Mass Shooting Films: Myths, Academic Knowledge, and Popular Criminology

Abstract

This study compares cinematic constructions of mass shooting perpetrators, victims, and social factors against academic knowledge and news media to determine how films perpetuate myths, reinforce academic knowledge, and act as a source of popular criminology. Cinematic findings highlight perpetrators as young, White, school shooters, and motivation types including fameseeking and defeated by society. Films construct diverse forms of victimization involving direct victims, indirect victims, and perpetrators as victims. Finally, movies emphasize sensational news media coverage as a contributing social factor. Implications of these findings suggest films blend with news media misconceptions and perpetuate myths that reinforce stereotypes of criminality, cause people to overlook warnings, and increase perceptions of risk. Despite this, they reflect academic knowledge by conveying nuanced perpetrator motivations and the news media's contribution to the phenomenon. They also provide a source of popular criminology by illustrating the public's fascination with violence and the emotional dynamics of victimization.

Twenty years later: The Federal Assault Weapons Ban curtailed public mass shootings (Preprint)

“…The adoption of new media continued to expand substantially after the legislation expired [102,103]. This shift may be important because the internet is a likely conduit for mass shooters to become famous through additional mass communication channels, research and emulate prior events, connect to other extremist individuals, and learn how to plan attacks [91,[104][105][106]. This study cannot identify the extent to which internet usage contributed to the growth in mass shootings after 2004.…”

Study 1: 630 Domestic-Terrorist, Mass-Murdering, Spree-Shooters Differ from 623 Controls and Study 2: 15 Domestic-Terrorist, Mass-Murdering, Spree-Shooters Differ From 23 Homicidal and 36 Controls on the Standard Predictor of Violence Potential and the MMPI-2/A: Implications Are to Use Computer Tests and Machine Learning Equations

“…Workplace-shooters, at homes or residential, government, closed or open to pedestrian traffic, medical offices, military bases, or other, occur more frequently, killing, injuring, and costing more. Relying Only on Open-Source Media Records for Active-shooters May Be Biased and Error-Prone Silva (2019) studied the accuracy of the media reports on spree-shooters with bivariate analyses (i.e., crosstabs) of media coverage/frames by shooting characteristics used to determine the perpetrator, motivation, and incident characteristics that receive more coverage. These analyses address the media newsworthiness and framing hypotheses, specifically, the significance of characteristics influencing coverage.…”

16-Questions to Find Domestic-Terrorists, Mass-Murderers, Spree-Shooters, With a Study-1: 370-Workplace-Shooters vs. 370-Controls, and a Study-2: 9-Adult-Shooters With 12-Homicidal and 24-Controls Rated on the Ask Standard Predictor of Violence Potential-Adult Version and the MMPI-2: Implications Are to Use Computer-Tests and Machine-Learning-Equations to Lower Insurance Premiums and Prevent Church Bankruptcy

“…There are double the workplace-shooters, dead and injured, and likely a more reliable, sensitive, specific, valid estimate of domestic-terrorist, mass-murdering, workplace-shooters due to relying on multiple sources of data in medical, police, press, workplace and work records vs. the FBI reliance on press records only (FBI, 2021).Using 370 workplace-shooter data, that includes more characteristics in 9 categories (demographics, health, mental health, education, employment, warning signs, abuse and criminal history, crime scene, and crime method), with the additional advantage of a more thorough record inclusion and a control group, making this data consistent with a more representative sample. Media FBI Active-Shooter Data + Workplace-Shooter Media-Medical-Police-School-Work Data Silva (2019) studies the accuracy of media reports on workplace-shooters with bivariate analyses (i.e. cross-tabs) of media coverage/frames by mass shooting characteristics used to determine the perpetrator, motivation, and incident characteristics that receive more coverage.…”