CJ-4880 Police Brutality Increase in the unjustified .docx

CJ-4880
Police Brutality: Increase in the unjustified use of force or in
media coverage?
Introduction
Presently there has been an increase in attention on police
forces around the United
States. It isn’t specifically centered in the areas typically known
for crime or rogue police
officers, but it has hit home in the backyards of everyday
Americans. These occasions of police
exercising force against citizens is plastering the media, and the
coverage is endless. But the
question is about whether these officers are exercising their
right to use force unjustly and truly
bringing fear into the hearts of Americans? Or is it the endless
media coverage forcing it into the
lives of the people and using unsubstantiated facts to bring
unnecessary damage to the officers
involved, the victims, and the general public? To answer these

questions it is necessary to dive
into the minds of everyday citizens and the pure facts. This
study intends to survey members of
the general public with specific age ranges with questions
designed to provide information about
the perceptions of citizens and how they feel about police and
the possibility of the increasing
occurrences of police brutality.
The Questions
Has police brutality truly increased and become a serious
problem for the United States?
Are the officers who were meant to be serving and protecting
destroying the trust in the police
forces? Or is the massive reach of the television giants reaching
unjustified into the homes and
giving the public an incorrect assumption about the police? Few
studies have directly answered
the above questions with most studies focusing on specific races
in correlation of police brutality
and other focusing on rogue officers. This study is to focus on
the possible correlation between

media coverage and the pubic believing that police brutality has
increased. While the main
question is to determine whether the media has a direct effect
on the opinion of officers, it is also
important to determine the facts about police brutality and bring
those facts to the American
people to either change their perceptions or change the police.
Those involved in this study will
play an important part to help the public reach an understanding
about the facts of police
brutality and regain some trust in the law enforcement on the
local and national levels.
Literature Review
The history of police brutality is deep and Americans are well
versed in the stories of
Rodney King, Malice Green, and presently Michael Brown.
Study after study has been
completed on police officers and racial discrimination but very
few have focuses on the media
aspect. Police brutality is loosely defined as unethical behavior
of a certified police officer who
uses excessive use of force, up to and including death. Public
scrutiny of police use of force is

unavoidable (Alpert, 2009) The American public is expecting
these officers to do their jobs with
the utmost respect to every person regardless of color or gender.
Officers are expected to make
decisions in high stress situations including situations where
violence between a citizen and an
officer could occur. Thus, assessments of police violence,
including those involving deadly
force, must create a distinction between correct police action
and reasonable police action
(Binder & Scharf, 1982). What exactly would constitute
reasonable force? State law governs
police rules regarding use of force, more specifically in the use
of deadly force, such as the Utah
Code Title 76, which says, “ (1) A peace officer, or any person
acting by his command in his aid
and assistance, is justified in using deadly force when:
(a) the officer is acting in obedience to and in
accordance with the judgment of a
competent court in executing a penalty of death under
Subsection 77-18-5.5(3) or (4);
(b) effecting an arrest or preventing an escape from
custody following an arrest, where

the officer reasonably believes that deadly force is necessary to
prevent the arrest from being
defeated by escape; and
(i) the officer has probable cause to believe that the
suspect has committed a felony
offense involving the infliction or threatened infliction of death
or serious bodily injury; or
(ii) the officer has probable cause to believe the suspect
poses a threat of death or serious
bodily injury to the officer or to others if apprehension is
delayed; or
(c) the officer reasonably believes that the use of deadly
force is necessary to prevent
death or serious bodily injury to the office. (Utah Code § 76-2-
404).
State laws and their wording varies but the concept remains the
same, the use of force the
officers are allowed to use are somewhat discretionary, however
their actions are governed by
state law. The community tends to assume the responsibilities to
decide a correct judgment about
whether these officer were justified and sadly these officers are
presumed guilty in most cases

