Stopping violence before it starts: An analysis of how potential school gun attacks are exposed

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: School Discipline and Safety

Abstract

Little scholarship has explored how potential school gun attacks are stopped before they happen. In this study, we investigated factors leading to the exposure of potential school gun attacks by constructing a dataset of 124 recent cases of potential school gun attacks reported over a five-year period (2018-2023). We find that in most cases, attack suspects communicate their intentions to others, creating critical opportunities for exposing potential school gun attacks. Results also indicate that students are the most important resource for exposing potential school gun attacks. One implication is that open lines of communication, high expectations for reporting threats, and positive relationships may help to ensure that school gun attacks are exposed before they occur.

Author

• Daniel Hamlin, University of Oklahoma