Deadly Lessons Understanding Lethal School Violence (2003) / Chapter Skim
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8. A Cross-Case Analysis
8. A Cross-Case Analysis
Pages 247-284
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From page 247... ...
ANALYTIC FRAMEWORK AND METHOD OF INFERENCE As described in Chapter 10, violence can best be understood through processes operating at multiple levels of explanation, taking account of the dynamics that seem necessary, if not sufficient, to produce a violent incident (National Research Council, 1993~. These levels include factors operating at the social, community, group or subcultural, family, and individual levels of society.
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From page 248... ...
Although lacking precision, the table is meant to convey the extreme rarity of school rampage violence within the larger picture of lethal school violence, other serious youth violence, youth violence in general, and violence in general. In reviewing the cases, the case authors and committee members developed multiple hypotheses about what might be driving the behavior and checked them against the data collected in the six cases.
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From page 249... ...
It is also a time of life when adult authority and norms are being contested. These processes were at work in both the inner city and in the suburban and rural areas.
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From page 250... ...
The four suburban and rural incidents lacked this coherence and social clarity. That is not to say that these shooters didn't have their reasons to shoot.
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From page 251... ...
The suburban shooters were not being threatened with physical violence at
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From page 252... ...
It is hard not to draw the conclusion that these factors played an important role in causing the violence observed. What is startling, however, is that some portion of the lethal violence observed happens not in economically marginalized communities, but in ones that are relatively well off economically, socially, and politically.
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From page 253... ...
Without adult influence, youth culture might turn out to be particularly vulnerable to dangerous influences from the media or from peers. One extreme version of this is the emergence of a gang culture in which youth gangs perform the protecting, explaining, and socializing roles that would ordinarily be performed by families.
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From page 254... ...
At least one other had practiced shooting by himself and so had some experience with how to use the weapon. Again, it seems obvious that easy access to guns facilitated the lethal school violence and school rampages.
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From page 255... ...
In one version of this idea, one could see the failure of the schools to put in place preventive measures as an important cause of the lethal violence and school rampages an error of omission rather than commission. Or one could see the schools themselves as "criminogenic" the social relationships and norms existing within the schools might have actually caused the violence to occur.
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From page 256... ...
In these respects, there may be important differences between the cases of violence in the inner city and the rural and suburban areas. Many social pressures large and small, durable and transient led toward the incidents of lethal violence observed in the inner-city schools.
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From page 257... ...
Two of the three offenders in the inner-city cases had previous arrests for serious crimes and were known to the police. One of the inner-city shooters and all of the suburban shooters had no previous arrests for serious crimes and were largely unknown to the police.
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From page 258... ...
Two of the three inner-city shooters and two of the five rural and suburban shooters lived in intact, stable families at the time of the shooting. In two rural cases, the case writers found evidence of parental conflict.
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From page 259... ...
Contagion Mechanisms The case study method allowed the committee to explore whether important contagion mechanisms were operating to spread and elevate the violence. While we cannot say much about whether such mechanisms were at work in spreading lethal violence in inner-city schools, or the extent to which inner-city violence seemed to have leapt out of the inner city and touched off the increase in lethal violence in the suburban and rural areas, we can address the extent to which contagion mechanisms seemed to elevate and spread school rampage shootings.
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From page 260... ...
It is also clear that the media coverage was experienced as destructive and unhelpful to the communities and the schools. This was particularly true for the suburban and rural schools that experienced shooting sprees, which attracted huge, sustained national media coverage.
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From page 261... ...
Community Understanding The processes of reacting to, trying to understand, and making a just and effective response to the events led the communities to two quite different interpretations. In both inner-city cases, the community appeared to arrive at a diagnosis that attributed the lethal school violence to a generally violent atmosphere, to the presence of gangs in the schools, and to a wide communication gap between adults and youth about the danger in general, but particularly the youth involved in a gang culture.
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From page 262... ...
