Not so Random Acts of Violence: Shared Social-Ecological Features of Violence Against Women and School Shootings

The present study examines an understudied potential warning sign of school shootings: violence against women (VAW). Utilizing the social-ecological model of violence prevention, we employed directed content analysis to determine the prevalence of acts and social-ecological features of VAW among profiles of 59 boys/men who perpetrated school shootings between 1966 and 2018. The majority of shootings profiled occurred in the United States (47, 79.7%), followed by Canada (five, 8.5%), Finland (two, 3.4%), Germany (two, 3.4%), Brazil (one, 1.7%), Scotland (one, 1.7%), and Ukraine (one, 1.7%). Results demonstrated a strong presence of VAW among profiled school shooters, with almost 70% perpetrating VAW and the identification of frequent features of VAW that cut across the social-ecological levels, most notably (the enactment of and failure to meet expectations of) hegemonic masculinity and normalization of violence. Implications for research and intervention are discussed. Public Significance Statement Nearly 70% of profiled school shooters perpetrated acts of violence against women, including intimate partner violence and sexual assault. Thus, violence against women and its related social-ecological features, including hegemonic masculinity (e.g., expectations of toughness, antifemininity, and status among men, as well as the failure to meet these expectations) and normalization of violence (e.g., ignoring everyday acts of violence), are critical avenues for intervention in the prevention of school shootings.