Shared Struggles? Cumulative Strain Theory and Public Mass Murders From 1990 to 2014

• NCJ Number: 252216
• Author(s): James Silver; John Horgan; Paul Gill
• Date Published: October 2018
• Length: 10 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2013-ZA-BX-0002
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ)
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study responded to scholars' urging that research on mass murder shift from the creation of typologies to theoretically rich, data-driven comparative examinations of the phenomenon.

Abstract

This study redressed such calls in two ways. First, it analyzed a unique sample of public mass murderers with the multistage explanatory model of cumulative strain theory. Second, it used a comparison group of similarly violent offenderslone-actor terroriststo provide context to the study findings. The results demonstrate that cumulative strain theory usefully describes the trajectory toward violence by public mass murderers, more so when a concept implicit in the theorygrievanceis made explicit. (Publisher abstract modified)