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PsychByte: Preventing Youth Gun Violence: What We Know and Still Need to Know
Preventing Youth Gun Violence: What We Know and Still Need to Know
Despite differences, school rampages and street shootings have much in common
A new report published by the American Psychological Association looks at the causes of youth gun violence as a way of further understanding and preventing these tragic events. The review, published in 2013, focuses on the differences between school shootings and street shootings involving youth. According to authors Brad Bushman, Ph.D., lead author from The Ohio State University, and Katherine Newman, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, “Rampage school shootings threaten our sense of social order, while inner-city street shootings signify entrenched disruptions of social trust. In either situation, there is an urgent need to understand what went wrong.”
The report indicates that school shootings and street shootings differ in many ways. For example, they are committed by different types of youth for different reasons, and often have very different risk factors. Bushman and Newman (2013) found that nearly all school shooters are white, rural or suburban, and middle class. They usually have multiple weapons, including semi-automatic or automatic rifles, purchased legally and often obtained from family members. School shooters also want everyone to know who they are and design their killing sprees as a grand finale, often committing suicide in the end. In contrast, street shooters tend to be black, poor and live in the inner city. They often have lengthy arrest records and use handguns that they have obtained illegally. They don’t want people to know what they did and rarely commit suicide.
While much is known about these youth, less is known about how to prevent youth gun violence. Several of the proposed solutions have included strengthening families, limiting the effects of violent media, and reducing youth access to guns. According to the review, there is no consensus on the role of social media in preventing gun violence. In terms of street shootings, the Chicago Police Department uses social media such as Facebook and Twitter to identify relationships between active gang members and individuals who may be at risk for committing homicide. While social media can be helpful in terms of identifying school shooting threats made on Facebook or Twitter, the most important preventative measure in preventing school shootings is making sure that all students have a trusted adult to confide in if a threat is made. Students also need to know that the trusted adult will handle the situation appropriately. Bushman noted that students are often afraid to report a threat for fear that the student, who may be a friend, will be expelled for an idle or non-serious threat.
The bottom line, according to Bushman, is that the issue of youth gun violence needs more attention; “We can’t begin to solve the problem of youth gun violence if we don’t make the issue a major national priority.”
Contributor:
Dana Lasek, Ph.D., HSPP
CRG/Children’s Resource Group
"PsychBytes” is a weekly educational resource from the Indiana Psychological Association provided for psychologists, their colleagues and their patients.