In eight days, three mass shootings occurred in California, totaling 19 deaths and many injuries. The violence is not isolated to California. A CNN article’s headline read, “Three weeks and 39 mass shootings. This is America in 2023.” In just the first three weeks of 2023, there have been 39 mass shootings in the U.S. As these tragedies unfold, Americans ask, “Why?” There is no single answer. Lone shooters often take their own lives or are killed by law enforcement, leaving many unanswered questions. Even if the shooters are arrested and brought to court, it is still challenging to understand the “why” behind the mass shootings. The Netflix series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has surpassed the billion-hour viewing mark, making it the most-watched. A significant reason for the show’s success is that viewers want to know the “why” behind the serial killings. Netflix’s Mindhunter is another series that delves into the “why” of real-life notorious serial killers.
Let’s pause a moment to consider how the discipline of sociology might assist in answering the “why” behind the 39 mass shootings this year and the high-profile serial killings. Remember that sociology is the scientific study of social relationships, institutions, and societies. Therefore, approaching the “why” requires using the scientific research method to produce the desired outcomes and maintain the integrity of the process. More specifically, sociologists would employ the eight steps of the scientific method.
- Step 1: Define the Question or Problem
- Step 2: Review the Literature
- Step 3: Develop Hypotheses
- Step 4: Choose a Research Design and Methods
- Step 5: Collect the Data
- Step 6: Analyze the Data
- Step 7: Develop Conclusions
- Step 8: Report Results and Pose New Questions
What questions would you want to ask about mass shootings? Why has there been an increase? Can cultural, economic, and social patterns help explain mass shootings? Why are there more mass shootings in the U.S. compared to Western European countries? Hint: one reason is the astronomical number of guns in the U.S. compared to Europe.
Would you like to venture a hypothesis, an educated guess about a relationship between two or more situations, events, or factors? How about, “When there is an economic downturn, mass shootings increase.” Does anomie, the breakdown of social values, norms, and order resulting in social instability, lead to individuals experiencing stress and hopelessness, thus leading to more mass shootings?
Which research design would be the best fit? The quantitative research design, data collection using systematic and numerical measures to generalize across groups of people, or the qualitative research design, data collection using interviews and fieldwork, observation, photos, texts, and other subjective measures. It might be difficult to gain access to mass shooters in prison to conduct interviews. Therefore, using existing data might be more accessible, quicker, and cost-effective. A review of the literature would find a 2021 article titled “Quantitative Analysis of Mass Shootings in Central and Eastern Europe.” This article would help evaluate a cross-cultural comparison between the U.S. and Europe.
What do you think you would learn (your conclusions) about the “why” for the increase in mass shootings in the U.S.? Is it related to economics? Guns? Mental health issues? By following the 8 steps of the scientific method, you would ensure validity, the extent to which a study measures what it claims to measure, and reliability, the extent to which a study yields the same result on repeated studies. Ideally, the results of your research would be used by policymakers to develop new policies to reduce the cultural, economic, and social factors contributing to the increase in mass shootings. We may never understand all of the “whys,” but by using the scientific research method, we will get closer.
Thompson is a co-owner of UITAC Publishing. UITAC’s mission is to provide high-quality, affordable, and socially responsible online course materials.
Images used in this blog:
- “Person Holding Yellow and White Labeled Paper” by cottonbro studio is licensed on Pexels. This image has not been altered.
- “The word methodology spelled out with scrabble tiles” by Markus Winkler is licensed on Pexels. This image has not been altered.
- “Chart on Black Background” by cottonbro studio is licensed on Pexels. This image has not been altered.
