Twenty Years of School-based Mass Shootings in the United States: Columbine to Santa Fe is an examination of twenty years of school-based mass shootings, from Columbine to Santa Fe, exploring the larger environmental framework within which these incidents occurred. Angelyn Spaulding Flowers and Cotina Lane Pixley use a mixed-methods approach to examine a diverse set of factors, identifying risk and protective factors along with specifically desired public policy responses by evaluating the convergence of variables from the range of school-based mass shootings included in this study. These variables include the type of weapon used, the availability of that type of weapon, perpetrator characteristics, school characteristics, as well as the geospatial and demographic characteristics of the school neighborhood. These school-based mass shooting incidents are explored at both the state and regional level and are further discussed in comparison to leisure time gun use, homicide rates, and suicide rates in the geographical area. The overarching geospatial analytical framework for this research also includes an examination of the manner in which existing policy enactments such as state gun laws vary by geography. Spaulding Flowers and Lane Pixley argue that the increased number of fatalities in school-based mass shooting is largely due to the increased lethality of the weapons, and they propose alternative solutions. Scholars of criminology, sociology, political science, and history will find this book particularly useful.

This book provides key empirical findings from a study measuring the degree of perceived victimization and/or actual attack experienced by a sample of minority adolescents in an urban setting. The project uses a systematic sociological approach to examine the effects of violence on these adolescents by including measures of adjustment outcomes resulting from the stress experienced in these harsh environments. Central to the analysis is the discovery of the linkages between risk factors relating to peer-, community-, and school-level victimization and patterns of coping among youth. To further develop the study, the project determines the perceived level of fear and exposure to violence among urban youth, followed by investigations of variations in adjustment outcomes (i.e., delinquency, anxiety, depression, academic achievement, self-esteem) as they relate to dimensions of violence. Finally, the study focuses on the extent to which coping strategies moderate risk factors among minority adolescents across levels of adjustment outcomes. While the significance of this work is the determination of the relationships between victimization, adjustment outcomes, and coping strategies in urba, minority adolescents in environments at higher risk for violence, the greatest implication of this research is to provide an understanding of the role of particular risk factors and coping strategies used to explain differences in delinquent and anti-social behavior among socially vulnerable youth, many of whom are victimized, and influenced, by delinquent peers. These understandings will provide an empirical basis on which to dismantle structural inequality, develop mental health interventions, reinforce societal- and community-level change, and promote coping behaviors to offset the detrimental impact of violence on the lives of marginalized youth in many communities. Youth victimization and violence are not solely public health problems, but remain severe health disparities, as many neighborhoods and families plagued with elevated violence and systemic poverty need further support to help youth flourish.

"Am I safe here?" LGBTQ students ask this question every day within the school system. In this book, Donn Short treats students as the experts, asking them to shine a light on the marginalization and bullying faced by LGBTQ youth. They insightfully identify that safety comes from a culture that values equity and social justice, not just security cameras, and they envision a future in which LGBTQ youth are an expected, respected, and celebrated part of school life. Am I Safe Here? offers a path to creating equitable and inclusive schools, drawing on the spontaneous and timely words of LGBTQ students to show that nothing less than a total culture change is needed.