Policy recommendations for countering mass shootings in the United States

• Author: Daniel S. Nagin,Christopher S. Koper,Cynthia Lum
• Date: 01 February 2020
• Published date: 01 February 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12484

DOI: 10.1111/1745-9133.12484

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

COUNTERING MASS VIOLENCE IN THE UNITED STATES

Policy recommendations for countering mass

shootings in the United States

Daniel S. Nagin1Christopher S. Koper2Cynthia Lum2

1Carnegie Mellon University

2George Mason University

Correspondence

DanielS. Nagin, Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University,Pittsburgh, PA 15213.

Email:dn03@andrew.cmu.edu

Fundinginformation

NationalScience Foundation, Grant/Award Number: 1850665

Instances of violence in the United States involving the indiscriminate slaughter of multiple victims,

usually perpetrated by a lone individual with a firearm and often in a public place, are distressingly

frequent. During the last decade alone, thousands have been killed or injured in such acts. Mass vio-

lence takes many forms—family massacres, terrorist attacks, shootings related to other crimes (like

robbery), gang violence, and other incidents in which offenders attack targeted individuals and/or ran-

dom strangers. Yet, it is the phenomenon of indiscriminate mass public violence, often directed at

strangers, that has generated the most public alarm in recent years. As shown in this issue, such attacks

have become increasingly common and severe,claiming ever higher numbers of victims (Duwe, 2020,

this issue; Lankford & Silver,2020, this issue). Even as the victims are mour ned, the eventsthemselves

have lost their shock value.

This special issue of Criminology & Public Policy is committed to the topic of mass violence. It is

an outgrowth of an April 11–12, 2019 workshop organized by the authors and funded by the National

Science Foundation’s Law and Social Science Program. The articles appearing in this special issue

were presented and discussed at the workshop and subsequently revised in light of that discussion and

in response to anonymous reviewers. In whole or in part, they address three broadly defined topics: (1)

the measurement and assessment of trends in mass violence, (2) the effectiveness of measures toprevent

instances of mass violence, and (3) the effectiveness of measures to limit their lethality once underway.

In this editorial introduction, we offer our own recommendations for policies to limit the harm from

mass violence based on the research presented in this issue. As shown by these articles, there are many

important areas of research and policy development underway on this topic. Our recommendations,

The authors thank the National Science Foundation for funding the GeorgeMason University–Carnegie Mellon University Mass

Violence Workshop that produced the articles contained in this issue (NSF grant 1850665). We also thank the authors in this

issue for their contributions to the workshop and to this special issue of Criminology & Public Policy. The views expressedin

this introduction are those of the authors and should not be attributed to any of the aforementioned organizations or individuals.

Criminology & Public Policy. 2020;19:9–15. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/capp © 2020 American Society of Criminology 9