Book Review of Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings, by Katherine Newman

In the late 1990s a pandemic of juvenile violence shocked America in a setting previously believed to be safe; the school system. Between 1997 and 2001, there were 8 major "rampage school shootings" across America. Although that number may seem minute, it was more the nature of these violent acts that sent experts, the media and the general public into a frenzy. Countless experts spent hours interviewing and observing the juvenile perpetrators and their communities, family, and other social networks. These experts developed at least over a dozen comprehensive yet totally diverse theories for the shootings. Warning signs were sought out after the fact, and surprisingly disturbing results were uncovered. Katherine Newman, author of Rampage and professor at Princeton University, developed a new social theory of crime out of her observations in two communities traumatized by school shootings.

On December 1, 1997 in West Paducah, Kentucky, 14 year old Michael Carneal opened fire on a prayer group at his high school, killing three students, paralyzing one student and injuring at least four more. Less than four months later, 11 year old Andrew Golden and 13 year old Mitchell Johnson also went on a shooting spree outside their middle school, killing five people (including one teacher) and wounding at least seven others in less than five minutes. The belligerent acts of these three adolescent white males mortified America. The nature of their horrendous crimes tore apart communities and families, both proximal and far from to the actual shooting locations. Everyone wanted to know what had gone wrong, and the shooting and shooters quickly became a foci of scholarly research.

Initial efforts to study the host communities of these two shootings were mandated by Congress in a 1999 Act. The examination of school shootings soon became a "full-blown scholarly obsession" (Newman 19). Katherine Newman and her associates were among those consumed with a desire for answers. What they and others discovered in the small communities of West Paducah and Jonesboro was surprising. Both towns were small communities with tight networks and strong Christian ties. They had low crime rates, and members of both communities knew and respected one another. It is perhaps for these very reasons that delinquents were able to slip through the crack of these communities unnoticed.

Theorists hypothesized about many different factors responsible for causing this unusual violent juvenile behavior. Some of the most popular explanations for school shootings have included the following: mental illness, the "he just snapped" excuses, family problems, bullying, peer support, culture of violence, gun availability, violent media and the copycat effect. However, even the most widely accepted theory, the theory of bullying, has not been proven to be a sole contributing factor to outrageous violence in juveniles. Upon this realization, Katherine Newman developed her own theory.

Newman recognized that it was not logical to blame rampages on any one of these theories. The fact is, millions of adolescents have endured the afore mentioned difficulties yet never resort to violence. Newman's theory is a multidimensional theory, in that it holds that school shootings occur only with a convergence of several necessary (but not sufficient) factors. It also acknowledges that since the school shooting rampages generally took place in small urban communities, the traditional theories of violent crime are not applicable to these rampages.

The urban community structure provides for much more complex and nebulous instigations of violence. Newman painfully pushes past a convincing idyllic façade to reveal the intrinsic flaws of urban community and school culture. The structure of small urban schools causes problems in administrative communications. These small communities are very isolated, causing an abundance of gossip and secrets. The citizens of these communities are protective of each other and respect one another. These close connections can actually begin to suffocate instead of support. Since there are not many places for social interaction, the schools are the social stage for adolescents. A hierarchy of popularity within the schools places pressure on adolescents to stand out while still fitting in. The danger in this situation is not actually with those at the top of the hierarchy, or those at the bottom. The unforeseen danger lies with those adolescents who are pushed to the middle, placed in a marginal category in a setting that entices them to stand out. Newman suggests that the studied school shooters were stuck in the middle of this proclaimed social ladder, with no perceived way to elevate their statuses. The shooters therefore came to the immature conclusion that if they could not move to the top of the hierarchy, they would instead jump off the ladder completely with an infamous act of violence.
As the urban schools are the main opportunity for adolescent social interaction, they were also the obvious target of defiant attempts for notoriety.

It is on the foundation of these insights that Newman builds her theory. The theory states the following five necessary conditions for school shooting rampages: the shooter's "marginal" view of himself in relation to his community, some form of vulnerability on an individual level (e.g. mental illness), a learned appreciation and/or glorification of armed violence, a failure for recognition of warning signs within the school system, and accessibility to weapons. The theory implores that each of these conditions must be present to instigate a rampage, but none are sufficient alone.

Newman maintains that improvement in communication within the school system is the most important prevention measure to be taken. In her opinion, schools would benefit greatly from extended access to disciplinary and mental health records of students. Newman is of the opinion that the desperate need for prevention measures overshadows the complimentary protection of students' privacy. She also asserts that schools would benefit from programs encouraging students to report all threats and providing resources for problems such as bullying.

Overall, Newman's theoretical approach to rampage school shootings is a leap from the traditional criminological theories. However, if Newman is correct in assuming that traditional crime theories are not applicable to rampages, her theory is precisely on target. Perhaps the atypical nature of these violent juvenile crimes warrants a dramatic separation from traditions. In this aspect, Newman has truly developed an adroit theory worthy of promulgation.