Ten-years after the school massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, school shootings are a new and alarming epidemic. While sociologists have attributed the trigger of violence to peer pressure, such as bullying and social isolation, prominent psychologist Peter Langman, argues here that psychological causes are responsible.
Drawing on 20-years of clinical experience, Langman offers surprising reasons for why some teens become violent. Langman divides shooters into three categories, and he discusses the role of personality, trauma, and psychosis among school shooters.
From examining the material evidence of notorious school shooters at Columbine and Virginia Tech to addressing the mental states of the violent youths he treats, Langman shows how to identify early signs of homicide-prone youth and what preventive measures educators, parents and communities can take to protect themselves from the tragedy.
"A very strong resource for school counselors and parents. The author meets his task of truly getting into the minds of school shooters."
BNET
"Peter Langman's book Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters is a highly readable, engaging text that analyzes 10 school shooters, outlines a typology that classifies school shooters into three distinct categories, uses the author's personal experience in assessing potential school shooters, and outlines practical lessons from foiled and actual attacks…The author's extensive review of
Brandon Robbins, Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books
"Langman offers a paradigm of three specific categories of youth offenders--psychopathic, psychotic, or traumatized. . . Langman fully discusses long-term exposure to violence, genetic predisposition to violence, recurrent alienation from mainstream society, depression, narcissism, and lack of empathy, as well as improperly challenged and constrained rage in the context of these three categories .
