The devil's in the details: Measuring mass violence

Abstract

Florida. Her research on lethal and non-lethal violence spans three decades with work on homicide examining topics including but not limited to lynching, domestic violence, regional variations, transportation effects on lethality, human trafficking, and more recently mass murder. Dr. Huff-Corzine's publications are normally the result of working closely with colleagues and can be found in edited collections as well as journals such as Homicide Studies, Justice Quarterly, Violence and Victims, Social Forces, Victims and Offenders, Criminology, and Deviant Behavior. Professor Jay Corzine's academic career has spanned two universities; the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1978 to 1996 and the University of Central Florida (UCF) since 1996. His research focuses on violent crime, with specific interests including the impact of transportation routes on homicide and robbery, human trafficking, mass victimization incidents, the lethality of types of firearms, risk factors for assaults on police officers, and the influences of medical resources on lethality. He has published in numerous journals, including Criminology, Violence and Victims, Victims and Offenders, Homicide Studies, Deviant Behavior, and Justice Research and Policy.

Self-Protection versus Fear of Stricter Firearm Regulations: Examining the Drivers of Firearm Acquisitions in the Aftermath of a Mass Shooting

“… 32 We should also mention that a universal definition of mass shootings has yet to be accepted by the community; even the number of victims used in defining the event may vary across databases. 33 Third, firearm acquisition is inferred through the number of background checks, which does not reflect all purchases (illegal and legal). 6 Finally, the assessment of media output is limited to articles appearing in newspapers, without accounting for the process of active information seeking by the public that could offer insight into the potential influence of the event.…”

Policy recommendations for countering mass shootings in the United States

“…There is currently no official, national data system that tracks mass casualty incidents, defined broadly to include both mass killing and mass injury incidents, or that provides sufficient information on these incidents and actors to support in‐depth research and evaluation (Huff‐Corzine & Corzine, , this issue; also see Duwe, ). We therefore recommend that the federal government direct and fund the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and/or other appropriate federal agencies, to track mass violence events formally using government and other sources.…”

Mass violence planned as ultimate leisure experience? Four diverse cases

“…In contrast to serial murder, where an offender kills multiple individuals in separate events (often for personal gratification), mass murder typically involves the killing of multiple individuals in the same event often based on one or more underlying motivations of revenge, power, loyalty, terror, or profit [13]. More recently, the terms mass violence and mass shootings are being increasingly applied by experts (in contrast to mass murder ), as a way of encompassing a broader range of extremely violent events that focus on multiple victims, both fatal and nonfatal, rather than fatalities only [14]. Important dimensions of mass violence include number of victims, location (public vs private or residential), timing of incident(s), weapon(s) used, victim characteristics, victim‐offender relationships, and motive [14].…”

“…Important dimensions of mass violence include number of victims, location (public vs private or residential), timing of incident(s), weapon(s) used, victim characteristics, victim-offender relationships, and motive [14]. Differences in one or more of these dimensions are used to classify various types of mass violence, including private murders, such as killing spouses and/or family members, and public violence, including school shootings, disgruntled employees seeking revenge, and ideologically motivated killings [15].…”

“…There is always substantial missing information concerning important psychological variables (i.e., motive, planning, emotional states) in such cases that may never be known. Second, although personal gratification appears to be a common primary motive for serial homicide [9][10][11][12] primary motives of mass violence, such as revenge, power, loyalty, terror, or profit, [13] are particularly varied depending on the type and target of violence [13][14][15] .…”