Im not fully grasping how the mind of those “copycats” works. People who are obsessed with Columbine for example, and want to do a mass shooting. That is their thought process? Is there some study I can read exploring what’s on their minds?
Im not fully grasping how the mind of those “copycats” works. People who are obsessed with Columbine for example, and want to do a mass shooting. That is their thought process? Is there some study I can read exploring what’s on their minds?
After looking for info on Wikipedia I only found one brief mention of school shooter fandoms in the “Columbine effect” page:
The articles they link to are:
How Tumblr’s True Crime Fandom Reacted to the Escape of a School Shooter
The Killer Crush: The Horror Of Teen Girls, From Columbiners To Beliebers
Fans of Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
I also found another interesting study on this titled “Glamorizing rampage online: School shooting fan communities on YouTube”.
They examined the network structure and social and psychological aspects of YouTube communities centered around school shootings, finding that they form a small-world network characterized by high clustering and low density, i.e. loosely-tied subgroups of fans. They argue that this network structure promotes the dissemination of hate ideology and justifications for mass violence, and also has the potential for anti-social behavior, which is consistent with previous analyses proposed by scholars. They also note that the people in these fandoms often talk about depression and other mental health problems, and argue that providing consultation to these people could help them leave these communities and reduce the spread of hateful rhetoric - however they also argue that the current reporting system may be insufficient to deal with these groups.
Article 1 also gives some anecdotal evidence of how some of these people justify their fandom by minimizing its ties to violence: