Abstract

School shootings are one of the most salient social problems in America. Most prior research in this area has focused on identifying their causes and evaluating preventive school safety measures. An overlooked issue involves what to do with individuals who plan, attempt, or commit school shootings. Using data from an experiment embedded in a national survey of American adults (N = 1100), this study seeks to answer that question. We examine the public’s sentencing preferences and perceptions of rehabilitation potential for offenders who plan, attempt, and/or carry out a school shooting. We focus specifically on the effects of offense outcomes and of the shooter’s age and mental health. We find that offense severity is the strongest predictor of both sentencing preferences and perceived rehabilitation potential. Offender age interacts with offense severity, such that sentencing preferences are harsher for adult than juvenile shooters, but only for mid- and high-severity offenses.

摘要

校园枪击事件是美国最突出的社会问题之一。该领域的大多数先前研究都集中在确定其原因和评估预防性学校安全措施上。一个被忽视的问题涉及如何处理计划、企图或实施校园枪击事件的个人。使用来自美国成年人全国调查中的实验数据（N = 1100），本研究试图回答这个问题。我们研究了公众对计划、企图和/或实施校园枪击的罪犯的量刑偏好和康复潜力的看法。我们特别关注进攻结果以及射手年龄和心理健康的影响。我们发现，犯罪严重程度是量刑偏好和感知康复潜力的最强预测因素。犯罪者年龄与犯罪严重程度相互作用，因此对成人的量刑偏好比青少年射手更严厉，但仅适用于中度和高度严重的罪行。