Exploring the empirical literature on mass shooting: A mixed-method systematic review of peer-reviewed journal articles

Abstract

Abstract Due to the devastating impact on victims and society, scholars have started to pay more attention to the phenomenon of mass shootings (MS) in the United States. While the extant literature has given us important insights, disparities in conceptualizations, operationalizations, and methods of identifying and collecting data on these incidents have made it difficult for researchers and audiences to come to a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the characteristics of offenders, causes and consequences. Using a mixed-method systematic review, this study seeks to assess the state of scholarly research in journal articles regarding MS in the United States. Using SCOPUS as the search database, a total of 73 peer-reviewed journal articles on MS within the United States published between 1999 and 2018 were included in this study. This study finds the number of articles published on MS has increased dramatically between 1999 and 2018. Also, most of the MS studies tend to rely heavily on open-source data using the different definitions of MS. We further examined and discussed theoretical frameworks, methodology, and policy suggestions used in each study. Based on the findings of this study, we suggested implications for future research.