Jokela: The Social Roots of a School Shooting Tragedy in Finland

Oksanen, Atte; Nurmi, Johanna; Vuori, Miika; Räsänen, Pekka

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-5526-4_9

Cited by 26 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Not least because two major school shootings have taken place in Finland (in 2007 and 2008). These two massacres represent only the most visible form of school violence, as individual killings and near-fatal stabbings have also taken place in Finnish schools [8]. Guns are also involved in adolescent suicides.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weapon carrying and psychopathic-like features in a population-based sample of Finnish adolescents

Saukkonen

Laajasalo

Jokela

et al. 2015

Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry

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We investigated the prevalence of juvenile weapon carrying and psychosocial and personality-related risk factors for carrying different types of weapons in a nationally representative, population-based sample of Finnish adolescents. Specifically, we aimed to investigate psychopathic-like personality features as a risk factor for weapon carrying. The participants were 15-16-year-old adolescents from the Finnish self-report delinquency study (n = 4855). Four different groups were formed based on self-reported weapon carrying: no weapon carrying, carrying knife, gun or other weapon. The associations between psychosocial factors, psychopathic-like features and weapon carrying were examined with multinomial logistic regression analysis. 9% of the participants had carried a weapon in the past 12 months. Adolescents with a history of delinquency, victimization and antisocial friends were more likely to carry weapons in general; however, delinquency and victimization were most strongly related to gun carrying, while perceived peer delinquency (antisocial friends) was most strongly related to carrying a knife. Better academic performance was associated with a reduced likelihood of carrying a gun and knife, while feeling secure correlated with a reduced likelihood of gun carrying only. Psychopathic-like features were related to a higher likelihood of weapon carrying, even after adjusting for other risk factors. The findings of the study suggest that adolescents carrying a weapon have a large cluster of problems in their lives, which may vary based on the type of weapon carried. Furthermore, psychopathic-like features strongly relate to a higher risk of carrying a weapon.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weapon carrying and psychopathic-like features in a population-based sample of Finnish adolescents

Saukkonen

Laajasalo

Jokela

et al. 2015

Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry

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show abstract

“…The downward spiral has been demonstrated in school shooter cases, where the perpetrator was originally faced with problems in the online context only to become fixated with revenge on others. However, aggressors have often been unable to find support for their plans in the offline setting, and this drives them to become tremendously active online in order to search for validation there (Oksanen, Nurmi, Vuori & Räsänen, 2013;Sandberg, Oksanen, Berntzen & Kiilakoski, 2014).…”

Section: The Downward Spiral Of Negative Online Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Online Hate and Harmful Content

Keipi¹,

Näsi²,

Oksanen³

et al. 2016

Self Cite

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“…Thus, even a deep interest in the school shootings does not straightforwardly or inevitably make one a potential school shooter. Yet, one's focus and level of interest in school shootings can change over time and could become more severe (Oksanen et al 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…School shooters have actively used online sources, as has been noted in studies focusing on the perpetrators (Oksanen, Nurmi, Vuori, & Räsänen, 2013;Sandberg et al, 2014). Fewer studies have investigated the broader online community's ties to the phenomenon; to our knowledge, no researchers have closely studied the interlinkage of the media and the people who have deep interests in school shootings.…”

Section: School Shootings and Online Subculturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Online Subculture Surrounding School Shootings

Raitanen

Oksanen

2018

American Behavioral Scientist

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This study is grounded in extensive online ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with 22 people who expressed a deep interest in school shootings. Such people form a global online subculture; they share common interests and find the same cultural objects important. Media accounts of school shootings have fueled this subculture; its members participate in the recreation and circulation of online media content and give new meanings to that content. We found that people deeply interested in school shootings do not form a homogenous group, and they are divided to four subgroups within the subculture based on members' focus and interest: researchers, fan girls, Columbiners and copycats. Out of these, copycats are the only subgroup explicitly interested in replicating the acts, although subgroup membership can overlap, and members can move from one subgroup to another. Beyond copycats, other subgroups also participate in giving perpetrators fame and circulate reasons for the shootings. These accounts may influence future perpetrators.

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Jokela: The Social Roots of a School Shooting Tragedy in Finland

Cited by 26 publications

References 31 publications

Weapon carrying and psychopathic-like features in a population-based sample of Finnish adolescents

Weapon carrying and psychopathic-like features in a population-based sample of Finnish adolescents

Online Hate and Harmful Content

Global Online Subculture Surrounding School Shootings

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