Averted targeted school killings from 1900-2016

ABSTRACT

Mass shootings, particularly those that occur on school grounds, often generate intense political debate. Following the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School, questions arose on how to prevent these tragedies. Typically, the response generated from these questions revolves around mental illness, bullying prevention, and gun control. Unfortunately, the views on these topics, especially gun control, are often rooted in a strong belief system which is unwavering. Resultantly, the debate on how to avert these incidents often stops at the debate phase. This study sought to better understand how these events can be prevented by examining targeted school killings from 1900–2016 in which the suspect was stopped before the attack. The analysis revealed that the majority of attacks were prevented by other students reporting the threat of an impending attack to school and law enforcement authorities.

KEYWORDS:

• School shootings
• crime prevention
• guns

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert Stallings

Dr. Robert Stallings is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Lenoir-Rhyne University. His research interests and publication history focuses on school violence, focused deterrence and pulling lever strategies, procedural justice, professional athlete criminality, and prisoner reentry. Publications in these areas have appeared in such journals as Work and Days, Crime Prevention and Community Safety, Journal of Criminal Justice Education, Criminal Justice Studies, and Corrections: Policy, Practice, and Research. Additionally, he has published a book chapter on Three-Strike Laws in the 2^nd edition of Current Legal Issues in Criminal Justice.

Jacob Christian Hall

Mr. Jacob Christian Hall is a graduate student in Lenoir-Rhyne University's Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership program. After graduation, he plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Criminology as well as a career in criminal investigations. His research interests include school violence, serial murder, focused deterrence strategies, and offender typologies.