Clinical Mental Health Counselor

05/22/2024

And this one 💅🏼

One study estimates 57 percent of graduates with master’s in mental health fields don’t go on to complete licensure because of cost and state requirements.

05/22/2024

Peep me in this article 👀

https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/news/press-release-archive/4-million-committed-to-mental-health-workforce

My master's program at Adler University states their mission: prepare practitioners to address the world's health inequities & social injustices. A common pitfall is holding this belief with conviction -with no actions behind it, which in turn makes no change. This program has allowed me the opportunity to use my position to advocate for real, actionable change to create diverse and equitable opportunities for clinicans.

Kaiser Permanente grant addresses critical need for mental health workers in Colorado.

03/13/2024

Theoretical Analysis of Mass Shootings

Chi’anne Brieske
PhD in Forensic Psychology, Criminal Behavior

One thing we know with complete certainty about mass shootings, is that we don’t know much about mass shootings. This paper aims to synthesize the diverse and conflicting information researched regarding mass shootings. Public mass shootings are generally categorized as an event in which four or more individuals are killed from a shooting in a public setting. The United States accounts for approximately one-third of all public mass shootings in the world (Lei & Mackenzie, 2021). The term mass shooting is a public health concern, however, there is a lack of consensus regarding a concrete and specific definition, which poses a serious problem for conceptualization, prevention, statistics, and research.

Description, History and Statistics
Contrary to popular belief, mass shootings are rare events, making up less than 1% of all violent crimes in the United States, mass murders, including school shootings, impacting the ability to accumulate data and calculate year over year statistics (Cornell, 2017; Hurst, 2005). This poses a challenge to producing meaningful data due to the lack of plentiful and varied events and information. Moreover, the existing work that is available pales in comparison to most crimes, highlighting the gaps of predictability. This generates barriers to systemically comparing and contrasting different models and approaches aimed at prevention (Lei & Mackenzie, 2021). The National Institute of Justice (2022) highlighted that the “The death toll has risen sharply, particularly in the last decade. In the 1970s, mass shootings claimed an average of eight lives per year. From 2010 to 2019, the end of the study period, the average was up to 51 deaths per year. To put this in perspective, the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration (2000) reported that 30& of all traffic crash fatalities in the United States involve drunk drivers, and 32 people in the United States are killed every day in crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver which breaks down to one every 45 minutes.

Trends
Lankford and Silver (2020) and Schildkraut (2021) stated that mass shootings continue to increase in lethality and frequency over time. However, the researchers admittedly mentioned that “much remains unknown” about the broader spectrum of mass shootings, particularly about those that are spontaneous versus premeditated in private areas, and those that occur during gang or community violence” (Schildkraut & Geller, 2022).
Prevalence
“One challenge for responding to the phenomenon of mass shootings is a lack of context about the prevalence of the problem, which stems from the absence of how to operationalize “mass,” and corresponding data source” (Freilich, Chermak, and Klein 2020). The difficulty lies in manualizing the definition including number of people killed, accounting for injured persons, the method, and the setting. Some widely cited sources Berkowitz and Alcantara, (2021) and Fox 2021) define a mass shooting as four or more people are killed, which can skew the data towards the more lethal cases and omit high-casualty cases where many are injured but few are killed. The obvious challenge is determining what factor outweighs the rest such as death toll or the setting. Certain sources may employ broader parameters, such as using a threshold of four or more people who are shot (Gun Violence Archive n.d.), while others may use criteria to narrow cases to a specific subset, like mass public shootings (e.g., Schildkraut and Elsass 2016). Another salient factor is whether or not the perpetrator is included in the death count, as the threshold number is greatly impacted by another death. As a result, the wildly inconsistent estimates of the number of mass shootings range from an average to one per month to one or more per day (B***y et al. 2019) (Schildkraut & Geller, 2022).
“The attention devoted to mass shootings, particularly by the media, often is disproportional to their actual occurrence” (Schildkraut, Elsass, and Stafford 2015). Homicides, of which approximately 80 percent are perpetrated with a firearm (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2022), account for 0.1 percent of all offenses known to law enforcement, and an even smaller fraction of these cases are mass shootings (Schildkraut, Elsass, and Meredith 2018). Despite their statistical rarity, however, these events generate widespread concern and often are accompanied by demands to “do something” to prevent the next attack (Schildkraut & Geller, 2022).
Incidence. From 2000 to 2018, the FBI recorded 277 active shooter incidents in which an individual shoots and kills others in a public space, resulting in 2430 casualties. The FBI further notes that the number of such incidents is on the rise, with 69% of these incidents occurring between 2010 and 2018 (2019). The United States accounts for approximately one-third of all public mass shootings in the world (Lei & Mackenzie, 2021).