, the mitigating circumstance was mental illness. Four of the shooters received very long sentences: 45 years for the Chicago offender; life without parole for 25 years for the Paducah shooter; 30-60 years in prison, eligible for parole at age 45, for the Edinboro youth; and 60 years of custody, including 40 years of probation, for the mentally disturbed adolescent in Rockdale County.
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From page 263... ...
New York instituted a policy of more intensive police patrols inside and outside the schools. Chicago hired new security officials from the local communities to enforce a zero tolerance policy for weapons carrying and fighting in the schools.
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From page 264... ...
There is little evidence from the cases about the impact of these programs on the character of school life, the degree of security that individuals felt, and so on. But undertaking such initiatives was clearly important to these communities, at least as an expression of concern if not something that was instrumentally effective in protecting them from what was a very low-probability event.
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From page 266... ...
266 DEADLY LESSONS: UNDERSTANDING LETHAL SCHOOL VIOLENCE TABLE 8-2 Comparison of Cross-Case Variables Variable NY Jason NY Khalil Chicago Paducah 1.0 The Incident 1.1 Date 11/25/1991 2/26/1992 11/19/1992 12/1/1997 1.2 Time of day Midmorning Morning No specific info but 7:42 am looks like morning 1.3 Victims: 1.3.1 Number killed 1 2 1 3 Number 1 0 2 5 (2 seriou wounded 1.3.2 Victim status Student and teacher Students Students Students 1.3.3 Relationship Bystanders Rivals Rivals One victin to offender he had un crush on ( but never Other mer prayer arc question shot them they were group or they were convenien 1.3.4 Targeted by No: uninjured other Yes but claimed No but self-defense Not clear offender? person was target, self-defense was element as a but done in self- result of a gambling defense dispute 1.4 Location of School hallway School hallway School hallway/ School lob incident stairway 1.5 Perpetrator at time of attack: 1.5.1 Number 1 1 1 1 arrested 1.5.2 Demographics: Black male; age 14; Black male; age 15; Black male; age 15; White mal age; grade; family 9th grade; two-parent 10th grade; parental 10th grade; stable 9th grade; structure and stable family, both conflict/divorce; two-parent family, two-parer employment parents working sister also withdrew middle/working well educe status from family, mother class works 1.5.3 Suspected No, but aiding co-conspirators brother Friend supplied gun Gang affiliation 1.5.4 Under influence No No No No of alcohol or illegal drugs 1.6 Apparent motivation: Yes, but n may have Goth yout help him t the school
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From page 267... ...
13year-old broken/troubled family, working class; 11-year-old intact, established family, middle class 1 White male; age 14, 8th grade; middleclass; two-parent family, older father who owns business parental conflict ffiliation Yes, but no proof; Two offenders; report No No may have thought of third older kid but Goth youths would never corroborated help him take over the school No No No No 1 White male; age 15, 10th grade; parental divorce age 4, mother remarried age 7, affluent family
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From page 268... ...
Adults commute outside to work. disinvestment, and unemploy History of economic disinvestment rapid social change in 1997; w regarding of econom race/ethnicity of backgroun residents.
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From page 269... ...
The people he shot at were not the ones who tormented him. Was important to show something to the bullies, earn respect from entire school community.
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From page 270... ...
Mostly gangs 2.4.2 Youth violence Homicide leading cause of death Gang-related fights in School fig] school hallways daily some off-g fighting 2.5 Youth alienation from adults: 2.5.1 Separate youth Yes: kids did not tell parents or other Yes: parents felt they Yes: profo culture adults how bad the violent environment had little influence disconnect was over kids, especially adults exp related to gangs.
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From page 271... ...
Vintage smalltown America: community service clubs, lots of community sports and cultural events None Rural, with little change; steady economic growth violence on Low violent crime Low crime rates Low crime rate Rare Side high at the [ostly gangs elated fights in School fights rare, Youth violence low, No Rare hallways daily some off-grounds but bullying is an fighting issue. Youth gangs are in area and drug use by teens at the high school a significant problem Over 75% white area, small inner city where blacks and poor whites with ties to rural past live None Rapid social change from rural/exurban to suburban.
