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Purpose – The consumption of violent media contents has been discussed as a risk factor for school shootings repeatedly. The results of research on U.S.-American offenders support this notion. However, to date only little is known about the extent to which these findings may be transferred and generalized to perpetrators from other countries.

Method – We analyzed the case files on seven school shootings perpetrated in Germany between 1999 and 2006.

Findings – In five cases, detailed qualitative content analyses revealed a marked interest in media violence during the years prior to the offense. In some cases, the media consumption slowly replaced other leisure activities, focussed on topics related to the offenses as killing sprees or former school shootings, and was partly described as being addictive. One offender even utilized the media for his own purposes in order to present himself postmortem. However, two perpetrators did not show any peculiar interest in media violence.

Practical and social implications – Violent media consumption is no necessary condition for school shootings, but seems to promote the development toward an offense under certain circumstances. Therefore, intensive media consumption, especially if thematically related to an offense, should be taken seriously and considered in prevention and intervention efforts.

Originality/value of chapter – The findings add to the literature on risk factors for school shootings with regard to violent media consumption. The subject is analyzed in detail in a sample of German offenders, thereby widening the scope of analyzed school shootings.

This study aims to uncover in-depth examples of how emergent media affects parents’ views and socialization efforts. The study examines these views and efforts in the context of violent commercials.

The authors collected data for this paper using two studies. In Study 1, they collected data from the internet. Comments related to “violent ads” or “violent commercials” were collated and analyzed. For Study 2, they conducted in-depth interviews with mothers on their views on parental mediation and impact of media on their children.

The internet data helped develop a parental definition of violent ads and identify that parents lie on a continuum regarding their concerns about violent commercials. Further in-depth questioning of parents on the above finding led to the identification of four clusters of parents. “Media managers” attempt to control and restrict their child’s media environment while educating their child about the effects of violent commercials. “Enablers” spend abundant time co-viewing primetime TV while engaging their child in conversations on violence, but not on violent ads. To maintain harmony in the household, “Harmonizers” merely restrict viewing of violent commercials without educating their child about its effects. Finally, “Agent evaluators” are likely to co-view violent commercials, without discussing them with their child.

First, several of the parental segments (media managers, enablers and harmonizers) tend to note some concerns with violence in advertising. Importantly, this concern for violence appears to be limited to gore and use of physical weapon. Second, while parents do not have homogenous views on violent ads, those who are concerned also have differing roots of concern. This influences their mediation efforts. Third, socialization is bi-directional at times.

Many parents do not approve are the use of physical violence, use of weapons and depiction of blood/gore even in ads for movies or videogames. Advertisers might be wise to avoid such content in ads directed to children. Second, if media and marketing managers could plan to sponsor TV shows (vs placing violent ads) that offer ad-free program time, parents might respond positively. Third, as socialization is bi-directional, advertisers could consider using ad scenarios where parents and children engage with the pros and cons of a certain product or content, thus enabling parent-child conversations to make an informed decision.

Many parents notice violence in ads; policymakers could consider developing ratings for ads that consider the amount and type of violence while rating an ad. Second, a focus on increasing parental awareness on the harms of constantly exposing children to violent commercials might change the views of some parents who currently believe that a few or no violent commercials are being aired during children’s programs. Finally, parents envisage a greater role for media in their lives, and policymakers will have to suggest ways to effectively integrate media content in one’s lives rather than just suggest bans or restrictions.

The contributions of this paper include viewers’ (vs researchers’) definition of violent commercials, showcasing that parents are likely to manage media using new media options such as Netflix, and some parents are likely to co-create rules with their children.

This paper seeks to examine whether violence embedded in stories in ads can contribute to advertising effectiveness along the same lines as well‐researched ad elements such as the celebrity endorser and the physically attractive ad model. More specifically, the paper aims to assess whether violent content in an ad story adds to excitement perceptions and to overall evaluations such as the attitude toward the ad and the attitude toward the advertised product.

The paper uses an experimental approach comprising two studies in which participants were randomly allocated to ads with different levels of violence in an ad story.

The main finding is that representations of real violence (as opposed to staged violence) produced higher levels of excitement, attitude toward the story, attitude toward the ad, and attitude toward the advertised product compared with no violence. Such effects, however, were moderated by the level of congruence between the ad story and the advertised product; the highest response levels were obtained for ads with violent story content dealing explicitly with the advertised product.

The finding that violent stories in ads can have a positive charge is consonant with the assumption that violence is a narrative device that may heighten the excitement created by a story. It is also in accord with the observation that many consumers appear to relish stories with a violent content. Yet the main finding challenges existing research on violent ads in which violence consists of an image visually co‐exposed with a brand – and it questions the dominant approach in media violence research, which emphasizes the negative effects of media violence.

This study aims to evaluate social media’s role in facilitating criminal activities in Zimbabwe and determine how social media platforms have been embraced by the Zimbabwean police to curb criminal activities.

A total of 72 participants from the Zimbabwean police and 5 non-police security experts were invited to participate in this study through questionnaires and in-depth interviews. The study was confined to an urban policing area, which is policed by approximately 400 police officers.

The facilitation of violent protests was found to be the major threat that is posed by social media in Zimbabwe, with social media platforms playing a catalytic role in fuelling these violent protests. Social media is also playing a significant role in the spread of fake news, with the intention of causing fear and panic amongst citizens. Findings also reveal that the Zimbabwe police have embraced social media platforms for sharing crime prevention tips, receiving crime reports, engaging with citizens and gathering crime intelligence.

