The Profile of a School Shooter
The psychological makeup of individuals involved in school violence
Attempts to profile school shooters have been made. Were there any signs fortellinig the impending violence? This article discusses the issues surrounding this idea.
School shooters, have fascinated Americans for years. Besides terrorists, the individuals involved seem to be run of the mill students and citizens for the most part. The most common question asked is: are there any signs that foretells or warn us of the impending violence? This is a question that has been attempted to be answered for years by various psychologists. Below is the current state of knowledge concerning this issue.
Test me
Many studies have been done, over the years, to try to profile school shooters. Companies such as the MOSAIC Threat Assessment Systems, who sell products that aid in identifying and eliminating potential threats, as well as studies done by the US Secret Service, have come to the conclusion that no one shooter fits a definitive psychological profile. They have warned that doing so would encompass too many potential students that would fit this profile, rendering the results unusable. Findings found that many of the children appeared to come from well-adjusted and wealthy American families,. yet some came from broken homes and divorces. Some also were loners, while others had many friends.
Who then?
Although there are many differences, studies did show that there were a few common denominators between the shooters. According to Princeton’s Katherine Newman, in an interview with investigative reporter Bill Dedman on Feb 5th 2007, stated that most of the shooters were people who felt out of place and failed at social integration. These individuals attempted, to raise their social status and image by boasting of their violent intentions to others and instill the idea that they could control the fate of others. The US secret service has established the fact that most of the shooters convey that the shootings were as a result of alienation and persecution.
Other factors
Other contributing factors are present in school shooters. Some of these characteristics include that shooters are lonely and rejected by others, angry towards someone or something, are obsessed with violence, guns and other weapons, lack positive relationships with school and family, are abused by family, insecure, are bullied and demeaned by fellow students, are mentally ill and suffer illusions of grandeur, are depressed or have substance abuse issues.
Myths
We all picture school shooters as either being a Goth, a loner or a person who goes over the edge. The truth of the matter is that these are myths. There are no profiles per se on who a school shooter really is. Most generally are good students, come from all types of races and family situations . Also, school violence doesn’t occur to be a spur of the moment decision. In fact, most have shown explicit planning and detail in laying out their attacks and some have written manifestos and made home movies of their plans. Most in fact, don’t keep their plans secret. They actually hint and talk about it with others, prior to the event. Most shooters know their victims and the idea that they shoot no one they knew, just doesn’t hold true. Most attackers also didn’t threaten anyone prior to the incident and most weren’t loners.
Many children have been ridiculed and bullied by classmates throughout their lives. Many have seen hardships and gone through familial problems, including abuse and violence. Yet many of these never became school shooters or a threat to others. As a result, studies will continue on this subject and each ensuing school shooter will be scrutinized and analyzed to better understand this unfortunate, dangerous phenomenon.
To read about school shootings in the United States, click Infamous American School Shootings and the Virginia Tech School Shooting