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From page 272... ...
272 DEADLY LESSONS: UNDERSTANDING LETHAL SCHOOL VIOLENCE TABLE 8-2 continued Variable NY Jason NY Khalil Chicago Paducah 3.0 School Setting 3.1 School type 3.2 Economic and social status of students 3.3 Level of school violence High school Poor/working class Not high High school Working class/poor High: daily fights in halls but killings almost never occurred High scho Mixed Low 3.4 Social relations Kids members of crews, embedded in Difficult to avoid Both vertigo in school peer relationships/conflicts; needed gang entanglements, horizontal protection from seeming weak, couldn't school was differentia do things seen as weak, like get good recruitment site for students n grades gangs, daily fights in between g halls of school some ante between g 3.4.1 Divisions among Different crews, usually made up of Lots of racial and Cliques: p students friends/relatives. "Beef" a feature of gang conflicts group, Go social interaction 3.4.2 Separation of Yes Yes Yes teachers from students 3.4.3 Separation of N/a N/a N/a school administrators from students 4.0 Background and character of perpetrators 4.1 Prior offending/police contact: 4.1.1 Offender known No Yes Yes No to police?
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From page 273... ...
A CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS 273 To Paducah Jonesboro Edinboro Rockdale County hoof High school Middle school Middle school High school .g class/poor Mixed Middle class Middle class Upper middle class Laity fights in Low Low Low Low it killings never .t to avoid Both vertical and Bullying a significant Generally good Generally amicable, entanglements, horizontal problem at Westside open to newcomers, was differentiation, some but not clear that the fluid cliques nent site for students move easily problem is any bigger daily fights in between groups, than other middle school some antagonism schools between groups racial and Cliques: preps, prayer Some bullying. Cliques, but no Lots of cliques: Inflicts group, Goths, jocks cliques: athletes and disruptive divisions rednecks, jocks, cheerleaders, band preps, Christians, kids, draggles, wiggers, "straight cliques generally not edge mafia or seen as impermeable vegans" Yes Yes Yes Yes N/a No N/a No N/a No N/a No y, gang Increasing stealing: Mitchell: threats to Alcohol and other Small amount of , possessing CDs, guns, $100 bills teacher and other drug use, illegal minor delinquency, property from dad, fax kids, minor discharge of a firearm stole stepfather's gun machine and murder vandalism, molested and sold it, weapon from a two-year-old experimental soft neighbor Andrew: reports that drug and alcohol use he tortured and killed animals y and drug No No No No for two ng victims No Mitchell was brought No No before a juvenile court for the molestation issue No No No No
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From page 274... ...
High cut class a lot improved year. IQ o 4.3.2 Disciplinary Not included in cases studies Suspended for Five disco record at school gambling in infractions bathroom behavior E 4.3.3 Changes in Grades slumped after 8th grade Grades slumped after Grades sh school status 8th grade 8th grade Improved 4.4 Mental illness of offender: 4.4.1 Formal diagnosis No No, but believed to No No prior to event have emotional problems 4.4.2 Formal diagnosis No Yes: defense No Yes: diagn after event diagnosis was mental "dysthymi illness relating to schizotypc stress and trauma personalit from living in East and "cyst]
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From page 275... ...
Mitchell: divorced parents, mother remarried, little contact with father, one brother and two halfsisters Andrew struggled with grades which got steadily worse until he had mostly D's and F's None Grades slumped in 8th grade No Yes: preschizophrenic ideation diagnosed by defense psychiatrist No Suicidal thinking and threats. Left suicide note Unknown No Evidence of depressed mood Intact two-parent family, but conflict between parents; two brothers; two stepbrothers from previous marriage of Trouble with grades after age 8 None Grades slumped in months previous to attack Yes: attention deficit disorder, took Ritalin Yes: clinical depression, defense characterized as .
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From page 276... ...
