By Melanie Warner
Each time a high-profile mass shooting happens in America, a grieving and incredulous nation scrambles for answers. Who was this criminal and how could he (usually) have committed such a horrendous and inhumane act? A few details emerge about the individual’s troubled life and then everyone moves on.
Three years ago, Jillian Peterson, an associate professor of criminology at Hamline University, and James Densley, a professor of criminal justice at Metro State University, decided to take a different approach. In their view, the failure to gain a more meaningful and evidence-based understanding of why mass shooters do what they do seemed a lost opportunity to stop the next one from happening. Funded by the National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the Department of Justice, their research constructed a database of every mass shooter since 1966 who shot and killed four or more people in a public place, and every shooting incident at schools, workplaces and places of worship since 1999.
Share This Post!
The Link Between ADHD and Trauma
By Medical News Today Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that often begins in childhood. Studies have found that trauma occurring in childhood may exacerbate or predict [...]
5 Reasons Why We Blame Ourselves After Trauma
By Kaytee Gillis, LCSW-BACS As a therapist who works with survivors of childhood trauma, I find that self-blame is a common part of their experience. As a survivor myself, I experience [...]
Child-Parent Psychotherapy Resources
By University of California, San Francisco Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) is an intervention model for children aged 0-5 who have experienced at least one traumatic event (e.g. maltreatment, the sudden or traumatic [...]
Caring for Caregivers Experiencing Secondary Trauma
By Heather C. Forkey, MD, Elaine Schulte, MD, MPH, and Luanne Thorndyke, MD Secondary traumatic stress (STS) is the emotional duress caused by indirect exposure to distressing events experienced by others. [...]
How to Talk About Mental Health
By SAMHSA Mental health is essential to a person’s life in the same way as physical health. Hesitation to talk about mental health adds to the notion that the topic is [...]
Prioritizing Minority Mental Health
By CDC Office of Health Equity Mental health matters! Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, act, handle stress, relate to others, and make [...]