Is there really a link between school shootings and a down economy or is it all just a coincidence? Columbine? Sandy Hook? Seems a bit of a stretch but that’s what this hypothesis set out to find – PB/TK
School Shootings Rise When Economy Struggles, Study Suggests – By seth borenstein, ap science writer
School shootings rise when the economy tanks, according to a new study of U.S. schools, even as violent crime in general appears to be unaffected.
Researchers analyzed data from 379 shootings in schools between 1990 and 2013 and found a link between changes in national and local unemployment rates and the frequency of shootings.
Most were targeted attacks — often not fatal — and suicides, according to the study in Monday’s journal Nature Human Behaviour. Only six percent of the shootings studied were random mass shootings.
Using a complex statistical analyses, researchers found “with very, very high confidence” there are specific time periods when school shootings are higher than others, said study co-author and data scientist Luis Amaral, a physicist and co-director of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems.
Continue to abcnews.go.com article: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/school-shootings-rise-economy-struggles-study-suggests-45146290
