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School Shooters: Understanding High School, College, and Adult Perpetrators
School shootings scare everyone, even those not immediately affected. They make national and international news. They make parents afraid to send their children off to school. But they also lead to generalizations about those who perpetrate them. Most assumptions about the perpetrators are wrong and many of the warning signs are missed until it’s too late. Here, Peter Langman takes a look at 48 national and international cases of school shootings in order to dispel the myths, explore the motives, and expose the realities of preventing school shootings from happening in the future, including identifying at risk individuals and helping them to seek help before it’s too late.
214 pages, Hardcover
First published January 15, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 12, 2019
Unfortunately, we had a mass shooting in my community last year and the level of fear and loss permeated every person in our area to their core. It seemed no one was immune to the raw grief and rage it produced. I wanted to do some reading on the subject and I picked a serious and thoughtful book. It is written by Dr. Peter Langman, who is one of the leading experts in the psychology of school shooters. He also worked in a psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents and dealt with children and teens who were at risk.
The two anguished questions we asked were why and could this have been prevented? Since our children have become so vulnerable at any school, what are parents suppose to look for as warning signs? At my kids high school, there was an armed guard present for protection. This book looks at Columbine, Sandy Hook and forty-six other school shootings.
The author writes that there is a pattern and the shooters fall into three categories: the angry psychopathic personality (Columbine shooter Eric Harris) who has no conscience and extreme narcissism. The second is the psychotic shooter (Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho) who is suffering from schizophrenia, who has delusions and hallucinations and the third type is the traumatized shooter, kids from extremely dysfunctional backgrounds who suffered physical, sexual and mental abuse.
In the book, he discusses that being bullied at school is not as much a driving factor as society thinks. Of the forty-eight shooters, he profiles in his book, only one of them targeted a bully who picked on him. They do seek revenge and the most common targets are teachers or school administrators who failed or expelled them. Next target was girls who rejected or broke up with them.
According to the author, when looking for warning signs, it really comes down to “attack related behavior” such as stock piling weapons and talking / trying to recruit friends or even warning them to stay away from school on a certain day. In the Columbine shootings, both kids were building pipe bombs in their basement and the parents of Eric Harris found out. They told him not to do it anymore but did not warn the authorities. In some cases, the parents do see the warning signs but did not understand what their children were planning to do.
Dr. Langman writes that it is important to teach the children at school what to look for because they are the ones who usually have the most information about their peers. Most shooters give some indication and leak their intentions. They want to recruit or brag to their friends what they plan to do or that they are going to be on the news or do something big. Children and teens need to be educated to warn adults about what they are hearing. Most foiled attacks have been stopped because other students reported what they heard to an outsider. Another obstacle is the level of denial by the shooters own parents, friends and teachers. They think it is inconceivable and that the child or teen is just angry/depressed or doesn't really mean it. Parents don't always know their children and their inner lives plus teens can be secretive.
What many shooters do is research previous violent attacks (Eric Harris was fascinated by Adolf Hitler and his killing partner Dylan Klebold with Charles Manson.) They are looking for people to emulate, learn tactics and most attacks are carefully pre-meditated. They are looking for inspiration.
After a school shooting, it is not possible to go back to a normal life after this kind of devastation. It will take years to heal and move on. Communities are often torn apart by the act and may remain divided. The book emphasizes that both parents and the students should come together to bond and recover. Highly recommend and I plan further reading on this subject. Next book is “Far from the Tree” by Andrew Solomon that interviews the parents of Columbine shooter Dylan Klebold. We all need to be carefully educated on this subject. Four stars.
The two anguished questions we asked were why and could this have been prevented? Since our children have become so vulnerable at any school, what are parents suppose to look for as warning signs? At my kids high school, there was an armed guard present for protection. This book looks at Columbine, Sandy Hook and forty-six other school shootings.