Theoretical Application
Discussed are three theories with a potential application to understanding mass shootings from differing perspectives and considerations. Labeling theory, social control theory and general strain theory will be used to examine motivations and contributing factors to the behavior of perpetrators.
Labeling Theory
Labeling theory is a sociological and criminological theory that seeks to understand how social structures and human societies are related to criminal behavior. This theory theorizes a strong and negative societal reaction to an individual's wrongdoing can lead the individual to become more deviant for two reasons: the individual internalizes the experience impacting the sense of self and the lack of conventional opportunities due to this label. This approach creates a negative feedback loop while viewing both sides as contributing factor to the deviance. This theory discusses that the structure of criminal justice system actually creates the system for which the behavior to occur (Vance, 2021).
Columbine was a salient example of extensive, pervasive, relentless news media coverage that ultimately had two outcomes: emphasis on the death count and increasing notoriety of the shooters. This coverage obsessively covers details over the shooter’s history, photos, recent social media posts which has the opposite effect of making events known for the purpose of accurate information. This distorted version of news that was once intended make dangers known to the viewer, remain connected to the world, and maintain accountability glamourizes the perpetrator and ends up drifting into fame, notoriety and the pop culture of murder (Lankford & Madfis, 2018).

News stories covering school shootings often create a culture of fear, construct false narratives, and scatter misinformation (Brooks et al., 2000; Burns & Crawford, 1999; Muschert, 2019). Despite their statistical rarity, however, these events generate widespread concern and often are accompanied by demands to prevent the next attack, as if it is an impending illness (Schildkraut & Geller, 2022).

Skinner (1968) once said “behavior that is rewarded tends to be repeated”, such as a label reinforces the behavior, regardless of the reward is positive or negative attention. The fan favorite, “super predator”, created by DiIulio referred to an “controllable youth hiding within communities where crime and violence are rare” (DiIulio, 1995). His reference sounds like a mystical creature waiting to attack with no observable warning signs of danger.

Strengths and Limitations
The framework of this theory has a broad range of application due to its loose and non-specific criteria for perpetrator, type of crime, consideration of internal and external elements, and does not force a targeted rationale for behavior. However, this is also it’s limitations as it was difficult to prove, manualize, observe and had difficulty standing alone, thus it fell off in popularity. The move towards evidence-based research was likely a contributing factor to its fall out. Another concern was whether the focus of labeling ore strongly affects the individual or social structure (Vance, 2021).
Social Control
Social control theory suggests that the strength and durability of an individual's bonds or commitments to conventional society inhibit social deviance (Hirschi 1969; Simpson 1976). The basic human need for belonging and attachment to others is influences behavioral, emotional, and cognitive processes. Positive, healthy relationships are thought to deter criminal behavior and deviance. Likewise, when an individual does not feel connected to the larger structure of society, problematic behaviors develop (Hirschi, 1969: Simpson, 1976). The three main ways of achieving this are through a healthy positive adult role model, development of personal conscious, and basic needs being met.
An example emphasizing displacing individuals from social bonds the increase in expulsions and juvenile incarcerations (Mosqueda et al., 2023) stemming from misinformation following Columbine. Thompson and Kyle's (2005) study maintained that examining the influence that environmental factors have on school shooters is necessary to enhance the understanding of these events. Lankford (2013) found that 88% of school shooters had experienced school-related problems and 97% of workplace shooters had experienced work-related problems. The lack of connectedness and belonging to others in the community is one of the factors in social control theory that could help explain mass shootings, especially considered there was often a precipitating crisis event that propelled the decision to move forward with the shooting. Moreover, active shooters often displayed observable and troubling behaviors with majority of them related to mental health challenges, interpersonal issues and possession of violent content (Silver et al., 2018). In a study aimed at understanding gender and bullying, Gason & Nagata (2021) showed that adolescent boys who experienced bullying victimization based on gender, compared to those who did not, had significantly greater odds of reporting they carried a gun to school one or more times in the past year.

