Deep interest in school shootings and online radicalization.

Abstract

School shootings and terrorism attacks share many similarities, but these acts are often studied in separate research fields. Therefore, authors of studies on school shootings have not discussed radicalization of the perpetrators in depth, even though in terrorism studies radicalization is a highly researched theme. Online radicalization is even less studied in the school shooting context. Using opinion radicalization theory developed in terrorism studies, we analyzed online interviews (n = 22) with people deeply interested in school shootings. The analysis showed that people deeply interested in school shootings can be divided into three different groups based on the radicalness of their opinions toward school shootings: those with neutral opinions, sympathizers, and those interested in conducting a massacre. Data also indicate that becoming deeply interested in school shootings seems to strengthen an individual’s opinions more than it changes them. Research and risk assessment of school shootings should focus more on the radicalization process of school shooters, because it is also done in the area of terrorism studies. The results imply that online school shooting communities have unused potential in the prevention of school shootings.

“His fight or flight kicked in and here we are”: Investigating the construction of a perpetrator within a dark fandom.

“…In addition to their focus on Chris Watts’ ordinary traits, another strategy adopted by r/WattsOffTopic members was to assert that he was victimized by Shannan Watts. Assigning victimhood to the perpetrators of heinous acts has been reported in fandoms of school shooters (Broll, 2020; Paton, 2012; Raitanen, 2021; Raitanen & Oksanen, 2018) and media representations of incel fandoms (Witt, 2020), and serves to minimize their responsibility for the event (Bandura, 1999). However, while other dark fandoms build on sources in which the perpetrators assert their own victimhood, such as journals (Broll, 2020) or video logs (Witt, 2020), r/WattsOffTopic disputes instances in which Chris Watts states that his wife, Shannan, did not cause him to commit family annihilation.…”

“…Dark fandoms are defined as “communities of fans who identify with or otherwise celebrate those who have committed heinous acts, such as mass or serial murderers” (Broll, 2020, p. 795). Academic interest into dark fandoms has increased over recent years, with school shooter fandoms being a key area interest (Broll, 2020; Daggett, 2015; Paton, 2012; Raitanen, 2021; Raitanen & Oksanen, 2018; Wright, 2019). Primarily, these communities discuss the Columbine school shooting—a mass shooting at Columbine High School in 1999 in which two students killed thirteen people (Monroe, 2019).…”

“…Raitanen (2021) later compared school shooter communities to terrorist fandoms, and proposed three alternative categories pertaining to levels of radicalization—neutral, sympathetic, or interested in recreating the event. Raitanen (2021) offers an insightful perspective of school shooter fandoms through the lens of terrorism research, a direction supported by other scholars (Hunter et al, 2020). This angle could offer a valuable new perspective on school shooter fandoms.…”

Case analysis: Application of the Terrorist Radicalization Assessment Protocol–18 to the perpetrator of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

“…Thus, though terrorists and school shooters constitute different populations, research has found common features across the two groups (Langman, 2019a(Langman, , 2020. It is increasingly argued that the radicalization process of perpetrators of STSV needs to be investigated (e.g., Raitanen & Oksanen, 2019).…”

Suicide-Related Groups and School Shooting Fan Communities on Social Media: A Network Analysis

“…Previous studies of online school shooting communities have almost exclusively focused on media coverage of school shooting acts, narratives of mass violence, or the global school shooting subculture [16][17][18][19]. Subgroups of users involved in such communities were classified and analyzed with the online ethnography method [20][21][22]. A number of studies have examined dynamics of feedback observed in social networks in response to school shooting acts, including the "copycat effect" [23,24].…”