School Shooters and Spree Killers SEMESTER XXX - XXX 201X

Instructor: Dr. Mike Egnoto Email: megnoto@umd.edu Office Hours: appointment (email any time)

Course Canvas, Website Email

Student Eligibility Completed 61+ credits before beginning of Semester GPA: 2.5+

Course Description Have school shootings and spree killings increased over the years? What about in lethality? What should we do if a spree killer begins taking action near us? Can we predict spree-killer incidents before they occur? Understanding the costs and consequences of school shootings and spree killer incidents bridges terrorism, communication, and criminology with consequences that affect us all. This course looks at the current state of the field with attention to spree killer profiles, research, and response from social science perspectives.

Course Outcomes This course focuses on the following outcomes:

1. You will understand how information is transmitted purposefully during critical incidents like school shootings

2. You will demonstrate the ability to use UMD toolsets to find, analyze and discuss primary literature and differentiate it from journalistic literature.

3. You will demonstrate abilities to understand complex research into profiling shooters.

4. You will gain an understanding of spree killers and their profiles. 5. You will demonstrate abilities to digest information from mainstream media

to understand school shooting incidents.

Tentat

ive

Required Books & Reading Primary literature will be posted to Canvas for reading and analysis. Langman, P. (2015). School Shooters: Understanding High School, College, and

Adult Perpetrators. Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham, MD.

Course Policy

Please refer to the following website for all course policies: http://www.ugst.umd.edu/courserelatedpolicies.html

Course Evaluation Student learning will be assessed via 15 assessments (as detailed in Course Schedule). The course instructor will provide complete details on how each individual assessment will be graded on a scale of 0 to 100. Notes:

Students will earn credit for classes missed due to university holidays, university closures and excused absences (see Attendance Policy).

An optional final can be taken in this course worth 50% of your final grade, replacing scores for ASN1-3,5,9-11. You must ask to take the option final. The optional final is offered to allow for demonstrated improvement throughout the semester to positively impact student learning outcomes.

Final Grade Percentage Determination Final grade percentages will be calculated using the following assignment weights:

ASN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

% 5 5 5 5 5 5 20 5 5 5 5 2.5 2.5 5 20

Final Letter Grade Determination Final letter grades will be determined using the following guidelines:

+ 87% + 77% + 67%

A 93% B 83% C 73% D 63% F <

60% - 90% - 80% - 70% - 60%

Tentat

ive

Course Schedule This schedule is subject to change as the semester progresses.

Week Class Activity Assignment Due Unless stated in class or online assignments are due at the start time of the class period.

1 Introduction and course objectives N/A

2 What are spree killers? ASN1: reading quiz

3 Have spree killings changed over time? ASN2: reading quiz

4 What are the profiles of school shooters? ASN3: reading quiz

5 Do shooters differ by target group? ASN4: topic selection for final, group selection ASN5: reading quiz

6 Patterns in School Shooters ASN6: reading quiz

7 MID-TERM ASN7: mid-term

8 ASN8: topic outline ASN9: reading quiz

9 Prevention and Profiling ASN10: reading quiz

10 Prevention and Profiling ASN11: reading quiz

11 Mounting Kinetic Responses N/A

12 Non-Kinetic Responses ASN12: Final Project Report draft(Team)

13 FINAL ASSIGNMENT PREP ASN13: Presentation slides

14 Probability, Incident Rate, and Numbers ASN14: Final Project Presentation (Team)

15 Information flows during school shootings N/A

16 CLASSES ENDED ASN15: Final Project

Tentative