The author writes that there is a pattern and the shooters fall into three categories: the angry psychopathic personality (Columbine shooter Eric Harris) who has no conscience and extreme narcissism. The second is the psychotic shooter (Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho) who is suffering from schizophrenia, who has delusions and hallucinations and the third type is the traumatized shooter, kids from extremely dysfunctional backgrounds who suffered physical, sexual and mental abuse.
In the book, he discusses that being bullied at school is not as much a driving factor as society thinks. Of the forty-eight shooters, he profiles in his book, only one of them targeted a bully who picked on him. They do seek revenge and the most common targets are teachers or school administrators who failed or expelled them. Next target was girls who rejected or broke up with them.
According to the author, when looking for warning signs, it really comes down to “attack related behavior” such as stock piling weapons and talking / trying to recruit friends or even warning them to stay away from school on a certain day. In the Columbine shootings, both kids were building pipe bombs in their basement and the parents of Eric Harris found out. They told him not to do it anymore but did not warn the authorities. In some cases, the parents do see the warning signs but did not understand what their children were planning to do.
Dr. Langman writes that it is important to teach the children at school what to look for because they are the ones who usually have the most information about their peers. Most shooters give some indication and leak their intentions. They want to recruit or brag to their friends what they plan to do or that they are going to be on the news or do something big. Children and teens need to be educated to warn adults about what they are hearing. Most foiled attacks have been stopped because other students reported what they heard to an outsider. Another obstacle is the level of denial by the shooters own parents, friends and teachers. They think it is inconceivable and that the child or teen is just angry/depressed or doesn't really mean it. Parents don't always know their children and their inner lives plus teens can be secretive.
What many shooters do is research previous violent attacks (Eric Harris was fascinated by Adolf Hitler and his killing partner Dylan Klebold with Charles Manson.) They are looking for people to emulate, learn tactics and most attacks are carefully pre-meditated. They are looking for inspiration.
After a school shooting, it is not possible to go back to a normal life after this kind of devastation. It will take years to heal and move on. Communities are often torn apart by the act and may remain divided. The book emphasizes that both parents and the students should come together to bond and recover. Highly recommend and I plan further reading on this subject. Next book is “Far from the Tree” by Andrew Solomon that interviews the parents of Columbine shooter Dylan Klebold. We all need to be carefully educated on this subject. Four stars.
June 11, 2018
Peter Langman's School Shooters starts with a series of brief biographies (two to five pages) of 48 school shooters in the US and elsewhere (although primarily in the US). In this initial section, he divided them by age, location of shooting, and type of shooter (e.g. adolescent shooters were described as falling into three categories: psychopaths, psychotics, and traumatized shooters).
Langman argued both "There is no one cause of school shootings, there is no one intervention that will prevent school shootings, and there is no one profile of a school shooter," but identified common patterns that can usefully predict possible shooters (when more than one variable is used): "family members in the military, rejection by the military, family members in education, school problems, and biological challenges."
As Langman observed, most efforts on prevention have focused on what to do when a shooter arrives at school: lockdown, armed guards, arming teachers, etc. He concludes that these "are emergency-response procedures, not prevention." Instead, he recommended an approach that addresses risk factors:
Despite these complaints, I appreciate that Langman used data to draw his conclusions. As this is his second book on shootings, perhaps his next will include a more systematic analysis.
Langman argued both "There is no one cause of school shootings, there is no one intervention that will prevent school shootings, and there is no one profile of a school shooter," but identified common patterns that can usefully predict possible shooters (when more than one variable is used): "family members in the military, rejection by the military, family members in education, school problems, and biological challenges."
