Repeat Tragedy

Abstract

The authors examine rampage shootings in American high schools after 2002 and consider whether factors identified in their prior research on rampages from 1974 to 2002 account for the more recent cases. The authors find that the five factors—social marginality, individual predisposing factors, cultural scripts, failure of the surveillance system, and availability of guns—remain important features. The authors then contrast these high school shootings with the recent spate of college rampage shootings that resemble the high school cases in some ways but differ in others. College shooters are older and therefore typically further along in the development of serious mental illness.