Strengths and Limitations
Strengths of this approach include appreciating the critical role of social bonds in relation to a social crime. This theory does well to account for internal and external motivating factors from the lens of attachment. This approach takes into three levels of social interaction including micro, meso, and macro and how they can influence each other early bonds, which is well-supported theoretically and statistically. The limitations of this approach would be requiring multiple systems to adapt and flow in tandem to reduce the likelihood of disconnection. Specifically, our society is rather individualistic and values independence, so this may prove to be a difficult to execute.

Strain Theory
Strain theory is an analysis of why people commit crime and leans into emotion, stress, coping, and learned behaviors to avoid feeling the weight of pressure. This theory suggests that inability to cope with stress and strain leads to maladaptive coping mechanisms leading to criminal behavior. “Young people are particularly likely to choose antisocial responses for several reasons, including peer pressure, a need for autonomy, and lack of control over circumstances. Of the negative emotions caused by strain, anger is the one most often associated with criminal behavior” (Campbell, 2020). The dynamics of mass murder and are viewed as the outcome of deep frustration and perceived rejection in a highly narcissistic person, wounded in his ego, hostile towards society, and in search of identity and notoriety through a cathartic self-assertion.

Strengths and Limitations
This theory clearly links psychology and criminal behavior with an experientially universal lens. Advantages of this theory are the wide array of applicability due to the emphasis of emotion and its fundamental part of the human experience, even across cultures. Granted, cultures vary in their recognition and expression, but it is widely accepted that the range of emotions are relatively similar. Some of the main tenets have been empirically tests according to Froggio (2007) like negative emotions link to deviant behavior. Although it requires more attention, data, time and research, the overall foundation could be useful to explaining a portion of mass shootings as lack of ability to cope combined with high emotions are relevant.

References

Boyd P, Molyneux J (2021) Assessing the contagiousness of mass shootings with nonparametric Hawkes processes. PLoS ONE 16(3): e0248437. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0248437
Burgess, R. (2019). Rethinking global health: Frameworks of Power. Routledge.

Campbell, J. (2020). Strain theory (sociology)Links to an external site.. Salem Press Encyclopedia. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=ers&AN=87325011&site=eds-live&scope=site&custid=s6527200
Mosqueda, Heath, Cutrer-Párraga, Ridge, Jackson & Miller (2023) Analysis of 48 Hours of Television News Coverage Following the Columbine High School Shooting, School Psychology Review, 52:1, 57-71, DOI: 10.1080/2372966X.2020.1870410

Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2000 to 2018 Active Shooter Incidents; 2016. Available from: https:// www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-shooter-incidents-2000-2018.pdf/view.

Ganson, K. T., & Nagata, J. M. (2021). Gender and sexual orientation bullying victimization are associated with gun carrying among adolescent boys. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal, 38(6), 631–640. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-020-00689-x

Gun Violence Archive. Gun Violence Archive. 2021. Available at: https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/.

Hirschi, T. (1969). Causes of delinquency. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Lankford, A., & Silva, J. R. (2021). The timing of opportunities to prevent mass shootings: A study of mental health contacts, work and school problems, and fi****ms acquisition. International Review of Psychiatry, 33(7), 638–652. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540261.2021.1932440

Lei X, MacKenzie CA (2023) Comparing different models to forecast the number of mass shootings in the United States: An application of forecasting rare event time series data. PLoS ONE 18(6): e0287427. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0287427
Mosqueda, Heath, Cutrer-Párraga,, Ridge, Jackson & Miller (2023) Analysis of 48 Hours of Television News Coverage Following the Columbine High School Shooting, School Psychology Review, 52:1, 57-71, DOI: 10.1080/2372966X.2020.1870410

National Institute of Justice (U.S.). (2022). NIJ program plan. Washington, D.C.: The Institute.

Peterson, J. K., & Densley, J. A. (2019). The violence project database of mass shootings in the United States, 1966–2019. The Violence Project.

