public's understanding of crime in the United States, and a person's actual likelihood of victimization (Schildkraut & Elsass, 2016). The purpose of the proposed study is to investigate in a nationally represented sample how individuals’ causal attributions for a school shooting with an Asian shooter, as well as whether media influence moderate their attitudes toward the shooter. Participants will be subjected to one of two media conditions, editorial type news or straight news, regarding a shooting and then will answer casual attribution questions and perceptions of the shooter. Participants who judge in-group members as the shooter are predicted to more likely to attribute the crime to external than individuals who judge out-group members. Also, it is predicted that individuals who judge out-group members as a shooter will not be more likely to attribute the crime to internal factors than individuals who judge in-group members. Lastly, it is predicted that editorial type news will influence individuals to attribute the shooting more to both external and internal factors than straight news would. This study may add important information on how media should be portrayed, and further explore attributions that are made against shooters. Implications for future research are also discussed.

Even though public mass shootings are relatively rare, they represent an atypical form of violence that is both sudden and yields an unprecedented amount of carnage; for these reasons, an inordinate amount of scholarship has been produced in order to isolate both the causes and effects of these rampages. As there is no clear cut and universal cause, over the past forty years numerous factors have been offered to account for these types of shootings, including bullying, peer relations, family problems, cultural conflict, demographic change, mental illness, gun culture, copycatting, and the media. While there appears to be an element of truth in each of these perspectives, all of these isolated factors focus upon only one or two surface-level influences, thus ignoring the possibility that multiple and distinct causes are interacting with one another. The aim of this study is to construct a meaningful model of motivation that is common to each situation, is to build upon psycho-social theories of crime, and to highlight which combination of specific background factors and processes is necessary to produce these vicious massacres. To answer the underlying research question, "Why do certain individuals elect this specific line of action?" this thesis will first provide a review of the relevant literature, will then emphasize three key social and psychological predisposers that combine together to negatively influence the individuals involved, and will subsequently highlight five separate and unique case studies in order to examine the proposed model.