Despite significant cultural attention on the phenomenon of school shootings, one of the most predictive dimensions of these tragedies is under-analyzed: gender. Men commit 98% of mass shootings, but robust discussion and research on this relationship is lacking. This dissertation investigates the relationship between masculinity and gun violence…

The authors make the argument that trauma journalism should be taught as part of the postsecondary curriculum in journalism schools. As part of that education, students will learn that coping with the psychological effects of repeated exposure to such events can have long-term impacts on their mental health. As Kohlberg and Rest found, students in…

With the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2013, exposés about Title IX investigations (e.g., University of Virginia, Florida State University, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), and the #MeToo campaign, there is renewed media focus on the topic of sexual assault on college campuses and in the wider culture.…

In the fall of 2017, the University of Florida (UF) and the city of Gainesville were part of a coda to a terrible event in recent U.S. history: the violent torch-wielding rally of white supremacists and extreme far-right groups in the college town of Charlottesville, Virginia, that left three people dead and at least 33 injured. These events…

The objective of this dissertation was to evaluate a bystander behavior program at the Jefferson College of Health Sciences (JCHS) in Roanoke, Virginia. Specifically, this dissertation examined the: (1) preliminary measurement properties of a newly developed bystander behavior intention scale; (2) impact of the bystander intervention at JCHS; and…

On April 16, 2007, Seung Hui Cho, a livid and mentally ill student, shot to death 32 students and faculty of Virginia Tech, wounded many more people, and then killed himself. This incident has impacted college and university campuses nationwide in efforts to seek mentally disturbed students and help them, to have effective emergency teams, as well…

For healthcare agencies and other professionals to most efficiently provide aid following large scale community tragedies, agencies and professionals must understand the determinants that lead individuals to require and seek various forms of help. This study examined Andersen's Behavioral Model of Healthcare Use and its utility in predicting…

Everyone at some point has asked the question "Why do bad things happen to good people? Even while asking it, most know that finding an answer to this question is not likely in their future. People's best responsible action, then, is to manage their risks to prevent future bad things from occurring, to the greatest extent possible. Risk…

On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho traded in his title as "student" for one of "gunman." That day, Cho, a student at Virginia Tech, was responsible for the deadliest shooting spree by a single person in U.S. history, killing 33 people, including himself. Ten months later on Valentine's Day, Steven Kazmierczak joined Cho in the…

When Kemba Smith Pradia spoke this fall to a gathering of students at South Carolina State University, her candid talk about violence against women and the campus "hype" over drugs, sex, and money resonated with students and faculty alike. Ten years ago, Kemba Smith was wasting away in a federal prison as prisoner No. 26370-083. Used by…

The gun smoke had barely cleared from the lecture hall at Northern Illinois University where last week a former graduate student had executed five students before killing himself when local and national scribes began speculating about a new trend in mass murder American-style. The "Chicago Tribune" Web site, quick with coverage of the…

"Catalyst" is a publication of the U.S. Department of Education's Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Redefining Resources For Prevention; (2) Message From Kevin Jennings, OSDFS Assistant Deputy Secretary; (3) Environmental Management…

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act has sometimes caused confusion among higher education professionals since the legislation was introduced by Senator James Buckley in 1974. Reasons for this confusion range from the fact that it became a law without the usual congressional considerations to the belief that FERPA was never intended to…

Gary Pavela, director of student judicial programs at the University Maryland at College Park, is an expert on how colleges can assist troubled students. In a forthcoming installment of his weekly newsletter on campus law and policy, the "Synfax Weekly Report," Mr. Pavela discusses Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech. Among other…

Numerous researchers discuss the solidarity-producing effects of crime, natural disasters and mass tragedies; however, there is much we do not understand about the processes involved in the phenomena. We specify the social relationships that "generate" and "sustain" solidarity by building on Hunter's descriptions of the…