The influence of acute life stressors on mass shooter outcomes

IF 3.3 1区社会学 Q1 CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY

Journal of Criminal Justice Pub Date : 2025-01-01 DOI:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2024.102322

Alex O. Widdowson, Katelyn M. McMahon, Holly M. Kratzwald

{"title":"The influence of acute life stressors on mass shooter outcomes","authors":"Alex O. Widdowson, Katelyn M. McMahon, Holly M. Kratzwald","doi":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2024.102322","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Purpose</h3><div>Existing studies indicate that acute life stressors often precede mass shootings and may contribute to the shooter's motivation or exacerbate underlying mental health issues. However, it remains unclear whether these stressors influence mass shooter outcomes—that is, whether the shooter is apprehended, dies by suicide, or is killed by law enforcement or citizens. This study advances the literature by examining the associations between five acute life stressors and mass shooter outcomes and whether these associations vary across different incident types.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Using data on 539 lone mass shooters in the United States from 1980 to 2018, we employed logistic regression to predict mass shooter outcomes (suicide/killed vs. detained) from measures of recent financial strain, job loss, romantic breakup, interpersonal conflict, and other life stressors. Multiplicative interactions assessed whether these associations vary across incident type.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Our analyses revealed that mass shooters who experienced a recent financial strain and job loss had higher odds of suicide/being killed. In contrast, interpersonal conflict was associated with lower odds of suicide/being killed. Moreover, associations were statistically invariant across family, felony, and public mass shootings.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>The findings provide new insights about the predictors of mass shooter outcomes and have implications for prevention.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48272,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Criminal Justice","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102322"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Criminal Justice","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235224001715","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Purpose

Existing studies indicate that acute life stressors often precede mass shootings and may contribute to the shooter's motivation or exacerbate underlying mental health issues. However, it remains unclear whether these stressors influence mass shooter outcomes—that is, whether the shooter is apprehended, dies by suicide, or is killed by law enforcement or citizens. This study advances the literature by examining the associations between five acute life stressors and mass shooter outcomes and whether these associations vary across different incident types.

Methods

Using data on 539 lone mass shooters in the United States from 1980 to 2018, we employed logistic regression to predict mass shooter outcomes (suicide/killed vs. detained) from measures of recent financial strain, job loss, romantic breakup, interpersonal conflict, and other life stressors. Multiplicative interactions assessed whether these associations vary across incident type.

Results

Our analyses revealed that mass shooters who experienced a recent financial strain and job loss had higher odds of suicide/being killed. In contrast, interpersonal conflict was associated with lower odds of suicide/being killed. Moreover, associations were statistically invariant across family, felony, and public mass shootings.

Conclusion

The findings provide new insights about the predictors of mass shooter outcomes and have implications for prevention.

查看原文本刊更多论文

急性生活应激源对大规模枪击事件预后的影响

目的：现有研究表明，急性生活压力源通常发生在大规模枪击事件之前，可能有助于枪手的动机或加剧潜在的心理健康问题。然而，目前尚不清楚这些压力源是否会影响大规模枪击事件的结果——也就是说，枪手是被逮捕、自杀身亡，还是被执法部门或公民杀死。本研究通过研究五种急性生活压力源与大规模枪击事件的结果之间的关系，以及这些关系是否在不同的事件类型中有所不同，从而推进了文献的研究。方法：使用1980年至2018年美国539名单独大规模枪手的数据，我们采用逻辑回归来预测大规模枪手的结果（自杀/被杀vs被拘留），这些数据来自最近的经济压力、失业、失恋、人际冲突和其他生活压力因素。乘法相互作用评估了这些关联是否因事件类型而异。结果：我们的分析显示，最近经历过经济压力和失业的大规模枪手自杀/被杀的几率更高。相反，人际冲突与自杀/被杀的几率较低有关。此外，家庭、重罪和公共大规模枪击事件之间的关联在统计上是不变的。结论该研究结果为大规模枪击事件的预后预测提供了新的见解，并对预防具有重要意义。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of Criminal Justice CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY-

CiteScore

6.90

自引率

9.10%

发文量

审稿时长

23 days

期刊介绍： The Journal of Criminal Justice is an international journal intended to fill the present need for the dissemination of new information, ideas and methods, to both practitioners and academicians in the criminal justice area. The Journal is concerned with all aspects of the criminal justice system in terms of their relationships to each other. Although materials are presented relating to crime and the individual elements of the criminal justice system, the emphasis of the Journal is to tie together the functioning of these elements and to illustrate the effects of their interactions. Articles that reflect the application of new disciplines or analytical methodologies to the problems of criminal justice are of special interest. Since the purpose of the Journal is to provide a forum for the dissemination of new ideas, new information, and the application of new methods to the problems and functions of the criminal justice system, the Journal emphasizes innovation and creative thought of the highest quality.