Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Criminal behavior, Prediction of; School shootings; Violence--Forecasting; Academic theses;
Abstract
Violent crimes committed by youth in their school environments have been a focus of concern in recent years. Since the tragedy at Columbine High School and the subsequent copycat efforts many questions have been raised by the public regarding how and why these school shootings occurred. In response to these questions, the Federal Bureau of Investigation produced a report listing 46 characteristics from four main categories (Personality Traits and Behavior, Family Dynamics, School Dynamics, and Social Dynamics) that they determined to be common characteristics of school shooters. However, since school shootings occur so rarely there is no completely accurate way to predict such behavior because even if an individual possessed many of these characteristics, there is still a very low likelihood that he/she would actually commit this violent act. The present study used a three questionnaire battery to examine how the FBI characteristics attributed to school shooters differ from characteristics of individuals who commit less violent acts in the school setting (physical fights, destruction of property, etc.). The first questionnaire used was the survey of juvenile activities which was developed for this study using the FBI characteristics of school shooters. The survey was compared with two other questionnaires that were designed to assess less extreme acts of school violence (Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and Multidimensional School Anger Inventory (MSAI)). The current study was conducted using 18 and 19 year-old individuals from the University of Northern Iowa. Data are discussed in terms of characteristics that differentiate individuals who commit school shootings from those who commit less severe violent acts.
Year of Submission
2006
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Psychology
First Advisor
M. Kimberly MacLin
Second Advisor
Joshua Susskind
Third Advisor
John Eustis Williams
Date Original
2006
Object Description
1 PDF file (128 leaves)
Copyright
©2006 Elizabeth Ruth Strey Christenson
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Christenson, Elizabeth Ruth Strey, "Links Between Late Adolescents’ Tendency for Mild to Moderate Violence and School Shooters" (2006). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2347.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2347
Comments
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