before the justice system can play its role. Attempts to lessen
the severity of this community
response through efforts to eliminate police discretion are
foolhardy, as administrative policies
and legislation cannot account for every situation that a police
officer may encounter on the
streets. (Geller & Scott, 1992) Who exactly is to decide what
would constitute use of force of
these officers and when does it cross the line into brutality? A
correct judgment is outcome-
based and involves the use of hindsight in examining the
aftermath of a violent encounter. A
reasonable judgment incorporates the factors involved and
information available to the officer at
the time of the decision to use force. This distinction is even
more vital in the analysis of deadly
force situations (Villejoubert, O'Keefe, Alison, & Cole, 2006).
Most everyone is familiar with the Rodney King case and the
officers involved in the
brutal beating that occurred on the streets in California. March
3rd 1991 is a day that American
citizens, and their children and their children’s children will

learn about. Rodney King has sadly
become the face of wrongful use of force, and the face of police
brutality. The riots and the
strong public outrage from the lack of restraint on the part of
the officers thrust police brutality to
the spotlight and it hasn’t left yet, and it probably never will.
The problem with police use of
force is that it’s hard to determine where to draw the line
between excessive use of force and
brutality. Are these two different levels or are they one in the
same? Would deadly force be
brutality in the hands of our officers?
After reviewing other research projects and studies completed it
was an obviously blaring
fact that the majority of research was completed on just how
many officers used deadly force. On
average, there are approximately 385 individuals justifiably
killed by law enforcement each year
(US Department of Justice, 2010). With the most comprehensive
research on misconduct of
police officers being completed by the National Police
Misconduct and Reporting Project in
2010, the statistics aren’t recent but still have some power. The
NPMRP focuses around data

gathered from January 2010 to December of 2010. Of the 6,613
law enforcement officers
involved in reported allegations of misconduct that met
NPMSRP criteria for tracking purposes,
1,575 were involved in excessive force reports, which
were the most prominent type of report at 23.8% of all
reports. (NPMSRP 2010) While understanding the
statistics about officers who used force it is important
to note that we do not have even an estimate of the
number of times officers were justified (legally and
ethically) to use deadly force, and did not. (Pinizzotto,
2012) One explanation for the lack of research on restraint is
that researchers do not study non-
events (Lester, 1996) Just as there is a lack of research on the
officers who did not use deadly
force when justified, there are not many studies or media
reports about the officers who are
serving their communities and their country with respect and
behavior that would be deemed
appropriate. Media reports focus on the stories of Michael

Brown as well as others and the story
is ran into the ground with the anchors opinions blocking out
facts. Media, including both local
and national news stations as well as newspapers, thrive on the
general public’s response to news
stories and their ratings depend on the amount of views their
network or paper receives. Stories
regarding unethical brutality increase their views and bring out
an emotional response, whether
justified or not, in the community.
This study is in no way intending to place blame other than
where it needs to be placed.
There are circumstances where officers do cross the line and in
no way is this excusing the
actions of the officers involved with Rodney King or any other
case involving officers where
their use of force was extremely excessive or was pure brutality.
Study Subjects
The survey will be given to random parties within ranges of
age groups. 18-28, 29-39,

40-49, 50-59, 60+. They will be randomly selected within each
age range with a minimum of 20
surveys being completed by an individual falling within the
range. There will be no focus
choosing specific backgrounds, however it would be assumed
that most participants would have
some basic knowledge regarding the structure of our justice
system, the media, as well as local
and national police agencies. There will be questions where the
participant will indicate their
education level but no bias will be taken against those
with/without college education.
Method
The survey will be completed within a certain time limit to be
decided, and the
participants will be given a pressure free zone to complete the
survey as accurately as possible.
The minimum of 100 completed surveys will be reported along
with the people who were asked
to participate that did not, and a percentage will be calculated in
accordance with the total
completed. The surveys will be sorted in accordance to their
respected age ranges, further broken

down into gender, then the answers will be tallied and a
consensus will be drawn. More
generalized conclusions will also be drawn in respect to total
gender responses as well as a
completed total of all responses and the percentages in relation
to all. This study is intended to be
gather responses in Utah that would be proportionate to the
responses in any other location in the
United States. The answers will be mostly yes or no questions
designed to bring an outcome to
show the true feelings of those participating in the study. Along
with the survey questions,
research will be completed by compiling data retrieved from
local and state agencies regarding
the number of complaints against officers and the current
litigation concerning brutality.
Ethical Concerns
As with any study there could be concerns over possible ethical
violations and concerns
about the people involved in the study. The participants will
have to consent and by completing

