Schildkraut - Mass Shootings: Media, Myths, and Realities

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MASS SHOOTINGS

Media, Myths, and Realities

Jaclyn Schildkraut and H. Jaymi Elsass

Crime, Media, and Popular Culture
Frankie Y. Bailey and Steven Chermak,
Series Editors

Copyright 2016 by Jaclyn Schildkraut and H. Jaymi Elsass

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Schildkraut, Jaclyn, author. | Elsass, H. Jaymi.

Title: Mass shootings : media, myths, and realities / Jaclyn Schildkraut and H. Jaymi Elsass.

Description: Santa Barbara, California : Praeger, [2016] | Series: Crime, media, and popular culture | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015036730 | ISBN 9781440836527 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781440836534 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Mass murder. | Firearms. | Firearms and crime. | Violent crimes. | Murder in mass media. | Violence in mass media.

Classification: LCC HV6515 .S35 2016 | DDC 364.152/34dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015036730

ISBN: 9781440836527

EISBN: 9781440836534

20 19 18 17 161 2 3 4 5

This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook.

Visit www.abc-clio.com for details.

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This book is printed on acid-free paper

Manufactured in the United States of America

To the victims of these senseless tragedies,
May your legacies live on and your losses inspire change.

This volume is part of Praegers interdisciplinary series on crime, media, and popular culture. Because of the pervasiveness of media in our lives and the salience of crime and criminal justice issues, we feel it is especially important to provide a home for scholars who are engaged in innovative and thoughtful research on crime and mass media issues. The books in the series touch on many broad themes in the study of crime and mass media, including process issues such as the social construction of crime and moral panics; presentation issues such as the images of victims, offenders, and criminal justice figures in the news and popular culture; and effects such as the influence of the media on criminal behavior and criminal justice administration.

One frequently used criminal justice model that illustrates the differences in specific types of criminal justice case processes is the criminal justice wedding cake (Walker, 1998). The wedding cake model describes four layers. At the bottom are misdemeanors: cases that are not serious and that are processed efficiently but that still account for a large percentage of criminal court personnel time because most cases fall within this layer. Another layer of cases that is processed quickly includes less-serious felonies. Although these cases are of more concern because they are serious crimes, court personnel still generally dispose of these with plea bargains and reduction of sentence because they fit common understandings of typical cases. The third layer identified includes serious felony cases. These events are of much higher priority, and court personnel exert considerably more time and effort to process these cases. Unlike the other layers, where cases are resolved amicably through plea bargaining, these cases often test the boundaries of the adversary court system with trials and hotly contested legal hearings. Although it is true that more time, effort, and concern are devoted to resolving cases that fall into this layer, ultimately, just like the misdemeanors and less-serious cases, these cases are quickly forgotten. Any of these cases might be covered in the news, but if any coverage occurs, it generally tends to be light and presented in areas that are not as frequently read or watched.

The final layer of wedding cake cases, however, is quite different. This layer refers to the celebrated cases of the criminal justice system. There are many examples of such cases, but for instance, consider the impacts of the terrorist attacks from September 11, 2001. This case was processed differently by criminal justice professionals, as every available resource was spent to manage the crisis and save evidence related to the attacks. It was the type of event that stops news workers in their tracksonce the first airplane struck the World Trade Center tower, it was clear that no other event that occurred would be important enough to be in the news that day. Newspapers devoted almost all of their space to coverage of the case, other television programming stopped, and the focus was on the events and the analysis of what was occurring. The Internet was overwhelmed by people trying to get any information or breaking news about what was occurring. The impacts on society have been tremendous: new government agencies have been formed, law enforcement priorities have changed, and legislation has been passed. The attacks quickly became part of the publics collective conscious influencing how people view terrorists and nonterrorists, creating fears and concerns about events that are not likely to ever occur again. It is thus important to better understand what events become celebrated cases, how the media describes and defines them, and how they change society.

In this book by Jaclyn Schildkraut and H. Jaymi Elsass, the reader is provided important insights into this phenomenon. It seems all too frequent that American society is punctuated by a mass shooting that brings to our attention extant threats of violence and concerns about safety. When mass shootings occur, there is often widespread concern and discussions among key stakeholders that try to not only explain what motivated an individual to do such a horrible act, but what can be done to prevent others from occurring. For example, although school shootings are statistically rare events, often they will be extensively covered and, as documented here, will result in widespread changes both within and external to schools focused on prevention of future attacks. The target of such discussions is often guns and gun control, opening up widespread debate about why there are so many guns in society, how they are used, and how we can better regulate them.