Understanding the Causes of School Violence Using Open Source Data

• In Event: (NIJ Day) Issues in Mass Shooting Events: Research and Practice

Abstract

This study applies two major criminology theories to better understand the causes of school shootings. First, we employ Sampson and Laub’s (1993) developmental social control perspective to better understand the offenders committing school shootings. Second, we apply rational choice and situational crime prevention (SCP) perspectives to further understand school shooting incidents. To investigate these issues we are using open sources to create the first of its kind national-level database that captures all school shootings that resulted in at least 1 injury on K-12 grounds from 1990- 2016. We discuss our progress to date and present preliminary findings. The author will also discuss issues in data collection and causes of school shootings.

Author

• Joshua Freilich, John Jay College of Criminal Justice