276 DEADLY LESSONS: UNDERSTANDING LETHAL SCHOOL VIOLENCE TABLE 8-2 continued Variable NY Jason NY Khalil Chicago Paducah 4.5.2 History of family No No No No violence 1.5.3 History of abuse No Possible No No and neglect 4.5.6 Recent changes No in family relations 4.6 Status of perpetrators in school/community: 4.6.1 Social standing Marginal group in community member, had friends Yes: sister withdrew No from family Marginal group member, had friends Marginal group member, had friends No Marginal ] many grol friends bu forming fr with other socially in relationshi in school clown 4.6.2 Member of youth No No Yes No gang 4.6.3 Interest in violence Don't know Don't know Don't know Yes media 4.6.4 Involvement in Guns part of daily Guns part of daily Don't know No gun culture life life 4.6.5 Victim of Yes Yes Don't know Yes bullying 4.6.6 Bullying others No No No Yes, but physically 4.6.7 Recent changes Yes Yes Yes Yes: trying in peer relations impress G 4.6.8 Recent peer No No No Yes: had r rejection dumped g favor of al who did n attentions.
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From page 277... ...
al group r, had friends Marginal member of many groups, had friends but difficulty forming friendships with others and socially insecure in relationships, active in school band, class clown Mitchell: had conventional friends, close to brother, involved in school and community activities, sports, and choir Andrew: had friends but not popular, Conventional friends (small group of longtime friends that included boys and girls) but began hanging out with more troubled group Loner by middle school—increasingly passive and withdrawn, did not join groups or play sports played trumpet, class clown No Mitchell: wannabee No No (Westside Bloods)
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From page 278... ...
278 DEADLY LESSONS: UNDERSTANDING LETHAL SCHOOL VIOLENCE TABLE 8-2 continued Variable NY Jason NY Khalil Chicago Paducah 5.2 Source of Carried a gun Friend Bought from Stolen fro' weapons neighborhood boy 5.3 Threats/warning No Responded to threat Responded to threat Hinted sol would hat week befo 5.3.2 Warnings to No Not really, but No adults mother knew he had to defend himself but not that he had a gun 5.4 Reason for particular place and day: 5.4.1 Reaction to Yes No No No immediate events 5.4.2 Preventive Yes Yes Yes and no No response to threat 5.4.3 Proactive No No A little Yes 6.0 Community Response 6.1 Impact of media coverage on community: 6.1.1 Accuracy of Slight inaccuracies at first but quickly Not accurate Not Acura media coverage corrected and followed by high-quality residents' investigation in many ir 6.1.2 Impact of media Not discussed Case decided in press Communi on community before trial: jury pool against pro deliberation and tainted, no room for media, me welfare plea bargain aggressive interviews without p. consent 6.2 Community interpretation/understanding of events: 6.2.1 Community Antiviolence marches and rallies attended Antiviolence rallies No comma forums: by celebrities, diverse community and a new Rites of forums bu existence, nature, organizing under the auspices of Centers Passage program for school pro impact for Disease Control and the New York the students and days were City Health Department to educate the teachers to teach identify sty community about violence, retreat for antiviolence and serious pro students in Catskills with local politician leadership skills, school coo leadership from added to 1 principals, and the freshmen local school councils high Scholl therapist ~ school one week to ta students
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From page 279... ...
sought Town government launched no major initiatives. Series of meetings over the summer with community members to develop recommendations for the schools mostly focused on security, character education program developed for students, more training in conflict resolution instituted for teachers, Christian group sponsored youth center Community-wide invitational meetings, church meetings, invited youth from Littleton to a retreat, school system increased number of psychologists and social workers in the system, introduced parent education program, held series of meetings to discuss school security needs, and made changes in behavior and dress codes
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From page 280... ...
