Creating a K-12 School Shooting Typology

• In Event: Profiles & Correlates of Mass Shootings

Abstract

This study explores variations among K-12 school shooting perpetrator traits and offense characteristics by applying a statistical method, Latent Class Analysis, to data drawn from The American School Shooting Study (TASSS), a national open-source dataset of every intentional shooting on K-12 school grounds in the United States between 1990 and 2016 (N=354). The results from the Latent Class Analysis identify three incident types and chi square analyses demonstrate statistically significant associations between perpetrator traits and incident types. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for scholars, practitioners, and educators as well as limitations and directions for future research.

Authors

• Tiana Gaudette, Michigan State University

• Steven Chermak, Michigan State University

• Joshua Freilich, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

• Brent Klein, University of South Carolina