The study provides context-specific information on the threats posed by social media on a developing nation that has been characterised by a myriad of socio-economic challenges, as well as how these social media platforms have been embraced for crime prevention and control. Given limited empirical research on social media and national security in Zimbabwe, this study adds to the existing body of knowledge.

Purpose – The relationship of media influences and school shootings is analyzed on the background of an integrating metatheoretical framework, derived from socialization theory and a media appropriation model grounded in action theory.

Design/approach – Empirical findings and dynamic models of the significance of the media in the genesis of school shootings are integrated into the framework based on a review of the literature. Special focus is placed on the subjective functionality of the perpetrators’ prior media use, which is examined for its dependence on individual, cultural/societal, and interpersonal factors.

Findings – School shootings are a form of extreme violence where monocausal explanations fall short and cannot adequately account for the complex multifactorial causes of the phenomenon. However, we come to the conclusion that particular media do play a special role in the origination of school shootings, but in a way that can only be adequately comprehended if they are examined in connection with specific individual, socio-cultural, and interpersonal dynamics.

Originality/value – The chapter presents a conceptual frame within which possible relationships between media influence and school shootings are identified in the socialization contexts of the adolescent perpetrators.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of reconciliation and retaliation story endings on subsequent aggressive affect and behavior.

Participants took part in two ostensibly unrelated studies. The first involved reading a violent story, attributed to a biblical or secular source, which ended in either brutal retaliation or peaceful reconciliation. They then took part in a second study in which they completed measures of aggressive affect and behavior.

Participants told that their stories came from a secular source experienced a more aggressive affect than those told that their stories came from a biblical source. In terms of behavioral aggression, a significant difference in effect of the story ending on males and females emerged. Females who read the reconciliation ending had lower levels of behavioral aggression than females who read the retaliation ending. Conversely, males who read the reconciliation ending had higher levels of behavioral aggression than males who read the retaliation ending.

These findings suggest that media depictions of prosocial reactions to unprovoked aggression may not reduce aggression in men.

Results are discussed in terms of moral values espoused by women and men and suggest that anti-violence messages may be strengthened to the extent they address the values important to both.

This study extends research on violent media exposure to a burgeoning literature on reading violent content.

The purpose of this paper is to complement the scant macroeconomic literature on the development outcomes of social media by examining the relationship between Facebook penetration and violent crime levels in a cross-section of 148 countries for the year 2012.

The empirical evidence is based on ordinary least squares (OLS), Tobit and quantile regressions. In order to respond to policy concerns on the limited evidence on the consequences of social media in developing countries, the data set is disaggregated into regions and income levels. The decomposition by income levels included: low income, lower middle income, upper middle income and high income. The corresponding regions include: Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

From OLS and Tobit regressions, there is a negative relationship between Facebook penetration and crime. However, quantile regressions reveal that the established negative relationship is noticeable exclusively in the 90th crime quantile. Further, when the data set is decomposed into regions and income levels, the negative relationship is evident in the MENA while a positive relationship is confirmed for Sub-Saharan Africa. Policy implications are discussed.

Studies on the development outcomes of social media are sparse because of a lack of reliable macroeconomic data on social media. This study primarily complemented three existing studies that have leveraged on a newly available data set on Facebook.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential for developing a model for differentiating school shooters based on their characteristics (or risk factors) before the attack took place.

Data on 40 school shootings was compiled from the National School Safety Center’s Report on School Associated Violent Deaths and media accounts. Content analysis of the cases produced a set of 18 variables relating to offenders’ characteristics (or risk factors). Data were subjected to Smallest Space Analysis (SSA), a non-metric multidimensional scaling procedure.

Results revealed three distinct themes: Disturbed School Shooter, Rejected School Shooter and Criminal School Shooter. Further analysis identified links between these themes with the family background of the offender.

These findings have both significant theoretical implications in the understanding of school shooters and the crime in general. They offer potential for practical applications in terms of prevention and intervention strategies. A key limitation relates to the quality of data.

This is the first study to develop a model for differentiating school shooter characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is to explore non-violent pornography within secure hospital settings.

It includes a systematic review (n = 40 papers), followed by a qualitative study comprising semi-structured interviews (n = 24, 6 patients and 18 staff) and staff focus groups (n = 22 staff).

The systematic review identified six themes, as follows: pornography is inconsistently defined, pornography exposure can increase general aggression, pornography exposure may increase the risk for sexual aggression, pornography exposure can increase aggression supportive beliefs, pornography exposure impacts negatively on those with a violent predisposition and pornography is educational for men not identifying as heterosexual. The semi-structured interviews and focus groups revealed four themes as follows: staff members hold diverse beliefs about pornographic material, pornography is difficult to obtain and use for patients who do not identify as heterosexual, pornography is used for specific functions, and frequent exposure to pornography can have negative effects for staff members.

Trying to obtain consensus on the impacts of pornography on forensic patients is not possible; material access decisions should be on a case-by-case basis. Policy decisions should be based on fully represented views, including the LGBTI community. The impacts on staff of their occupational exposure to such material should be recognised and support provided. Clinical decision-making in this area should consider not only if access should be allowed but also how it can be managed safely, if at all. This includes for all those who could be exposed to such material, inadvertently or otherwise.

It addresses the under-researched area of patient access to pornography, capturing a poorly considered sample, namely, high secure psychiatric.