Hi there, I’m an American living in Austria who was not only shocks by the events in Graz, but also by the immediate impulse here to assume that the perpetrator was bullied and to offer him sympathy despite there being no evidence to support this.
I realize that in the coming days it might be revealed that the perpetrator was in fact bullied, but as we all know: correlation does not equal causation. More importantly, data on school shoutings show that there’s not even much correlation to begin with.
So anyway, I read through quite a few articles and research papers and wrote this short essay to explain why this myth exists, why it’s is not supported very well by data, and why we want to believe it anyway.
The persistent narrative that school shooters are often victims of relentless bullying until they finally snap is a simple, emotionally satisfying explanation for the senselessness we’re confronted with in the aftermath of a school shooting. But facts don’t care about our feelings, and the idea that most school shooters are social outcasts who snap under pressure just isn’t supported by research.
A 2014 report by the FBI found that only less than half of the shooters had experienced bullying. Even fewer had a history of being frequently bullied (Vox). (FBI).So, while some shooters may have been bullied, the majority were not…so shouldn’t we assume that a shooter was not bullied in the immediate aftermath rather than assuming he was?
Further research has shown that many school shooters were less often victims and more often perpetrators of bullying themselves. They engaged in harassment of other students or violent behavior long before their attacks. Many were described by peers and school counselors as (or through their own writings shown to be) aggressive, controlling, or to have superiority complexes. Traits more closely linked to narcissism and entitlement than victimhood (YourTango) ([FBI]https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/stats-services-publications-school-shooter-school-shooter/view)).
(Edit:) Even in cases where shooters were bullied, the perpetrators do not usually seek out their bullies during their attacks, instead choosing to kill randomly and indiscriminately. Instances with targeted victims tend to focus on girls that rejected the shooter’s advances or school administrators. This further casts doubt on bullying being the primary motivation. (Langman).
A comprehensive dissertation from Florida State University analyzing 48 school shooters found that shooters often displayed a "retributive mindset". They weren't acting out of despair, but rather revenge (FSU dissertation). Many of them perceived minor slights or normal social dynamics as deep personal offenses. In short, they weren’t bullied into snapping. They felt entitled to control and dominate their peers, and when that failed or their superiority complex was no longer able to be maintained, they lashed out violently.
(But as stated above, their retribution was seldom targeted at individuals they felt slighted by. Rather it focused on punishing society as a whole.)
The Department of Education came to similar conclusions in their report on targeted school violence (ERIC report). The report emphasizes that while some shooters did experience some level of bullying, the overwhelming majority seemed to have had other motivations including an obsession with past mass shootings, uncontrolled anger linked with poor home environments, and a desire to leave behind a legacy. Only a fraction cited bullying as a primary motivator.
All in all, the highest correlating factor was an unstable home life (poverty, alcoholic parents, abuse, etc), not conflict with peers in school. But even this factor was not a given.
(Edit:) Depression or a history of depressive episodes is also one of the highest correlating factors, though many perpetrators are found to show no signs of diagnosable mental illness at the time of their crimes.
So why does the myth persist?
It's easier to understand an act of extreme violence when we can reduce it to cause and effect.
We want to believe people are driven to do terrible things rather than choosing to do them.
One of the first school shootings to be featured prominently in the media, Columbine, had its perpetrators painted as bullied loners, despite evidence (videos, pictures, journals, school activities, invitations to parties, their parents and peers’ statements) showing them to have been relatively popular, socially and romantically active, and more bullies than bullying victims. Despite the facts, media depicts continue to rely on this stereotype of the bullied loner acting out for the reasons stated above.
by Limp-Celebration2710
17 comments
Thank you!
I was bullied so badly as a teen that I developed CPTSD and received death threats, yet it never occurred to me to start any shooting. Honestly, this whole narrative of ‘he did it because of the bullying’ feels insulting. Not only to actual victims of bullying, but also to the victims of the shooting.
„ the highest correlating factor was an unstable home life (poverty, alcoholic parents, abuse, etc)“
„It’s easier to understand an act of extreme violence when we can reduce it to cause and effect.
We want to believe people are driven to do terrible things rather than choosing to do them.“
Komplett wahr, und es hilft niemandem, wenn wir die echten Statistiken nicht anschauen. Mobbing ist ein Problem, aber wir sollen es nicht gleich als den einzigen Grund dafür nehmen.
Danke, liest hoffentlich der Kasperl, der hier gestern einen Post gemacht hat, wir müssen uns nur alle lieb haben. In manchen Kommentaren wurde ja sogar den Lehrern die Schuld gegeben. Man tut den Mobbingopfern damit auch keinen Gefallen, wenn man jeden gleich unter Verdacht stellt, ein Amokläufer zu werden.
In this case, what is known about the shooter? They almost always leave a letter or make statements on their networks.
Except that there are countless studies that do show the connection between bullying and excessively aggressive behavior.
Why of all institutions would anyone trust the FBI to make an independent study? They will simply deliver whatever result is expected from them.
Edit: yes, sure, downvote this. Because then you can claim the world is in order, we don’t have to do anything about bullying, this could not have been prevented, this was jjust a crazy loner. It helps you sleep at night, I get it.
Thank you!
