Explaining Intimate Massacres: Suggestions for Honing in on an Elusive and Tragic Spirit

Abstract

Among the multiple challenges on the path to an explanation of school shootings — their rarity as events; their unique and brief duration in the lives of the aggressors; the lack of evidence on purpose, as a result of the death of the aggressor and the emotional impact on his family; the workings of profoundly idiosyncratic psyches — the greatest challenge is that of taking a research trip to “the other side”, which requires wrenching the research perspective away from aligning in sympathy with victims.¹ The younger the victims, the more difficult it is to investigate the aggressors non-judgementally. When the site of the attack is a school, the hallowed nature of the place immediately throws many observers into alliance with a community of mourners. And when preventive measures are considered, it is tempting for policy advocates to imagine that they are seeking to influence people on the other side whose sensibilities are like their own.