Schildkraut, J., & Geller, L. B. (2022). Mass Shootings in the United States: Prevalence, Policy, and a Way Forward. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 704(1), 181–203. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027162231164484
Simpson, A.L. (1976). Rehabilitation as the justification of a separate juvenile justice system. California Law Review, 64(4), 984–1017.

Schildkraut, J., & Geller, L. B. (2022). Mass Shootings in the United States: Prevalence, Policy, and a Way Forward. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 704(1), 181–203. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027162231164484

Simpson, A.L. (1976). Rehabilitation as the justification of a separate juvenile justice system. California Law Review, 64(4), 984–1017.
Towers S, Gomez-Lievano A, Khan M, Mubayi A, Castillo-Chavez C. Contagion in Mass Killings and School Shootings. PLOS ONE. 2015; 10(7):1–12. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117259 PMID: 26135941

United States. (2000) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA . United States. [Web Archive] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0015553/.

Vance, N. (2021). Labeling theoryLinks to an external site.. Salem Press Encyclopedia. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=ers&AN=89185563&site=eds-live&scope=site&custid=s6527200

03/13/2024

Crime Analysis: On Getting the Evidence Wrong
Chi'anne Brieske

PhD in Forensic Psychology
Psychological Aspects of Violent Crime

Crime Analysis: On Getting the Evidence Wrong

Julie Rea was accused, charged, and convicted of the first-degree murder of her 10-year-old son, Joel Kirkpatrick occurring in 1997 in the state of Illinois (Colloff, 2018). The crime of homicide is generally defined as the killing of another person, divided into several subsections differentiated by “degrees” and falls into the category of violent crime (Bureau of Justice Statistics, n.d.). This brief will include the key factors and facts of the case, issues, decisions, reasonings, differing opinions, and analysis of the aforementioned.

Case Facts
In 1997, the defendant, Rea reported an intruder entering her home, a struggle ensued and the perpetrator fled, leaving her son dead on his bedroom floor with 10 stab wounds. After the investigation occurred, Rea was identified as the primary suspect. The jury trial began in 2002, in Wayne County with Lawrence County Circuit Court Judge, Robert M. Hopkins. The prosecution’s principal evidence against Rea was that she was inside the house at the time of the crime, no fingerprints were found on the murder weapon and blood pattern analysis determined there was no intruder, and she had committed the offense of homicide. In 2002, the jury found Julie Rea guilty and given a 65-year sentence to be served in prison (Colloff, 2018).

Issues

Investigators found no evidence tying the defendant to the crime. Prosecutors had no eyewitnesses, no motive, little forensic evidence, and a murder weapon that did not yield any fingerprints Colloff, 2018). The case contained issues of perjury or false accusation, inclusion of irrelevant case information influencing jury bias, evidence mishandling and reporting, and use of poorly validated scientific standards and poor adherence to practice standards in forensic evidence. Neighbors reported the defendant behaving coldly, hysterically and chaotically claiming she did not cry immediately following the crime. Prosecutors used bloodstain-pattern analysis to argue that an intruder never entered her home on the night of the crime and that Rea was the killer (Colloff, 2018).

