Are School Shootings Contagious? Misreading a Medical Metaphor

• In Event: 4155 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 6. Guns and Mass Shootings

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a contagion hypothesis about school shootings, which we demonstrate are widely distributed nationally, internationally, as well as over time. We argue that widely publicized recent research by Towers (2015) and others (Garcia-Bernardo et al. 2015; Pappa, Lagerborg, and Ravn 2018) is misleading in using the metaphor of contagion to explain school shootings. We present national and international evidence that expands support for an alternative economic insecurity hypothesis, while casting doubt on the general applicability of an epidemic contagion hypothesis. We argue that the role of contagion is overestimated in schools and other settings, despite the appeal of this medical metaphor.

Authors

• Adam Pah, Northwestern University

• John Hagan, Northwestern University