As Langman observed, most efforts on prevention have focused on what to do when a shooter arrives at school: lockdown, armed guards, arming teachers, etc. He concludes that these "are emergency-response procedures, not prevention." Instead, he recommended an approach that addresses risk factors:
[by] promoting a positive environment, minimizing peer harassment, and creating a physically and emotionally safe space. At the broader societal level, it means improving child-protective services to minimize child abuse and its damaging effects, as well as expanding mental health services to treat people long before they reach the point of violence.I was frustrated that School Shooters appeared to be unsystematic in its choice of shooters. For example, in the US alone, there were 23 shootings by May 25th of 2018. How were these 48 shooters chosen? How do these choices influence Langman's conclusions? What bias was introduced by his sampling strategy and the small sample size? For example, CNN included shootings (a) that involved at least one person being shot (not including the shooter), (b) that occurred on school grounds, (c) at a school from kindergarten through university, (d) included a range of shootings, including gang violence, fights and domestic violence, and (e) accidental discharge of a firearm when the first two parameters are met. Clearly, different definitions of school shootings could have been used, leading to different conclusions – both by CNN and Langman.
Despite these complaints, I appreciate that Langman used data to draw his conclusions. As this is his second book on shootings, perhaps his next will include a more systematic analysis.
December 17, 2016
4.0/5 stars
Interesting insight into the backgrounds of 48 school shooters from around the world in an attempt to find answers for the atrocities they committed.
Interesting insight into the backgrounds of 48 school shooters from around the world in an attempt to find answers for the atrocities they committed.
September 3, 2018
My thoughts were disjointed while reading this, so I was writing things down as I read and then tried to meld them into a cohesive typed review.
The first thing that stuck out at me is that while this was published in 2015, Langman was working on this in 2012 when the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting occurred. It’s the culmination of years worth of research that he has done not only for this book, but for other books on similar insights. All of it is steeped in the fact that Langman is a psychologist who has been working with school shooters (and potential shooters) since the late ‘90s.
It is surprising just how much has changed in only 3 years too.
In this book, Langman presents 48 cases that allowed for enough description based on available information. He did not personally evaluate any of the perpetrators, which is good in the sense that it means there is no bias, but bad for me personally as a reader. I understand he wrote based on information he could find, but there are a lot of details missing from at least half of the cases. How did the people get inside the school? Did they go to a single classroom, a cafeteria, go down the hallway, or something else? Who was shot? I don’t need names (though some might), nor graphic details (it’s bad enough being given some awful journal/diary/blog/whatever entries), but the roles that injured/dead people played within the school. The reader is given this information for some of the shootings, but definitely not all.
I was actually surprised at the lack of information on the shootings themselves. I would have preferred more--not DETAILS on the carnage, but how the perpetrators got in. How many rooms they went to. Where they went; who talked to them? This is more about the issues that many shooters had/have (including trauma), but as a teacher, I would also like details so that I have a more comprehensive understanding of what to look for.
I wonder what a book would be like without including any psycho_____s.
Figures and tables that are within certain chapters include:
- The average age of the victims based on the age of the perpetrator and how many were killed/wounded.
- The suicide rate of the shooters
- The percentage of shooter types
- Information on issues like peer harassment by type and population, and family involvement at the school.
Langman is very specific to note that some figures are estimates do to clashing information. He is also clear that for each issue he brings up, there are plenty of non-school shooters who fit that bill, and to remember that no shooter can be put in the same ‘box’ as others.
He also is carefully adamant about causes vs. contributing factors of shootings. Too, he does not get political, but instead offers suggestions that can appease anyone hoping to prevent more of these disasters.
“This is not about gun control, but about people doing a better job of securing their firearms.” (Chapter 9)
Still...there are some surface similarities among them that helped Langman unravel others, leading him to include a chapter on how to identify warning signs.
Langman explains his reasoning for placing each person in specific categories, providing more details if it seems he or she belongs to multiple categories:
1. Secondary school shooters (a person connected to a K-12 school)
2. College shooters
3. Aberrant adult shooters (with no connection to the school)
…
1. Psychopathic
2. Psychotic
3. Traumatic
Each section presents the shooters in chronological order. I don’t know if it’s because the profiles are fairly short or if it’s because Langman only provides a small amount of detail, but the book ended up being a fairly fast read. The sections include Secondary of each disorder, College Targeted and Random, and Aberrant Adult
~ I was very surprised to see events from 1966-1990, as if my mind just assumed there was nothing during that time. I was even more surprised to see multiple middle school shootings--and that Sandy Hook was not the first elementary/middle school targeted for a school shooting.
