Thirty-Five Rampage School Shooters: Trends, Patterns, and Typology

Abstract

A typology of school shooters (psychopathic, psychotic, and traumatized), comparing them across categories to highlight differences in suicidality, peer harassment, peer encouragement, family role models for violence, victim selection, ideology, and other factors. The data is drawn from diaries, police records, court documents, books, scholarly articles, and news media. Psychopathic shooters are narcissistic, lack empathy, reject morality and law, and get a sadistic thrill from violence. Psychotic shooters have symptoms of schizophrenia or schizotypal personality disorder, including delusions, hallucinations, and severe social and emotional impairment. Traumatized shooters have histories of physical, emotional, and sometimes sexual abuse. Their parents have histories of criminal behavior and substance abuse. The results of this analysis provide a baseline of data for the study of school shooters and illustrate the numerous differences among school shooters.