280 DEADLY LESSONS: UNDERSTANDING LETHAL SCHOOL VIOLENCE TABLE 8-2 continued Variable NY Jason NY Khalil Chicago Paducah 6.2.2 Engagement of Councilwoman Wooten developed year- Mayor Daly used Political political long retreat program, Mayor Dinkins incident to get metal representa representatives called for an antiviolence movement, detectors installed not engag Chancellor Fernandez established 40 new system-wide, local by choice smaller schools school council's school representatives engaged in public debate over security measures 6.2.3 Community Violent atmosphere, gulf in Gangs, gulf in Freak, ine understanding of communication between kids and adults communication event, cou event between kids and predicted adults explained 6.2.4 Grief counseling Yes Yes Yes 6.2.5 Impact on More attention to community violence More attention to Potential r community and danger gang problem impact on climate communit to attract ~ profession many stuc teachers sl treatment, unresolved 6.3 Criminal justice response: 6.3.1 Charges filed 2nd degree murder 1st degree 1st degree murder 3 counts o manslaughter counts att' murder, 1 burglary 6.3.2 Prosecuted as Adult Adult Adult Adult juvenile or adult 6.3.3 Defense offered Plea to lesser Acting under Act of self-defense Pleaded go charge of 1st influence of extreme mentally i degree emotional distress Alford pie manslaughter 6.3.4 Disposition/ 3-9 years in prison, 6 2/3 to 20 years in 45 years in Illinois Life witho sentence part in youth part in prison, served 5 years State Prison for 25 yea: adult facility
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From page 281... ...
A CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS 281 To Paducah Jonesboro Edinboro Rockdale County Daly used t to get metal rs installed wide, local ~ouncil's ntatives in public over security es gulf in nication n kids and ttention to Problem ree murder Elf-defense s in Illinois Olson Political representatives were not engaged, mostly by choice of the school Freak, inexplicable event, could not be predicted or explained Yes Potential negative impact on community's ability to attract high-quality professionals to jobs, many students and teachers still in treatment, civil suits unresolved 3 counts of murder, 5 counts attempted murder, 1 count burglary Adult Pleaded guilty but mentally ill under an Alford plea Life without parole for 25 years No information Generally cannot understand why this happened but when pressed cite several factors including lack of communication between kids and adults, decline in religiosity, media influence, availability of guns Yes Community angry about sentences for boys, some felt there is better cohesion in the community, shooting no longer widely discussed, civil suits unresolved Delinquency was actual charge, but based on 5 counts capital murder and 10 counts first degree battery for each boy Juvenile Mitchell: pleaded guilty Andrew: pleaded not guilty, judge ruled that in juvenile proceeding insanity and incompetency defense could not be raised Indeterminate sentence to age 21 for both boys Town government launched no initiatives Troubled kid from troubled family happened to live there Yes Community felt this could have happened anywhere—troubled boy, many people blamed parents, general sense that community is ready to move on Criminal homicide/lst degree murder Adult Pleaded guilty to 3rd degree murder 30-60 years in prison, eligible for parole at age 45 Participation in community meetings described above, judge ordered tough laws posted in schools Mental illness and family problems Yes Sense of shame among some young people to say where they are from, but relates as much to syphilis outbreak as shooting. Community did not feel different from any other community 18 counts of aggravated assault, six counts of cruelty to children, and 5 counts of illegal possession and use of firearms Adult Pleaded guilty but mentally ill to above charges Sentenced to 60 years of custody including 40 years of probation
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From page 282... ...
High with 50 smaller schools for some offenses and automatic police referrals for a variety of offenses from serious assault to minor drug violations
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From page 283... ...
to maintain safety and security and educate students about them Civil suit by teacher's widow against Wurst family Use of metal detector wands failed but metal detectors used for prom, restricted building access, name badges for staff More teacher training in conflict resolution, new character education program, but most changes security oriented None supervision. Eligible for parole after 18 years 3 of 6 victims filed civil suits against offender and his parents School added additional surveillance cameras Increased number of psychologists and social workers, introduced a new parent education program New dress code, strict weapons in school policy involving automatic referrals to police and harsh sentences
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From page 284... ...
The availability of firearms is important as a facilitator to mass murder (Fox and Levin, 1998~. Public Rampages anti Workplace Violence Since schools are work settings for the faculty, staff, and administrators, youth school rampage shootings could be viewed as an extreme form of workplace violence.
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