~ It seems as if the middle school in Jonesboro, AR in March 1998 set off a chain reaction.
~ It’s utterly depressing that I saw the number killed in Columbine and thought “that’s it?” Goodness, any number is awful. Then I realized 1. The numbers are different for Harris and Klebod are different meaning 2. It’s worse than I initially thought (and thus was able to placate my memory that this was indeed a larger attack).
~ Langman includes shootings from other countries, including Canada, Germany, Finland, Brazil, and Scotland.
~ It’s telling that a psychopath in Germany worked hard to follow procedures to meet the requirements to purchase a gun, despite the stringent laws. Still….we do indeed need something a bit more stringent in the U.S.
~ The traumatized shooters are SAD. Oh my goodness. My heart breaks for them. Not for what they did, but for their home situations.
~ There is a statement from Gang Lu that really shows how the mind of a psychopath (or most shooters, I’m sure) works: “Privately-owned [sic] guns are the only practical way for individuals/minority to protect them against the oppression from the evil organizations/majority who actually control the government and legal system.” (Chapter 5) It’s eerie.
~ I am shocked that I never heard of (other than in snippets, but I didn’t make the connection) the University of Texas shooting in 1966.
~ Don’t let Trump see this; a lot of the college shootings were done by immigrants.
~ I freaking love that Finland requires gun buyers to be interviewed before purchasing the gun, and then present it to the police.
* Most shooters were bullies, not bullied themselves. And only one targeted a bully.
* School personnel were targeted most often.
“When people talk about peer influence in school shootings, they generally mean bullying. There has been little focus on the supportive role played by the shooters’ friends. In many cases, however, peers supported the violent intentions of shooters. Without such support, it seems likely that some attacks would not have occurred.” (Chapter 8)
The first thing that stuck out at me is that while this was published in 2015, Langman was working on this in 2012 when the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting occurred. It’s the culmination of years worth of research that he has done not only for this book, but for other books on similar insights. All of it is steeped in the fact that Langman is a psychologist who has been working with school shooters (and potential shooters) since the late ‘90s.
It is surprising just how much has changed in only 3 years too.
In this book, Langman presents 48 cases that allowed for enough description based on available information. He did not personally evaluate any of the perpetrators, which is good in the sense that it means there is no bias, but bad for me personally as a reader. I understand he wrote based on information he could find, but there are a lot of details missing from at least half of the cases. How did the people get inside the school? Did they go to a single classroom, a cafeteria, go down the hallway, or something else? Who was shot? I don’t need names (though some might), nor graphic details (it’s bad enough being given some awful journal/diary/blog/whatever entries), but the roles that injured/dead people played within the school. The reader is given this information for some of the shootings, but definitely not all.
I was actually surprised at the lack of information on the shootings themselves. I would have preferred more--not DETAILS on the carnage, but how the perpetrators got in. How many rooms they went to. Where they went; who talked to them? This is more about the issues that many shooters had/have (including trauma), but as a teacher, I would also like details so that I have a more comprehensive understanding of what to look for.
I wonder what a book would be like without including any psycho_____s.
Figures and tables that are within certain chapters include:
- The average age of the victims based on the age of the perpetrator and how many were killed/wounded.
- The suicide rate of the shooters
- The percentage of shooter types
- Information on issues like peer harassment by type and population, and family involvement at the school.
Langman is very specific to note that some figures are estimates do to clashing information. He is also clear that for each issue he brings up, there are plenty of non-school shooters who fit that bill, and to remember that no shooter can be put in the same ‘box’ as others.
