Contagion in Mass Killings and School Shootings.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Several past studies have found that media reports of suicides and homicides appear to subsequently increase the incidence of similar events in the community, apparently due to the coverage planting the seeds of ideation in at-risk individuals to commit similar acts.

Methods

Here we explore whether or not contagion is evident in more high-profile incidents, such as school shootings and mass killings (incidents with four or more people killed). We fit a contagion model to recent data sets related to such incidents in the US, with terms that take into account the fact that a school shooting or mass murder may temporarily increase the probability of a similar event in the immediate future, by assuming an exponential decay in contagiousness after an event.

Conclusi

SUBMITTER: Towers S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4489652 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature