The Violence Project:
How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic
By Jillian Peterson & James Densley
Winner of the 2022 Minnesota Book Award
An examination of mass shootings in America and an urgent call to action to stop these tragedies using first-person accounts from perpetrators, survivors, and families.
2022 Published Essays
- The Conversation – More mass shootings are happening at grocery stores – 13% of shooters are motivated by racial hatred, criminologists find
- The Conversation – Accused Buffalo mass shooter had threatened a shooting while in high school. Could more have been done to avert the tragedy?
- Washington Post – Ideology is not at the root of most mass shootings
2021 Published Essays
- The Conversation – School shootings are at a record high this year – but they can be prevented
- The Conversation – Knoxville school shooting serves as a stark reminder of the familiar – but preventable – threat
- Ed Week – Assessing shooting threats is a matter of life or death: Why aren’t experts better at it?
- Los Angeles Times – The Powerful message behind charging the parents in the Michigan school shooting
- Los Angeles Times – Why mass shootings stopped in 2020 and are now roaring back
- Los Angeles Times – The rise in school shooting threats is alarming, and a cry for help
- Star Tribune – School closures are costly caution – but are still not enough to prevent tragedies
- Star Tribune – The mass shootings are back, as is the question: Why?
- Sun Sentinel – One Second from Columbine at Lehigh Acres
- The Tennessean – Students, teachers must feel safe to report school shooting threats
- Washington Post – School shootings are increasing – and changing. Easily accessible guns are to blame
2020 Published Essays
- The Conversation – U.S. gun violence: Too many people have died in 2020 – and COVID played a larger part than you think
- MinnPost – Break the cycle: Five changes in Minnesota policing that can be enacted right now
- Pioneer Press – If they want to improve police in Minnesota, legislators need to know this
2019 Published Essays
- The Conversation – University of North Carolina at Charlotte shooting had these things in common with other campus shootings.
- The Conversation – School shooters usually show these signs of distress long before they open fire
- The Conversation – Colorado shooting eerily recalls Columbine massacre
- The Conversation – How Columbine became a blueprint for school shooters
- Ed Week – What school shooters have in common
- Los Angeles Times – Why do people attack places of worship?
- Los Angeles Times – There is no single profile of a mass shooter. Our data show there are five types
- Los Angeles Times – We analyzed 53 years of mass shooting data. Attacks aren’t just increasing, they’re getting deadlier
- Los Angeles Times – We have studied every mass shooting since 1966. Here’s what we’ve learned about the shooters
- Minnesota Association of School Administrators – School Shootings: What Administrators Need to Know
- Star Tribune – Terrorism is a performance. Stop watching
- USA Today – We can do more to prevent workplace shootings like Aurora, Illinois
Published Essays 2015 – 2018
- CNN – The usual approach to school security isn’t working
- CNN – How social media sends extremism into overdrive
- MinnPost – Police crisis intervention training: We need a new paradigm, not a new building
- Pioneer Press – For police training, do the research to figure out what work
- Star Tribune – Preventing mass school shootings? Here’s a key first step
- Star Tribune – Why the trend of posting gruesome acts online?
- Star Tribune – Verdict in police shooting of Philando Castile: The fear defense should have us all afraid
- Star Tribune – Untangling the roots of school violence
- Star Tribune – Mental illness and violence: Not so easy to connect the dots