Why Were Young Males Behind Recent Attacks on Schools and Public Gatherings?

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. - April 2, 2014 - PRLog -- New Rochelle, NY–Recent mass killings at schools, movie theaters, political rallies, and races, whether in the U.S., Norway, or elsewhere around the globe, have generally been perpetrated by young males 15-30 years of age. In a provocative Roundtable Discussion published in the preview issue of Violence and Gender, a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, a multidisciplinary expert panel explores the possible reasons for high incidence of these crimes, especially in the U.S., and the motives of the young male perpetrators. The article is available free on the Violence and Gender website at http://www.liebertpub.com/vio.

Topics discussed include the influence of the copycat phenomenon, whether these acts tend to be impulsive or deliberate and well-planned, triggers for these actions and whether revenge is involved, the impact of the current culture in schools in the U.S., and the general issue of access to firearms.

Violence and Gender Editor-in-Chief Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Senior FBI Profiler/Criminal Investigative Analyst (ret.), served as Moderator of the Roundtable entitled “Why Do Young Males Attack Schools? Seven Discipline Leaders Share Their Perspectives” (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/vio.2013.1505). Panel participants included Jorge Folino, MD, PhD, National University of La Plata (Buenos Aires, Argentina), James Garbarino, PhD, Loyola University (Chicago, IL), Steven Gorelick, PhD, Hunter College (New York, NY), Helinä Häkkänen-Nyholm, PhD, PsyJuridica Ltd. (Espoo, Finland), J. Reid Meloy, PhD, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, Yuki Nishimura, MD, PhD, Keio University Health Center (Japan), and Stanton Samenow, PhD, private practitioner (Alexandria, VA).

“Violence and Gender will continue to explore the many factors involved in these mass shootings, from causality to prevention,” says Dr. O'Toole. “A key area of focus for future research and study could involve identifying the phases of development for this behavior in order to highlight when teachers and others can first expect to observe the manifestation of behaviors consistent with a student beginning to feel alienated, marginalized, and angry. These are not impulsive acts of violence. There are signs along the way, and if we know what to look for we can see it coming.”

About the Journal
Violence and Gender (http://www.liebertpub.com/vio) is the only peer-reviewed journal focusing on the understanding, prediction, and prevention of acts of violence. Through research papers, roundtable discussions, case studies, and other original content, the Journal critically examines biological, genetic, behavioral, psychological, racial, ethnic, and cultural factors as they relate to the gender of perpetrators of violence. Led by Editor-in-Chief Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Forensic Behavioral Consultant and Senior FBI Profiler/Criminal Investigative Analyst (ret.), Violence and Gender explores the difficult issues that are vital to threat assessment and prevention of the epidemic of violence. Violence and Gender is published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, and is the official journal of The Avielle Foundation.

About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking and Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website at http://www.liebertpub.com.