Databases as an effective tool for analyzing and preventing school shooting incidents

Abstract

The article provides a brief overview of international practices in creating services, databases for solving research tasks in the field of studying violent extremist incidents and terrorist incidents. As a basis for understanding the mechanics of such services and databases, the architecture of each example is presented, in the form of a scheme developed by the author of the article. An explanation of the schemes describes the limitations and capabilities of the services and databases. The Database of prevented and committed incidents of schoolshooting cases in Russia is developed by scientists at Tomsk Polytechnic University. Database "Results of sociological research "Schoolshooting in Russia: socio-demographic data, motives, characteristics of incidents" is registered in Rospatent. This paper formulates the relevance of the presented database for solving problems related to the study of factors and mechanisms of youth radicalization based on the idea of committing violent incidents of schoolshooting, and the research field based on schoolshooting fenomenon has been expanded. The database consists of three blocks: a search block, a systematization block, an information analysis block and includes 26 variables. In addition to the database architecture, the results of the analysis of incidents are presented; the characteristic features and the correlations identified are highlighted. The conclusion highlights the most significant results of the conducted sociological study of school shooting in Russia and the prospects for further research.