He also is carefully adamant about causes vs. contributing factors of shootings. Too, he does not get political, but instead offers suggestions that can appease anyone hoping to prevent more of these disasters.
“This is not about gun control, but about people doing a better job of securing their firearms.” (Chapter 9)
Still...there are some surface similarities among them that helped Langman unravel others, leading him to include a chapter on how to identify warning signs.
Langman explains his reasoning for placing each person in specific categories, providing more details if it seems he or she belongs to multiple categories:
1. Secondary school shooters (a person connected to a K-12 school)
2. College shooters
3. Aberrant adult shooters (with no connection to the school)
…
1. Psychopathic
2. Psychotic
3. Traumatic
Each section presents the shooters in chronological order. I don’t know if it’s because the profiles are fairly short or if it’s because Langman only provides a small amount of detail, but the book ended up being a fairly fast read. The sections include Secondary of each disorder, College Targeted and Random, and Aberrant Adult
~ I was very surprised to see events from 1966-1990, as if my mind just assumed there was nothing during that time. I was even more surprised to see multiple middle school shootings--and that Sandy Hook was not the first elementary/middle school targeted for a school shooting.
~ It seems as if the middle school in Jonesboro, AR in March 1998 set off a chain reaction.
~ It’s utterly depressing that I saw the number killed in Columbine and thought “that’s it?” Goodness, any number is awful. Then I realized 1. The numbers are different for Harris and Klebod are different meaning 2. It’s worse than I initially thought (and thus was able to placate my memory that this was indeed a larger attack).
~ Langman includes shootings from other countries, including Canada, Germany, Finland, Brazil, and Scotland.
~ It’s telling that a psychopath in Germany worked hard to follow procedures to meet the requirements to purchase a gun, despite the stringent laws. Still….we do indeed need something a bit more stringent in the U.S.
~ The traumatized shooters are SAD. Oh my goodness. My heart breaks for them. Not for what they did, but for their home situations.
~ There is a statement from Gang Lu that really shows how the mind of a psychopath (or most shooters, I’m sure) works: “Privately-owned [sic] guns are the only practical way for individuals/minority to protect them against the oppression from the evil organizations/majority who actually control the government and legal system.” (Chapter 5) It’s eerie.
~ I am shocked that I never heard of (other than in snippets, but I didn’t make the connection) the University of Texas shooting in 1966.
~ Don’t let Trump see this; a lot of the college shootings were done by immigrants.
~ I freaking love that Finland requires gun buyers to be interviewed before purchasing the gun, and then present it to the police.
* Most shooters were bullies, not bullied themselves. And only one targeted a bully.
* School personnel were targeted most often.
“When people talk about peer influence in school shootings, they generally mean bullying. There has been little focus on the supportive role played by the shooters’ friends. In many cases, however, peers supported the violent intentions of shooters. Without such support, it seems likely that some attacks would not have occurred.” (Chapter 8)
Read
February 3, 2015I work in a school and I know the chances of something like a school shooting happening to me are remote, but it is still a topic that worries me. I thought that this book did a great job of showing how many of the shooters lived in difficult situations and experienced abuse and neglect as well as the results of poverty. Some of them are psychotic (as in, out of touch with reality), and some are essentially narcissists or what we might call sociopaths who don't experience empathy. Seeing that there isn't a clear pattern actually made me feel safer, because the training we receive at school has taught us some of the warning signs. I appreciated the brief overview of each shooter that did not emphasize the crime in detail and instead focused on their background and the possible causes of each shooting. It wasn't light reading, but it was helpful to me.
January 19, 2022
I would recommend though this is not as good as Langmans other book, why kids kill. It felt more of a list of shooters personality traits and is at points very subjective. It is not fact that all of the shooters were psychopaths, schizophrenic etc but only showed traits.
Additionally, Langman notes that we all look for patterns. However, correlation vs causation is a tricky subject. There are some very interesting chapters but for the most part I didn't enjoy this book as much.
