School shootings in seven countries: Testingand developing the theory of five necessary conditions

摘要

To test and further develop Newman and collaborators’ 2004 theory of the fivenecessary conditions for school shootings to occur, this chapter investigates 14 schoolshootings in seven countries. Using case-based comparison with pattern matching, thestudy draws primarily upon texts, pictures, films and other material created by theperpetrators themselves. The theory is found to be generally valid even in contextswhere socio-cultural conditions and shooters’ modus operandi differ notably from thosein its original focus. Many of its key elements nevertheless call for further elaboration,such as the role played by social marginalization and cultural scripts, and the relationbetween the use of cultural scripts and other types of rationalizations requiresclarification.