Mass Murder in America: Trends, Characteristics, Explanations, and Policy Response

Mass murder, especially involving a firearm, has been a subject of increasing interest among criminologists over the past decade. Lacking an existing and reliable data resource for studying these crimes, several organizations have launched their own database initiatives with, unfortunately, little consensus on definition. As a result, there is confusion regarding the nature and trends of such events. In this paper, we rely on the Associated Press/USA Today/Northeastern University Mass Killing Database, which provides the widest coverage of incidents in the U.S. with four or more victim fatalities, regardless of location, situation, or weapon. First, we present trends in incidents and victimization of mass killings from 2006 through 2020, followed by an examination of various incident, offender, and victim characteristics, distinguishing among the major subtypes. Next, we detail a motivational typology of mass murder and identify the common contributing factors. Finally, we consider the potential effects of certain policy responses related to media coverage, mental health services, and gun restrictions on the prevalence of mass killing.

Explicit Threats of Violence

A threat is an utterance whose content implies an intention to do harm. The motivational typology presented in the chapter distinguishes between the intention to threaten and the commitment to act. The commonest threats in everyday life are the expletive screams. These threats may also reflect a preexisting angry or fearful state of mind and presage further aggression, though not necessarily against the person threatened. Threateners whose intention is to shield themselves are, if anything, committed to avoiding violence. Those who intend to shock are using the threat as a weapon to cause distress. Those who threaten to signal their commitment to enact are sending a clear warning that produces apprehension in even the most stoic. Those who scheme, coerce action through menacing behavior. Given that any threatener can escalate to violence, all threats need to be taken seriously and assessed carefully. Management reduces the commitment to violence and challenges the choice to threaten.

Motivational Typology of Online Food Souvenir Shoppers and Their Travel-Related Intentions

Online shopping has tremendous growth nowadays. Concerns about whether people perceive food souvenirs as commercial goods or products with local connections arise when shopping online for those souvenirs. Another concern is whether people remain interested in knowing or visiting places where food souvenirs originate even if they can simply purchase food souvenirs online. These issues are important for the sustainable development of local tourism. This study aims to investigate consumers’ motivations for purchasing food souvenirs online and whether differences exist between segmented consumers in relation to their travel-related intentions. Participants of this work are individuals who have purchased food souvenirs online and are aged 18 years old or above. Social media applications, such as Facebook and Line, were utilized as the platforms for the questionnaire survey. Participants’ motivations for purchasing food souvenirs online included five factors: exploring trends, local affiliations, social interactions, frugal sampling, and enforcing relationships. According to their motivations, participants were segmented into four types of consumers, including pleasure reminiscers (47.0%), journey recallers (22.9%), economical tasters (17.4%), and social practicers (12.7%). Pleasure reminiscers have stronger intentions toward searching for information on, traveling to, and recommending the places where food souvenirs originate compared with the other three types of consumers. On the basis of the findings, suggestions for the design and marketing of food souvenirs are provided for the producers of food souvenirs and promoters of local tourism.

Creative Problem Solving in Online Innovation Contests

Online innovation contests represent one of the most interesting new ways of utilizing creative skills in the new collaborative economy, but we still know very little about what motivates the problem solvers. Previous studies suggest that the economic reward is not the only motivational factor, but there are many other motives too. The aim of this research study is to identify the core motivational dimensions based on the experiences of top solvers in three different types of online innovation contests. The empirical findings are used to construct a motivational typology for creative problem solving that can guide future research.

The Potential Impact of Morality on Medical Student Global Health Participation

Interest in global health experiences (GHEs) has surged in the last decade throughout undergraduate medical education. Positive clinical and cultural learning impacts are well described; however, the moral and motivational typology of the globally minded medical student are yet to be elucidated. We surveyed 85 US medical students, 41 who participated in a GHE during medical school and 44 who did not, to examine their sense of moral association with local community, Americans, and all of humanity. Measures of empathy and spirituality were also administered, as well as a qualitative prompt to elicit reasons for participating, or not, in a GHE. The results of logic regression analysis suggest that the strongest predictors of GHE participation are strong, geographically non-specific identification with ‘all humanity’ [OR=1.31, P<0.01, 95% CI, 1.07–1.59], as well as participation in an abroad experience prior to medical school [OR 141, P<0.01, 95% CI, 10.1–1960]. While respondent groups did not differ significantly in their association with local community, incremental increase in identification with ‘Americans’ decreased likelihood of IME participation by 20% [P=0.02, 95% CI, 0.67–0.96]. No significant effect was found between participant groups in response to empathy or spirituality scales. This pilot study demonstrates that a global regard for ‘all humanity’ may motivate GHE participation while a strong national association diminishes its likelihood.