Decisions

The Illinois Appellate Court reversed Rea’s conviction and remanded the case for retrial on the basis that state law had been violated by the appointment of special prosecutors in the case and a change of location for the re-trial. At the re-trial, the jury heard forensic evidence corroborating Rea’s original story that an intruder had broken into her home, the injuries sustained from the attack were not consistent with self-injury, and the recorded tape of Sell’s confession was played. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty, and Rea was granted a certificate of innocent (Colloff, 2018).
Reasoning.
• Appointment of special prosecutors in the case held that state law had been violated in the course of the investigation and trial.
• Tommy Lynn Sells confessed in 2004 he had broken into what he presumed to be Rea’s home, taken a knife from a butcher block in the kitchen, stabbed a little boy to death, and scuffled with a woman
• Sell is a convicted serial killer who committed similar crimes in Missouri and Texas
• The defense was able to prove that Sells was in the area at the time of crime
• Prosecution opposed Sell’s confession as true
• Evidence established that Rea had suffered substantial injuries that could not have been self-inflicted
• Prosecution hired two expert witnesses, blood-pattern analysts, and testimony was a major contributor to the conviction of Rea
• At re-trial, under cross-examination, the expert reported that he had never measured Joel’s hands for comparison
• The defense challenged whether the expert for the prosecution had used the scientific method to support conclusions,
• The defense reported that there is no indication this claim made by the prosecution expert testimony was based in science and is therefore not a valid method to support a claim.
Separate Opinions.
National Academy of Sciences released a report that called into doubt the reliability of bloodstain-pattern analysis stemming from conducted by (Hicklin et al., 2021). Bloodstain-pattern analysis theorizes that patterns of blood can used to reconstruct crimes, and for Rea, the expert witness for the prosecution used reconstruction to reveal not only that there was no intruder present, but Rea had also tampered with the crime-scene, actually staging the scene. Further, his conclusions were substantiated by his investigation and extensive background in the field, referred to as subjective findings (Colloff, 2018).
Hicklin et al., (2021) stated that practitioners’ conclusions were often subject to context bias. The crime scene investigator revealed that blood found on Rea was due to her using a weapon. Moreover, no proof, no data, no methodology based on the scientific method was able to be produced by the investigator, also referred to as subjective findings.

Analysis

The Department of Justice (2000) states that the mission of the department centers around providing equal justice is served under the law by ensuring laws are upheld, laws are fair, equal and uniform, commitment to maintain the highest level of ethical standards with honesty and integrity, and serve the American people with the highest levels of excellent. The American people are to be served with respect for the worth and dignity of each and every human being.
Morgan (2021) states the lack of regulation in the forensic sciences discipline with standardized methodology for admissibility in court are contributors to miscarriages of justice. “Junk science”, that is, evidence masquerading as validated evidence-based science is unsubstantiated with data and information producing flawed, or false conclusions. Courts continue to allow such science produced by expert testimony, albeit, the conclusions are often accepted from the lens of blind acceptance. This is in part, due to the word “expert” implying a specialized area of knowledge and experience often accompanied by complex and confusing explanations. An expert witness or testimony is often a powerful and persuasive tool to juries. Courts remain strict on certain areas of science, such as percentage accuracy of DNA, but remain aloof in others, such as bite-mark analysis or blood spatter. As long as this continues to be used without strict oversight, prosecutors will continue to use this persuasive piece of evidence.

Bergius et al., (2020) reports the current literature highlights how legally irrelevant factors affects legal decision-making. Defendant characteristics discussed in court may be disclosed under the guise of providing the jury with understanding the accused and how it relates to the crime itself. For Rea, age, gender, child custody and personal history were weaponized by the prosecution inciting feelings of repulsion, anger, and blame towards the defendant. Testimony from the defendant’s ex-husband included false claims of Rea debating abortion, further provoking these feelings from the jury. Furthermore, the prosecution covertly stated that the motive may be rooted in vengeful feelings due to custody rulings leaving Rea with weekend visitation. Furthermore, neighbors reported observing the defendant behaving coldly, stating they had not witnessed her crying in the immediate aftermath of the attack (Colloff, 2018). The jury’s belief was promoted and facilitated by the prosecutions weaponization of assumptions of mothering, a gender bias. Gender bias enables the phenomenon of tunnel vision.
Findley & Scott, (2006) define tunnel vision as tendencies that focus on one conclusion and behaving in ways that uphold the belief the single conclusion is true, and dismissing other information that may prove otherwise. The rigid belief the single conclusion is correct intensifies as time passes, with an increasing investment in ensuring all factors support the tunnel vision agenda. A primary repercussion of tunnel vision is investigation negligence as failure to incorporate evidence that suggests innocence is dismissed or invalidated or explained away.