I think it is only natural that people want to find a reason as to why someone would do that. One cannot believe that such a horrible act could happen for „trivial“ reasons. We‘d like to think that this is a tortured soul who must have endured years and years of people being bad to them because no human in there right mind would do such a thing for something „banal“.
Re: „an obsession with past mass shootings“:
I actually think school shootings should be treated like suicide when it comes to news coverage (as in, not report about it) – I mean, who does it really help to make such a sensation out of it?
I am Austrian living in Australia. Americans and Austrians would find the gun control extreme here, it is much harder to get guns. But school shootings never happen here.
“the highest correlating factor was an unstable home life (poverty, alcoholic parents, abuse, etc)“” genau dort wo es jetzt schon an jeder Ecke kracht.
Thank you for the Post, it is just brutal to think that in the heart of europe there are innocent children living already in such extremes that they get pushed into violence.
Shut up and fuck off with your FBI bullshit whatever data they have from the land of the retarded and mentally unstable. You think you can just take the where mass shootings happen daily and school shootings weekly and use it for a different country where incidents like that are decades apart?
There is real data in suicide statistics and mobbing victims and this is a real problem which you are making light of.
There hasn’t even been a concludet investigation and you are already poisoning the well!
Kann auch sein, dass Leute absichtlich solche Amokläufe mit Mobbing verbinden wollen, um eine Awareness für Mobbing zu schaffen, da Mobbing sonst einfach keinen juckt. Seien wir uns mal ehrlich, Mobbing existiert wahrscheinlich schon seit den Anfängen der Zivilisation und bisher hat man noch keine Lösung dafür gefunden, weil’s einfach keinen interessiert, bis man selbst davon betroffen ist.
Polizei tut nix, Lehrer tun nix, Eltern dürfen nichts tun, Politiker tun sowieso nie etwas.
Ok…”so less than half of the shooters were bullied” and “many shooters were bullies themselves”
Seems like bullying really plays an important role here. Sometimes it’s the victims who snap, Sometimes the perpetrators. But bullying seems to be the cause for more than 50%, which is the number 1 cause, right?
I genuinely think there’s a huge gap in data.
You think teachers and other pupils who mobbed the perpetrator speak up in the aftermath? You think those bastards are that upstanding and say, yes, I was the one who mobbed this guy for years and I‘m the reason he shot 20 people? You think the teachers who failed in protecting their pupils speak up and get blamed for not doing enough?
I think there‘s a huge gap in data not only because barely anyone gets the psychological help they need and also because the ones responsible for mobbing and the ones who neglected their duties of protecting the students from the Mobbers chicken out.
Sure, there are things like problems at home, incel ideology, gang wars, etc. but this whole post sounds like a failed attempt at coping and discrediting the problems associated with mobbing.
>[…] though many perpetrators are found to show no signs of diagnosable mental illness at the time of their crimes.
I guess this is true for many mentally ill people. It is hard to diagnose, and even harder post mortem.
Of course the story of the “kid being bullied turning against the bullies or random people” is oversimplified and can therefore often be untrue. But I think that mental illness is a very important factor, and bullying can certainly contribute to mental health problems. But of course the same is true for many other factors you also mentioned (unstable home, …).
Thank you. As a former victim of bullying, this is what my gut has been telling me. It’s more entitlement and the wish for revenge, rather than bullying. Although bullying definitely deserves more attention and interventions than it is currently getting in society.
USA ≠ Österreich
Das mag in der USA so sein. Aber ich bezweifel stark, dass das in Österreich gleich ist. Es ist aber nicht so einfach, das zu vergleichen deshalb ein paar Punkte:
Das österreichische Schulsystem unterscheidet sich fundamental vom amerikanischen System. Österreich hat eine gesetzliche Schulpflicht bis zum 18. Lebensjahr und ein stark strukturiertes öffentliches Bildungssystem.
Österreich hatte bis zu diesem Vorfall seit 1993 nur **vier** dokumentierte Vorfälle mit Schusswaffen in Schulen, wobei keiner mehr als ein Todesopfer forderte. Diese Seltenheit macht jeden einzelnen Fall umso bedeutsamer für die Analyse der Ursachen.
Die Mobbingprävalenz ist sowohl in den USA als auch in Österreich hoch, wobei Österreich im europäischen Vergleich besonders auffällt und laut mehreren Studien sogar über dem US-Niveau liegt. Die Unterschiede in den Zahlen können durch unterschiedliche Erhebungsmethoden und Definitionen von Mobbing erklärt werden.
Österreich 16–21 % (OECD), bis 50 % (Einzelstudien)Buben (21,3 %), 13-Jährige
USA 19 % (NCES), 34 % (NHIS)Mädchen (22 %), 12–17 J.
Der Post gestern wegen Mitgefühl und für den Täter und Mobbing ist genauso Bullshit wie dieser hier. Unglaublich was für Scheiß auf dem Sub reaktionär hochgewählt wird. Ist ja schön dass du Daten aus Amerika vorlegst, es ist noch kein Statement von offizieller Seite da wegen Gründen oder Motiven. Aber Hauptsache mutmaßen. Und schon einleiten mit dem Satz “Ich bin Amerikaner der in Österreich lebt” ist ja super das gibt dir nicht auf magische Weise irgendeine Expertise.
Ist es so schwer einfach die Goschn zu halten, abzuwarten und zu trauern anstatt sich wichtig zu machen?
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