How to Stop School Rampage Killing: Lessons from Averted Mass Shootings and Bombings (2nd Edition)

Foreword by Jack Levin 6 Foreword by Kristina Anderson 9 Preface 13 Contents 19 About the Author 22 1 Introduction 24 Research Questions and Background Information on Averted School Rampage Incidents 25 Explaining and Reacting to School Rampage Killing 30 School Rampage Killing as a Social Problem 30 The Causes of School Rampage Killing 33 Averted School Rampage Killing 34 Responding to Rampage—Current School Disciplinary and Security Practices 38 Zero-Tolerance Disciplinary Policies 38 Surveillance Through the Proliferation of School Resource Officers and Security Cameras 40 School Security Designed to Prevent Crime Through Environmental Design 41 Responding to Rampage—Violence Risk Assessment 41 Profiling 42 Guided Professional Judgment and Warning Signs 43 Automated Decision-Making 44 The Threat Assessment Approach 45 Understanding School Criminalization and Risk Assessment as Actuarial Justice 47 Questions for Discussion 52 References 53 2 Assessing the Substance and Risk of Student Rampage Threats 66 Distinguishing Threats, Risks, Plots, and Genuine Aversion 69 Examining the Form and Content of Threats in Averted Rampage Violence 71 Examining the Levels of Risk in Averted Rampage Violence 73 Examining Plots and Planning in Averted Rampage Violence 74 Examining the Notion of Aversion in Rampage Violence 75 The Assessment of Evidence in Averted Rampage Violence 75 Assessing the Plot’s Detail 76 Appraising the Role of Weaponry 83 Assessing the Role of Personal and Group Characteristics 88 Conclusion 102 Questions for Discussion 102 References 103 3 Confidence and Doubt in Assessing Averted Rampage Violence 110 Variations in Confidence and Doubt by Risk Assessment Type 111 Certainty Based on a Convergence of Risk Assessment Criteria 111 Certainty Based on Lack of Threat Assessment Criteria 112 Certainty Based on Threat Assessment Criteria in Spite of Deviation from Profiles 115 Remaining Uncertainty Despite Risk Assessment 117 Conclusion 120 Questions for Discussion 122 References 123 4 Preventing School Rampage Violence Through Student Bystander Intervention and Positive School Environments 125 School Rampage Violence Prevention and the Student Code of Silence 126 Perceiving a Diminished Student Code of Silence Since Columbine 130 Weakening the Code of Silence Through Positive School Climate 132 Breaking the Code of Silence—Interventions Through Leakage 135 Indirectly Informed Bystanders 135 Directly Informed Confidants 136 Threatened Targets 137 Involved Co-conspirators 137 How Interventions Occurred and Who Was Trusted 140 Following the Code of Silence—The Persistence of Bystander Inaction 141 Implications of Findings 144 Conclusion 148 Questions for Discussion 152 References 153 5 Summary of Findings, Policy Implications, and Future Research 160 Summary and Implications of Findings 160 Other Emergent Areas to Help Prevent and Stop School Rampage Killing 165 Access to Firearms in the United States 167 Media Coverage of Mass Killing 171 Suggested Areas for Future Research 176 References 180 6 Methodological Appendix 188 Operationalizing School Rampage and Averted Threat 188 Research Design and Sample 192 Complications of Relying on the News Media to Build a Sampling Frame 197 On Qualitative Methodology 198 Generalizability in Qualitative Research 200 References 202 References 206 Index 235 This book tackles the important question of how we can understand and learn from the school rampage killings that have been prevented. In the flood of recent accounts and analyses of deadly school rampage killings that plague society and inspire widespread public fear, very little attention has been given to the incidents that almost were. Building on Madfis' previous book, The Risk of School Rampage: Assessing and Preventing Threats of School Violence (2014), this vital work addresses key gaps in school violence scholarship through the examination of averted school rampage incidents in the United States and advances existing knowledge through ground-breaking insights from the latest research on mass murder, violence prevention, bystander intervention, disciplinary policy, and threat assessment in school contexts. This empirical study utilizes in-depth interviews conducted with school and police officials (administrators, counselors, security guards, police officers, and teachers) directly involved in averting potential school rampages to explore the processes by which threats are assessed and school rampage plots are thwarted. Madfis finds that many common contemporary school violence prevention policies and practices are ineffective at preventing rampage attacks and may actually increase the likelihood of their occurrence. Rather than uncritically adopting such problematic approaches, Madfis argues that schools must model prevention practices upon what has proven successful in averting potentially deadly incidents.