Teacher and Peer Responses to Warning Behavior in 11 School Shooting Cases in Germany.

Warning behavior prior to an act of severe targeted school violence was often not recognized by peers and school staff. With regard to preventive efforts, we attempted to identify barriers to information exchange in German schools and understand mechanisms that influenced the recognition, evaluation, and reporting of warning behavior through a teacher or peer. Our analysis is based on inquiry files from 11 cases of German school shootings that were obtained during the 3-year research project "Incident and case analysis of highly expressive targeted violence (TARGET).

Same but Different? Developmental Pathways to Demonstrative Targeted Attacks - Qualitative Case Analyses of Adolescent and Young Adult Perpetrators of Targeted School Attacks and Jihadi Terrorist Attacks in Germany.

Analysis of incidents over the past ten years in Germany reveals that the boundaries between targeted attacks in schools and terrorist attacks are starting to blur. Böckler, Leuschner, Roth, Zick, and Scheithauer (2018) recently presented a set of hypotheses about similarities between the developmental pathways of school attackers and lone actor terrorists. To date there is only a small body of empirical research comparing these two forms of targeted violence in depth.

Prevention of Targeted School Violence by Responding to Students' Psychosocial Crises: The NETWASS Program.

The standardized, indicated school-based prevention program "Networks Against School Shootings" combines a threat assessment approach with a general model of prevention of emergency situations in schools through early intervention in student psychosocial crises and training teachers to recognize warning signs of targeted school violence. An evaluation study in 98 German schools with 3,473 school staff participants (M  = 46.2 years) used a quasi-experimental comparison group design with three measurement points (pre, post, and 7 months followup) with schools randomly allocated to implementation conditions.

[Leaking: Frequency and correlates of announcements and threats of homicidal violence reported by Berlin schools between 1996 and 2007].

Threats and announcements of homicidal violence at schools may have massive consequences like evacuations, police searches, criminal investigations, or loss of the sense of security by students, teachers, and parents. However, there is a lack of systematic studies about that phenomenon. The present article would like to contribute to closing the research gap.

[The NETWASS prevention model for early identification and assessment of adolescents in psychosocial crisis].

The research-based NETWASS prevention model aims to enable school staff to identify students experiencing a psychosocial crisis that could lead to severe targeted school violence and to initiate appropriate support measures. A detailed analysis of the adolescent psychosocial crisis is conducted at an early stage by evaluating possible warning behaviors, crisis symptoms, a student’s individual and social background, and resources. The model was implemented in 98 schools.

Prevention of homicidal violence in schools in Germany: the Berlin Leaking Project and the Networks Against School Shootings Project (NETWASS).

Since 1999, Germany has experienced at least twelve serious cases of targeted school violence. This article describes two projects designed to fill the gap between universal prevention and emergency response in preventing severe forms of school violence in Germany. The Berlin Leaking Project examined the viability of preventive efforts based on early identification of leaking behavior that often precedes targeted school attacks.