Mass Shootings: A Research Guide: Mental Health
Introduction
In the wake of mass shootings, the perpetrators are often characterized by the media as "insane" or "deranged." A few mass shooters did suffer from severe mental illnesses, notably in the Aurora, CO, theater shooting and the Tucson, AZ, incident that injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The Sandy Hook shooter was never formally diagnosed with a mental illness, although a report issued in the wake of Sandy Hook (PDF) suggested that he may have had multiple undiagnosed mental illnesses.
Following such incidents, calls for changes in mental health services to prevent future incidents often go hand-in-hand with calls for increased gun control. However, mental health professionals caution that such media reports may simply increase public fear of mental illness and discourage those who experience mental illnesses from seeking treatment. They also point out that mental illness is not necessarily a predictor of violence.
Background Reading
- CQ Researcher: Mental Health PolicyMay 10, 2013; written in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings.
Selected research: Mental health policy responses
Selected research: Other mental health issues
Mental health & other characteristics of shooters
Attempts to profile shooters, sometimes in the hope of identifying at-risk individuals before they resort to violence, are common but also contested.
Suggested keywords:
- mass shooters
- rampage killers
- school shooters
- suicide terrorists
- profiling
- characteristics
- warning behaviors
- Lankford, A. (2013). A comparative analysis of suicide terrorists and rampage, workplace, and school shooters in the United States from 1990 to 2010. Homicide Studies, 17(3), 255-274.(CSUSB users only.) Lankford also authored the Myth of Martyrdom, below; however, some reviewers criticized its analysis as over-simplified.
The Myth of Martyrdom: what really drives suicide bombers, rampage shooters, and other self-destructive killers by Call Number: 3rd Floor HV6431 .L34626 2013ISBN: 9780230342132Publication Date: 2013
Rampage: The social roots of school shootings by Call Number: 5th floor LB3013.33 .K46 R36 2004ISBN: 0465051030Publication Date: 2004Attempts to profile school shooters.
Why kids kill: Inside the minds of school shooters by Call Number: 3rd Floor HQ799.2.V56 L365 2009ISBN: 9780230608023Publication Date: 2009
The Wiley Handbook of the Psychology of Mass Shootings by Call Number: ebookISBN: 9781119047896Publication Date: 2016Part 2 of this book covers the Psychology of Perpetrators. Other sections address the psychology media coverage and trauma considerations for survivors.