Literature on wrongful conviction have begun to theorize the significant role of tunnel vision in cases involving woman. Rea is just one of many women who have been found guilty on the premise of defamed character narration using gender, age, race and many others to support the prosecutions story (Webster & Miller, 2015). This appears in People v. Harris (2009) an African American woman was found guilty of first-degree murder of her child, and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Similarly to Rea, Harris’ case involved gender bias, misconduct and a coerced false confession, attributed to tunnel vision. Moreover, criminal justice professionals use their tunnel vision to hone in on a mother and readily assert blame, even in scenarios when the actual offender confesses to the crime, as in Rea’s and Harris’ case when the truthful confession was labeled as “fake”. Morgan (2021) supports this notion by explaining investigators or prosecutors may discount or ignore exculpatory forensic results due to their own biases, such as the interpretation of blood patterns to support their own theory, not in search of objective search. Analysis of misuse of information, unsupported data, bias, mishandling and dismissal of evidence, tunnel vision and inability to change on a systemic level indicate the need for further research based on the ethical decision-making model of the basis of our Constitution.


References

Bergius, M., Ernberg, E., Dahlman, C., & Sarwar, F. (2020). Are judges influenced by legally irrelevant circumstances? Law, Probability and Risk, 19(2), 157–164. https://doi.org/10.1093/lpr/mgaa008

Bureau of Justice Statistics. (n.d.). Violent crime.https://bjs.ojp.gov/topics/crime/violent-crime

Colloff, P. (2018). Bloodstain analysis convinced a jury she stabbed her 10-year-old son. now, even freedom can’t give her back her life. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/bloodstain-pattern-analysis-jury-wrongful-conviction-acquitted-exonerated

Findley & Scott. (2006). The Multiple Dimensions of Tunnel Vision in Criminal Cases, WIS. L. REV. 291, 292

Hicklin, R. A., Winer, K. R., Kish, P. E., Parks, C. L., Chapman, W., Dunagan, K., Richetelli, N., Epstein, E. G., Ausdemore, M. A., & Busey, T. A. (2021). Accuracy and reproducibility of conclusions by forensic bloodstain pattern analysts. Forensic Science International, 325, 110856. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2021.110856

Irazola, S., Williamson, E., Stricker, J., & Niedzwiecki, E. (2014, October 1). Addressing the impact of wrongful convictions on crime victimsLinks to an external site.. National Institute of Justice. https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/addressing-impact-wrongful-convictions-crime-victims

Justice Management Division., Organization, mission, and functions manual (2000). Washington, D.C.; U.S. Dept. of Justice, Justice Management Division, Management and Planning Staff.
Morgan, J. (2021). Understanding claims of false of misleading evidence: Revelations from the analysis of exoneration cases and implications for forensic science testimony and Communications. Forensic Science International: Synergy, 3, 100186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsisyn.2021.100186

Webster, E., & Miller, J. (2015). Gendering and racing wrongful conviction.https://www.albanylawreview.org/api/v1/articles/70050-gendering-and-racing-wrongful-conviction-intersectionality-normal-crimes-and-women-s-experiences-of-miscarriage-of-justice.pdf

03/13/2024

Exposure to Community Violence and the Trajectory of Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms in a Sample of Low-Income Urban Youth

Taylor, J. J., Grant, K. E., Zulauf, C. A., Fowler, P. J., Meyerson, D. A., & Irsheid, S. (2018). Exposure to Community Violence and the Trajectory of Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms in a Sample of Low-Income Urban Youth. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 47(3), 421–435.

03/13/2024

Peer-Reviewed Public Education on Mass Shootings in Schools

Contrary to popular belief, mass shootings are rare events, making up less than 1% of all violent crimes in the United States, mass murders, including school shootings (Cornell, 2017). Statistically, you are significantly more likely to die of being hit by a drunk driver. In short, the media is a primary source of overstating school violence in comparison to the actual prevalence of the crime. The news media continually perpetuates false narratives, seeking to capitalize on primal emotions. Song (2013) said it too perfectly not to directly quote; “reacting is considered the ‘cheapest expression people can afford,’ involving lower cognitive energy”. Choi et al., (2021) builds on this by explaining media that requires more cognitive thought, critical thinking is low-arousal emotion which incites contemplation, as opposed to highly arousing content that produces instant responses.

The causes of school shootings are extremely complex with numerous factors contributing to the crime, and so far, we haven’t been able to calculate enough data to create statistically significant correlations for year over year data (Hurst, 2005). Therefore, we simply don’t have the numbers or data to highlight in news media coverage, such as characteristics or behaviors that are pointed and correlated factors to the shootings themselves. Columbine was a salient example of extensive, pervasive, relentless news media coverage that ultimately had two outcomes: emphasis on the death count and increasing notoriety of the shooters. Media coverage of mass shootings includes not only daily news and special reports, but also a host of documentaries about infamous murders. Furthermore, when these events happen, television ratings and newspaper readership surge. For example, 68% of adults surveyed by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (1999) indicated that they paid close attention to coverage of the Columbine shootings as it unfolded.