One further point is that Langman states that those who have been sexually abused often go on to abuse themselves. This is absolutely NOT true (I work with SO's) and it is often a small percentage who do.
Additionally, Langman notes that we all look for patterns. However, correlation vs causation is a tricky subject. There are some very interesting chapters but for the most part I didn't enjoy this book as much.
One further point is that Langman states that those who have been sexually abused often go on to abuse themselves. This is absolutely NOT true (I work with SO's) and it is often a small percentage who do.
November 29, 2018
To be fair, I really found this book interesting, especially the categorising aspect of it. If you are more into entertaining reads, this book probably isn't for you, but it is very factual and quite appealing to people with an analytical mindset.
April 5, 2016
This Book Help me so much for my master
July 8, 2017
This book deals with more school shooters than Kids Who Kill. In each case, the author gives whatever information there is about the background and family of the shooter and the details of the shooting to classify the type of shooter. Dr. Langman divides the shooter into three catagories; psychopathic, psychotic and traumatized. In some cases, especially where there has been abuse, trauma, and a chaotic background the shooter will have a different mental state than a person who is psychotic or schizophrenic and a person who is psychopathic will be different from either. In some cases, a shooter may be a combination of mental traits, but will still have one major diagnosis will present differently.
I read this book and Kids who Kill after reading A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold, mother of one of the Columbine shooters. That book was heartbreaking to read and I wanted to better understand why some kids get to the point of killing their classmates and/or teachers. While I learned a lot, I still didn't come up with the answers I was looking for. When you hear about a school shooting, the immediate reactions is anger towards the shooter and a desire to try the juveniles as adults and give them a life sentence. This is especially true when the shooters are from seemingly good homes and enjoy many advantages.
There is also the tendency to want to punish the parents of these kids, but when you look further, as with Dylan Kelbold & Eric Harris, you sometimes find that the parents have been concerned about their children and have tried to raise them with love and discipline. In many cases, the parents are desperate to find answers but nothings works. In some cases, the child has been able to successfully hide the seriousness of their problems.
I found myself as confused when I finished all three of these books as I was to begin with. There is one category of shooter, the traumatized individual, whose home situation is filled with abuse, neglect, substance abuse, abandonment, and loss where the parents are to blame, but when you look into their background, they were often victims themselves.
The psychotic individuals are what we generally think of when we say that someone is insane. It is hard to justify putting a person in jail for life because he is schizophrenic, but even that is difficult to sort out. A number of mental illnesses become active when the patient is in their late teens or early 20s. The school shooting may be the first hard evidence of a mental problem.
The psychopath is probably the easiest to qualify for the feelings of revenge that most people feel when something catastrophic has happened. This includes people like Eric Harris and Andrew Golden. They are frequently narcissistic and often have no empathy, guilt or remorse. They are also clearly a danger to the community and should not be released, but most professionals believe that these people are born that way and there is little chance that they will change. So, you are locking up someone who had little choice in the matter.
Obviously, society has to be protected from these individuals. No matter what the source of their problem, they can't be released back into the population when they still have the potential to murder again. It may not seem fair, but it certainly would not be fair to innocent people who might cross their path if they were released.
I did feel that this book and the others I read help to understand students who are in need of help. It would be very useful for teachers and administrators as well as parents who are struggling to understand the changes in a child. There are definite signs to look out for and there are things that can be done to minimize the risk to students.
I read this book and Kids who Kill after reading A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold, mother of one of the Columbine shooters. That book was heartbreaking to read and I wanted to better understand why some kids get to the point of killing their classmates and/or teachers. While I learned a lot, I still didn't come up with the answers I was looking for. When you hear about a school shooting, the immediate reactions is anger towards the shooter and a desire to try the juveniles as adults and give them a life sentence. This is especially true when the shooters are from seemingly good homes and enjoy many advantages.
