ABSTRACT
Mass shootings are now part of weekly news cycles in America. For several decades, the United States has faced an increase in the frequency and intensity of these extremely violent incidents compared to other democratic countries, which have experienced far fewer mass shootings. To understand better the phenomenon of mass shootings in America, this chapter examines three different levels of this deadly trend. The first level, macro-social, scrutinises trends in society that could explain the prevalence of mass shootings including the nature of the legal perspective on firearms, the role of news media and social media, and the increasing social alienation among the population. The second level, meso-social, addresses factors such as the socio-economic profile of communities victimised by one or multiple mass shootings and the long-term consequences of these high impact incidents. The last level – micro-social - examines individual characteristics of perpetrators and how the motivation of active shooters may connect with different dimensions of social alienation. The chapter concludes on the necessity to develop social analytical frameworks to understand better the motivations behind the targeting of specific communities and explain the repeated occurrence of mass shootings in particular geographic areas.
