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Making Sense of Campus Shootings: Policies, Practices and Prevention. James Alan Fox The Lipman Family Professor of Criminal Justice, and Professor of Law, Policy and Society June 25, 2008. April 16, 2007. The Death Toll Rises…. “The Deadliest”. An Undeserved Stage… and the contagion effect.
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Making Sense of Campus Shootings:Policies, Practices and Prevention James Alan FoxThe Lipman Family Professor of Criminal Justice, andProfessor of Law, Policy and Society June 25, 2008
Far from the Greatest Peril • On average, 10 college students are murdered annually on campus • 1,000 college students commit suicide annually • Thousands more deaths annually due to substance abuse
Safety First? • “Is your campus safe?” Newsweek, August 20-27 2007 • Parents ask about “lockdown” • A new college selection criterion
“Campus Lockdown”: The latest catch-phrase • From correctional nomenclature • Very few episodes include multiple locations • Timeliness
Active Shooter & Lockdown Drills • ECSU’s blunder in its “active shooter” exercise • Training is fine, but do not involve the students
Lesson from the Airlines We can learn from airline passenger preparedness
Profiling is Problematic • No clear-cut profile • Predicting rare events is virtually impossible • False positives • Only hindsight is 20/20 • Cast a wide net • Many are obvious—and then may be too late • May intensify feelings of persecution • Problem may be structural or situational
Mental Health Services • Increase in counseling staff and budgets over past year • Student-to-counselor ratio still falls short
Student Centeredness • Student centeredness is more than just words • The caring need not wait until a tragedy occurs • Training faculty and staff to handle difficult people and situations
The Broad View • Increased emphasis on student centeredness and on upgrading counseling and support services may not eliminate the already low likelihood of a campus shooting. Regardless, it will go a long way to enhance the well-being of thousands of students. • Many of these strategies are the right thing to do, even though sometime done for wrong reason. • The only option for students seeking a 100% guarantee for eliminating any risk of being victimized by a campus shooting….