Using Open-source Data to Better Understand and Respond to American School Shootings: Introducing and Exploring the American School Shooting Study (TASSS)

• NCJ Number: 307207
• Journal: Journal of School Violence Volume: 21 Issue: 2 Dated: 2022 Pages: 93-118
• Author(s): Joshua D. Freilich; Steven M. Chermak; Nadine M. Connell; Brent R. Klein ; Emily A. Greene-Colozzi
• Date Published: 2022
• Length: 26 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2016-CK-BX-0013; 2018-R2-CX-0002
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Award: Understanding the Causes of School Violence Using Open Source Data; Pathways to School Shootings: An Integrated Developmental and Life Course Criminological Approach

Annotation

This paper introduces the American School Shooting Study (TASSS), which uses open-source data to understand and respond to school shootings.

Abstract

This study uses open source information to examine school shootings in the United States for the 1990–2016 period and outlines how these findings could aid policymakers and highlight issues that future research could address with these data. The authors also describe their open source collection procedures, the amount and type of information uncovered, and how they assessed their quality. The authors aim to set a standard for more transparent open source data collection processes and enhance the data’s rigor to provide important context to the larger policy discussions about school shootings. The authors innovatively created a national-level database to address the gaps in existing research and identified 652 school shootings. These shootings included 473 intentional shootings (encompassing 354 with known offenders and 119 with unknown perpetrators), 102 suicide only shootings, 73 accidental discharges and 4 legally justified shootings. Most school shootings were committed outside of the school building (e.g., school yard), by non-students, during non-school hours and were sometimes motivated by non-school issues such as gang disputes. Almost 56% of the intentional shootings resulted in no deaths and mass homicide shootings were outliers. No clear time trend emerged. Importantly, proportionally more of the non-juvenile offenders committed fatal shootings. While the vast majority of attacks targeted high schools, those against elementary schools were more deadly. (Published Abstract Provided)