dc.description.abstract | To test and further develop Newman and collaborators’ 2004 theory of the five
necessary conditions for school shootings to occur, this chapter investigates 14 school
shootings in seven countries. Using case-based comparison with pattern matching, the
study draws primarily upon texts, pictures, films and other material created by the
perpetrators themselves. The theory is found to be generally valid even in contexts
where socio-cultural conditions and shooters’ modus operandi differ notably from those
in its original focus. Many of its key elements nevertheless call for further elaboration,
such as the role played by social marginalization and cultural scripts, and the relation
between the use of cultural scripts and other types of rationalizations requires
clarification. | sv |