Pathways to School Shootings: An Integrated Developmental and Life Course Criminological Approach

This project proposes to study the pathways and trajectories of school shooting perpetrators by building upon the U.S. School Shooting Database that includes open-source data on all shootings resulting in at least on injury on a K-12 school grounds. Specifically, it seeks to investigate the characteristics of different types of school shooters, so as to comparatively examine the causal factors between: 1) student and non-student shooters, 2) fatal and non-fatal and 3) multiple or single-victim shooters. This study will attempt to identify critical turning points and transitions that occur in the offenders’ trajectory to the shooting using supplemental quantitative and qualitative data on the life courses of school shooters in the U.S. for the years 1990-2016. The applicant will develop constructs relating to offenders’ delinquent backgrounds and negative life events, and measures on known patterns of shooters’ minor and serious past crimes (including differential experiences with the criminal justice system), to explore offending versatility as well as both covert and overt violence pathways. They will also create variables capturing other negative life transitions, such as past victimization and various personal grievances that can trigger shootings, for a comprehensive test of life course theory and to provide new data on potential intervention points. CA/NCF "Note: This project contains a research and/or development component, as defined in applicable law," and complies with Part 200 Uniform Requirements - 2 CFR 200.210(a)(14).