The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic

"A gripping book that will captivate anyone seeking to understand why mass shootings occur and what might be done to recognize and intervene with potential shooters before they act.”―Library Journal (starred review)

This examination of the phenomenon of mass shootings in America is an urgent call to implement evidence-based strategies to stop these tragedies.

Using data from the writers’ groundbreaking research on mass shooters, including first-person accounts from the perpetrators themselves, The Violence Project charts new pathways to prevention and innovative ways to stop the social contagion of violence.

Frustrated by policy conversations that never seemed to convert into meaningful action, special investigator and psychologist Jill Peterson and sociologist James Densley built The Violence Project, the first comprehensive database of mass shooters. Their goal was to establish the root causes of mass shootings and figure out how to stop them by examining hundreds of data points in the life histories of more than 170 mass shooters—from their childhood and adolescence to their mental health and motives.

They’ve also interviewed the living perpetrators of mass shootings and people who knew them, shooting survivors, victims’ families, first responders, and leading experts to gain a comprehensive firsthand understanding of the real stories behind them, rather than the sensationalized media narratives that too often prevail.

For the first time, instead of offering thoughts and prayers for the victims of these crimes, Peterson and Densley share their data-driven solutions for exactly what we must do—at the individual level, in our communities, and as a country—to put an end to these tragedies that have defined our modern era.

“Groundbreaking.” ―Rachel Louise Snyder, bestselling author of No Visible Bruises

Jillian Peterson, PhD, is a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Hamline University. She has led large-scale research studies on mental illness and crime, school shootings, and mass violence.

James Densley, PhD, is a professor of criminal justice at Metropolitan State University, which is part of the Minnesota State system. He is known for his international work on gangs, criminal networks, violent extremism, and policing.

Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, Peterson and Densley run The Violence Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research center known worldwide for its work on mass shooting prevention. The Violence Project has featured in CNN, Fox News, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and other leading media outlets.