Rampage as a Social Rebirth: A Mixed Methods Study of US School Shootings

• In Event: Explaining Mass Shootings

Abstract

Rampage school shootings are among the most drastic forms of human behavior: kids and young adults going to their own school to randomly murder as many of their former classmates, teachers, and strangers as possible. Yet, so far research is struggling to comprehensively explain these events. The present study examines a full sample of rampage school shootings in the United States to understand their driving dynamics. It triangulates novel types of data – such as video data, interrogations with perpetrators, police and autopsy reports – in a mixed methods approach that combines in-depth qualitative analyses, cross-case comparisons, and descriptive statistics. Findings suggest the process of a social rebirth is a driving dynamic in school shootings. This process consists of three elements: First, shooters find themselves in a social pressure cooker that they desperately try to get out of. Second, school shootings are part of the US cultural toolkit: a normalized way for adolescents to escape this pressure cooker. Third, easy gun access, usually at home, facilitates this rebirth. Findings have implications for our understanding of violence, social exclusion, mental health, gun legislation, as well as US culture more broadly.

Author

• Anne Nassauer, University of Erfurt