There is also the tendency to want to punish the parents of these kids, but when you look further, as with Dylan Kelbold & Eric Harris, you sometimes find that the parents have been concerned about their children and have tried to raise them with love and discipline. In many cases, the parents are desperate to find answers but nothings works. In some cases, the child has been able to successfully hide the seriousness of their problems.
I found myself as confused when I finished all three of these books as I was to begin with. There is one category of shooter, the traumatized individual, whose home situation is filled with abuse, neglect, substance abuse, abandonment, and loss where the parents are to blame, but when you look into their background, they were often victims themselves.
The psychotic individuals are what we generally think of when we say that someone is insane. It is hard to justify putting a person in jail for life because he is schizophrenic, but even that is difficult to sort out. A number of mental illnesses become active when the patient is in their late teens or early 20s. The school shooting may be the first hard evidence of a mental problem.
The psychopath is probably the easiest to qualify for the feelings of revenge that most people feel when something catastrophic has happened. This includes people like Eric Harris and Andrew Golden. They are frequently narcissistic and often have no empathy, guilt or remorse. They are also clearly a danger to the community and should not be released, but most professionals believe that these people are born that way and there is little chance that they will change. So, you are locking up someone who had little choice in the matter.
Obviously, society has to be protected from these individuals. No matter what the source of their problem, they can't be released back into the population when they still have the potential to murder again. It may not seem fair, but it certainly would not be fair to innocent people who might cross their path if they were released.
I did feel that this book and the others I read help to understand students who are in need of help. It would be very useful for teachers and administrators as well as parents who are struggling to understand the changes in a child. There are definite signs to look out for and there are things that can be done to minimize the risk to students.
April 9, 2023
I thought this book was an okay overview of school shooters - definitely a good starting place if you want to hear about many cases. I also liked the addition of international school shootings rather than focusing exclusively on the USA. The organization of the book was good, even if the dissection sections could get a little repetitive, there was still enough new information to make it worth reading.
I also appreciated how there wasn't a gratuitous depiction of the wounds/injuries. This is an academic discussion.
I also appreciated how there wasn't a gratuitous depiction of the wounds/injuries. This is an academic discussion.
Read
June 3, 2019Books like this I kinda feel like they’re unrateable due to the content and the fact that I read it for my own educational purposes. It was however a very good resource for learning about the nature of various school shooting incidents and the different kinds of people that may commit these crimes, as well as how best to prevent and detect violence.
June 11, 2018
Quiet good and very thorough. Gave me some insight that I hadnt had before
A very good informative read. I also enjoyed his other books as well. If you are reading more on the subject both Newtown and Columbine offer more.
A very good informative read. I also enjoyed his other books as well. If you are reading more on the subject both Newtown and Columbine offer more.
February 6, 2019
I appreciate what Langman attempts to do by creating types and finding patterns. Mass shootings are incredibly scary. Respectable information that sheds lights on this epidemic and builds awareness in the name of prevention is vital.
February 14, 2019
Amazing research on 40+ school shooters. Langman concludes there is no single profile of a school shooter. Based on his profiles, I believe they all have one thing in common: lack of self worth. If we start there with all kids, we can turn this epidemic around. That and sensible gun policy.
June 19, 2021
This is an interesting exploration into schoolers and the factors that cause shootings.
June 30, 2023
Difficult content, but incredibly well-researched and informative.
August 24, 2017
http://literary-lion.tumblr.com/
Langman examines 48 different perpetrators and analyzes their mental state as well as the events and actions leading up to their attack. While comparing and contrasting different attackers Langman also offers insight on how such attacks could be prevented.
Langman covers a large number of shooters in order to have a large and diverse sample to work with. It does feel as though this forces him to avoid giving any case too much depth. There are cases that have much less information released but are given the same number of pages as attacks with many more documents released to the public.