This coverage obsessively covers details over the shooter’s information and has the opposite effect of making events known for the purpose of accurate information. This distorted version of news that was once intended make dangers known to the viewer has become about the perpetrator that provokes a perverted version of fame, notoriety and the pop culture of murder (Lankford & Madfis, 2018).

The unintended outcome emphasizes what a would-be perpetrator could potentially expect if one decided to commit a mass crime. Nikolas Cruz stated” “I am going to be the next school shooter of 2018. My goal is at least 20 people.” “When you see me on the news, you’ll all know who I am”. “You’re all going to die.” “I am nothing. I am no one, my life is nothing and meaningless,” he said. “With the power of the A.R., you will know who I am.” Data, facts, statistics aside, it is clear within these messages from a forensic psychological perspective, that the anticipated outcome was news media coverage and expressing an image to the public.
People observe the coverage, what gets covered and what doesn’t. He made a point to self-document his logic and plans knowing these would be published across newspapers, television, YouTube, all forms of social media and played in court publicly. He was less concerned with punishment and more concerned with notoriety. “The next school shooter of 2018” is a declaration statement and claiming ownership of the next big name in crime. His appearance was meticulously created to fit what the stereotype of a mass killer would be. His psychiatric interview revealed (in my interpretation) that he wanted to be known for being “smart” and calculated, which directly opposes the opinions that have been placed on him by his own self-report, including his tiring of being called “dumb” and “stupid” and in the most extreme effort possible, chose to utilize a mass shooting to “prove them all wrong”. Cruz was angry, and hopeless, and isolated, and had zero skills to navigate the stress and strain of life.

The stereotypes of school violence perpetrators does not exist. The public can guess or make assumptions based on loosely defined characteristics, but there is not streamlined profile that exists. If it did, the federal government would likely be able to predict these crimes much more accurately. Truthfully, some had psychosis, schizophrenia, paranoid schizophrenia, emotional and social issues, developmental issues, were of a range of ages, range of weapons, range of populations, and by the media stereotyping “one kind of perpetrator”, they are inadvertently sending mixed messages to the public of what they should be aware of, which is likely not in any way connected to the actual profile of a criminal. “The public behavior of relying on and using the media to obtain specific information to meet individuals’ diversified information needs is defined as media consumption by some researchers” (Intravia et al. 2017). Remember when the U.S thought serial killers were only creepy, deranged, ugly, clearly identifiable criminals with a lengthy history of violence? I do. Then Ted Bundy came around and shocked the world that he was approachable, friendly, “good-looking”, and personable? Well, something to reflect on given the circumstances we are placed in today regarding school violence.

Thanks for reading,
Chi'anne Brieske

References

Bushman, B. J., Calvert, S. L., Dredze, M., Jablonski, N. G., Morrill, C., Romer, D., Newman, K., Downey, G., Gottfredson, M., Masten, A. S., Neill, D. B., & Webster, D. W. (2016). Youth violence: What we know and what we need to knowLinks to an external site.. American Psychologist, 71(1), 17–39.http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-a0039687.pdf

Choi, J., Lee, S. Y., & Ji, S. W. (2021). Engagement in Emotional News on Social Media: Intensity and Type of Emotions. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 98(4), 1017–1040. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699020959718

Fox, J. A., Gerdes, M., Duwe, G., & Rocque, M. (2021). The newsworthiness of mass public shootings: What factors impact the extent of coverage?Links to an external site. Homicide Studies, 25(3), 239–255. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767920974412

Niu, C., Jiang, Z., Liu, H., Yang, K., Song, X., & Li, Z. (2022). The influence of media consumption on public risk perception: A meta-analysisLinks to an external site.. Journal of Risk Research, 25(1), 21–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1819385

(2020). The influence of media consumption on public risk perception: a meta-analysis. Journal of Risk Research. Ahead of Print.