Kill one or kill them all? Differences between single and multiple victim school attacks

Abstract

Research indicates individual pathways towards school attacks and inconsistent offender profiles. Thus, several authors have classified offenders according to mental disorders, motives, or number/kinds of victims. We assumed differences between single and multiple victim offenders (intending to kill one or more than one victim). In qualitative and quantitative analyses of data from qualitative content analyses of case files on seven school attacks in Germany, we found differences between the offender groups in seriousness, patterns, characteristics, and classes of leaking (announcements of offences), offence-related behaviour, and offence characteristics. There were only minor differences in risk factors. Our research thus adds to the understanding of school attacks and leaking. Differences between offender groups require consideration in the planning of effective preventive approaches.

Prevention of Targeted School Violence by Responding to Students' Psychosocial Crises: The NETWASS Program

“…Bondü, Cornell, & Scheithauer, ). School shootings or school attacks can be defined as planned violent acts at school by current or former students who intend to kill at least one person associated with the school (Bondü & Scheithauer, , ). Dramatic cases in Germany (e.g., in in Erfurt; in 2009 in Winnenden) have generated great public concern.…”

Two of a Kind? Differences and Similarities of Attacks in Schools and in Institutes of Higher Education

“…For example, as with the IHE offenders in the present sample, multiple victim offenders were older than the single victim offenders, used weapons more frequently, succeeded in killing larger numbers of persons, and committed suicide more often (Bondü & Scheithauer, 2014). A recent study yielded evidence that single and multiple victim school offenders differed mainly in their motives for the offenses and offense behaviors, but less with regard to risk factors.…”

“…Further considerations can account for these differences: About half of the offenders in schools aimed at only one specific person (single victim offenders) and terminated their offense after trying to reach this aim (Bondü, 2012;Bondü & Scheithauer, 2014). Both groups of offenses resembled each other in the number of wounded victims, but on average, IHE attacks claimed twice as many dead victims as school attacks.…”

“…The difference might also be accounted for by higher rates of mental disorders, especially depressive symptoms, in older offenders (Newman & Fox, 2009). Finally, offenders' suicide has been shown to be more frequent in multiple victim offenders (Bondü & Scheithauer, 2014), which were more common in IHE settings than in schools. Finally, offenders' suicide has been shown to be more frequent in multiple victim offenders (Bondü & Scheithauer, 2014), which were more common in IHE settings than in schools.…”

Narcissistic Symptoms in German School Shooters

“…Thus, we took a somewhat conservative approach to the evaluation and entering of data (e.g., if there was no report that a sense of entitlement was lacking in the subject, the information was treated as missing, even if there was no evidence, either, that a strong sense of entitlement was present). Information was then dichotomized, based on whether there was evidence for the presence or absence of a characteristic (see Bondü, 2012 andBondü &Scheithauer, 2014, for more details on proceedings). The first author analyzed five files by herself.…”