"The Violence Project" by Peterson and Densley. A Review

 

The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic

Jillian Peterson and James Densley

Abrams Press

www.abramsbooks.com

ISBN: 978-1-4197-5295-7; $28.00; September 2021

 

It’s all the rage! Almost every news feed and social media venue broadcasts it, some with greater alarm than others. And the glut of press it receives makes it feel like it’s happening everywhere, every day, in every neighborhood. It’s like a voracious beast that is growing and consuming all in its path. And then there are the pundits and professionals that describe it as a simple, single-item issue that calls for a simple, single-item remedy and they have the cure-all-fix-all remedy. But the trouble is far more problematical, which means a healthy response will likely be at several levels simultaneously. Into this hazy fog of violence has stepped a new book, “The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic” by Jillian Peterson, PhD, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Hamline University and James Densley, PhD, Professor of Criminal Justice at Metropolitan State University, both in St. Paul, Minnesota. This 240-page hardback is well research, readable, reasonable, and worth the time.

I first ran across the book after the Uvalde TX school shooting. It was from an article at “The Conversation” (https://theconversation.com) where I found them, and was hooked as I waded through the sensible-minded way they looked at these violent events. Peterson and Densley have compiled as much data and facts as are available on mass shootings in the U.S., going back to 1966. They used the modern standard of a mass shooting as an event that involved firearms and killed four or more people in a public place. At the time they wrote the book (September 2021) they found there had been 172 of them in the United States. They then amassed the details in a database, but also interviewed several survivors, living shooters, families of shooters, etc. Their findings are not only online at https://theviolenceproject.org but printed out in this volume. They did this, not out of an infatuation with violence, but “to understand how we can intervene earlier to prevent mass shootings before they occur…to learn from the patterns…that can help us prevent more people from dying” (14). And they squarely hit their target.

The authors have found that there is no single problem, but four categorical areas that accelerate mass shootings. They can’t confirm that these four areas are causative, but they are clear that they show up too many times to ignore. Put simply these four traits are: (1) many shooters have experienced childhood abuse and exposure to violence at an early age, frequently by parents. (2) Nearly all of these people have reached a critical, identifiable crisis point, and plenty of them are suicidal. (3) Most of the shooters look for models they can identify with in their violence and are aided in their search by the unending media coverage of cable news, the internet, and social media. Loads of these people are motivated by publicity and fame-seeking. But they’re also aided through these venues to find someone to blame for their miserable circumstances. (4) When opportunity arises to carry out a mass shooting, they take it. Easy access to firearms and crowds of people in public places (16-17).

And, because there is no single problem, but four categorical areas that accelerate mass shooting, Peterson and Densley hunt down multilayered remedies. This is what I appreciated most out of this meaningful volume. Almost every chapter pours out just as much ink on workable solutions as it does on what feeds the violence. And their proposed answers are not anecdotal or opinion-based, but all have just as much research behind them as does their analysis on the details that fuel the violence. For example, while chronicling the role of various media in giving potential shooters models and avenues for publicity, the authors describe ways media and you and I can starve the mass shooters of publicity. They spend a considerable time explaining how “No Notoriety” (https://nonotoriety.com/)and “Don’t Name Them” (https://www.dontnamethem.org/) are valuable approaches to take in siphoning off the oxygen out of the fame-seeking lungs, so to speak. The authors have truly made this a level-headed work!

I was initially concerned that the Peterson and Densley were going to promote strident gun-control measures and antidotes. So, I was pleasantly surprised, when working through the chapter on weapons of opportunity, that their proposals were not the normal, drastic ones mentioned in the “Gun-Control-Gun-Lobby” debates. The authors discussed “permit-to-purchase,” RFIDs, “waiting periods,” and a few other approaches. The way they addressed each was backed up by studies, but also empty of rabid reactions. A reader may feel they don’t go far enough, or that they’re uncomfortable with the authors’ recommendations, but the volume is not a “Gun-Control” manual.

“The Violence Project” was just the book I was looking for! And to know that the authors have made many of their studies and conclusions available on their project website adds untold value to the book. This is the book people need to read instead of listening to single-answer experts. I recommend this work to Law Enforcement agencies, legislators, teachers, pastors, and whoever cares about the violence. This book is a must-read!

I’m thankful to the publisher. I requested a review copy and they sent it promptly. They made no demands on me nor gave me bribes. Therefore, my analysis of the manuscript is all my own, and I’m sharing it freely.

I did a video version of this review (with a little extra) on my YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/lEy2gjlp5xk