Langman’s description of events, environment and social situations are thorough. However, his descriptions of the actual attacks are often very brief, in fact, sometimes the attack itself is barely touched upon. It feels strange to describe home lives of the attackers as in depth as possible but then give a single sentence to their actions during their actual rampage - it seems like a person’s actions during an attack should be crucial when determining their mental state.
Langman offers a diagnosis after profiling every shooter labelling them as psychotic, psychopathic or traumatized. It feels rather repetitive after the first three or four cases as during profiling he has often already stated what signs and symptoms would lead him to such a diagnosis.
Langman’s book is no doubt invaluable for anyone looking to write a paper on the subject of school shooters or to study cases. Everything written is well cited, there are several graphs and tables compiled to organize data such as the average number of victims in correlation to perpetrator age. The notes take up an impressive 60 pages so it would be easy to find the original source of any minor fact included in this book.
For those looking for a pleasurable true-crime-esque read though this definitely falls short. It’s very clinical in tone and far more suited to be used as source material for an academic than a book for a curious reader just wanting to know more about certain crimes.
Langman examines 48 different perpetrators and analyzes their mental state as well as the events and actions leading up to their attack. While comparing and contrasting different attackers Langman also offers insight on how such attacks could be prevented.
Langman covers a large number of shooters in order to have a large and diverse sample to work with. It does feel as though this forces him to avoid giving any case too much depth. There are cases that have much less information released but are given the same number of pages as attacks with many more documents released to the public.
Langman’s description of events, environment and social situations are thorough. However, his descriptions of the actual attacks are often very brief, in fact, sometimes the attack itself is barely touched upon. It feels strange to describe home lives of the attackers as in depth as possible but then give a single sentence to their actions during their actual rampage - it seems like a person’s actions during an attack should be crucial when determining their mental state.
Langman offers a diagnosis after profiling every shooter labelling them as psychotic, psychopathic or traumatized. It feels rather repetitive after the first three or four cases as during profiling he has often already stated what signs and symptoms would lead him to such a diagnosis.
Langman’s book is no doubt invaluable for anyone looking to write a paper on the subject of school shooters or to study cases. Everything written is well cited, there are several graphs and tables compiled to organize data such as the average number of victims in correlation to perpetrator age. The notes take up an impressive 60 pages so it would be easy to find the original source of any minor fact included in this book.
For those looking for a pleasurable true-crime-esque read though this definitely falls short. It’s very clinical in tone and far more suited to be used as source material for an academic than a book for a curious reader just wanting to know more about certain crimes.
August 27, 2016
The author of this book has done extensive research into school shooters. He presents short profiles of a large sample of school shooters, and places the shooters into different categories to discover patterns, contributing factors, and warning signs. At times, I felt that the author was forcing some of shooters into his theories, or possibly leaving out relevant information that would take away from his theories, though the author was very open about his limitations.
As noted in other reviews, this book is not intended to be a collection of true crime stories, but is a psychological analysis of school shooters, with the purpose of understanding perpetrators to prevent future violence. The tone of the writing is academic and clinical, not graphic or sensational.
As a mental health professional, I'd recommend this book to other mental health professionals, or anyone who may work with individuals that could potentially be at risk to become a shooter.
As noted in other reviews, this book is not intended to be a collection of true crime stories, but is a psychological analysis of school shooters, with the purpose of understanding perpetrators to prevent future violence. The tone of the writing is academic and clinical, not graphic or sensational.
As a mental health professional, I'd recommend this book to other mental health professionals, or anyone who may work with individuals that could potentially be at risk to become a shooter.
August 4, 2016
Showed the book to a neighbor and he asked about shooter weapons choice and the book doesn't really cover that in depth.
December 2, 2016
Interesting insight into the psychology of the attackers.
March 28, 2017
Analysis on the shooters the book covers is good but the conclusions in the end are based on a small population size. A good beginner's book for baseline knowledge but it should not be your only book if your profession requires an in-depth understanding of school shooters.
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