and submitting the survey will be their form of consent. No
minors will be allowed to participate
in this survey. The participants in the survey will remain
unnamed and their privacy will be kept
intact as confidentiality will be maintained. The study will
remain as unbiased as possible and
keep personal opinions out of the facts and report only what is
found by the study. The sources
of the statistics will be reported and the data measurement
protocol will also be released.
Timeframe
The study will take six full weeks to complete in order to gather
the appropriate amount
of surveys for each age group and to compile the data into
workable data. The first week will be
finalizing the survey questions and intended surveyors. The next
2-4 weeks will be the time
frame for the surveys to be handed out and completed. The last
week will be finalizing the data
and creating workable tables and graphs to explain the results of
the data.

Bibliography:
Alpert 2009 Alpert, G. P. (2009). Interpreting police use of
force and the construction of reality.
Criminology & Public Policy, 8, 111
Binder, A., & Scharf, P (1982). Deadly force in law
enforcement. Crime & Delinquency, .28, 1-
23. doi: 10.1177/001112878202800101.
Geller, W. A., & Scott, M. S. (1992). Deadly force: What we
know: A practitioner's desk
reference on police-involved shootings. Washington, DC: Police
Executive Research Forum
Lester, D. (1996). Officer attitudes toward police use of force.
In W. A. Geller &H. Toch (Eds.),
Police Violence (pp. 180-190). New Haven, CT:Yale University
Press
2010 NPMSRP Police Misconduct Statistical Report -Draft-.
(2011, April 5). Retrieved
December 1, 2014, from http://www.policemisconduct.net/2010-

npmsrp-police-misconduct-
statistical-report/
Pinizzotto, A. J., Davis, E. F., Bohrer, S. B., & Infanti, B. J.
(2012). Law enforcement restraint in
the use of deadly force within the context of 'the deadly mix.'.
International Journal Of Police
Science & Management, 14(4), 285-289.
doi:10.1350/ijps.2012.14.4.289
US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation.
(2010). Crime in the United
States, 2009. Retrieved from
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/offenses/expanded_informati
on/data/shrtable_14.html
Villejoubert, G., O'Keefe, C. J., Alison, L. J.,& Cole, J. C.
(2006). Hindsight bias and shooting
incidents. In S. Giles & M. Santar Cangelo (Eds.),
Psychological aspects of legal processes (pp.
17-24). Liverpool, UK: IA-IP Press
CJ 4880 – Proposal

Human Trafficking the New Immigration
2. Human trafficking is modern day slavery, a global
phenomenon that is a spider’s web
of never ending trouble. Research has been extensive, studies
and survey’s, in person interviews
of prosecutors, law enforcement, trafficking cases, etc. In
pinpointing any new proposal it will
take precedence, past cases and studies will be reviewed and
reflected over to find a new angle a
new proposal, theory, hypothesis, research design, and so forth.
My theory is that band aids can
be applied and money and resources can be brought in, but like
immigration my proposal is there
is no CLEAR ANSWER! At the heart of immigration and
human trafficking are issues that
associate them with illegal activity, and as an American society
the tatemae is that we resolve
issues and something will be done however the honne is we
have dug ourselves a deep hole.
3. The research of several scholarly journals and online articles
helped me realize my
original proposal had already been done through identification.
I had the idea of sending out

surveys to various law enforcement agencies and also of doing
phone or in person interviews to
help me really pinpoint what issues local law enforcement
agents were really dealing with, but
again this had already been done. It would seem that the data
collected, the results that were
published, the new insights, and the obvious glaring issues
would lead to the benefit of society
and law enforcement but it did not. I’m not sure if my research
will provide any new meaningful
answers but the question is if human trafficking is the new
immigration? The purpose and
importance of this question is the clear something really needs
to be done and we can no longer
ignore this issue. 10 million people being forced into slavery
period, I don’t care who you are
that is a glaring issue in and of itself! Now the fact that we
understand it’s this severe and still
can’t provide a real tangible solution just like immigration is a
separate but just as large issue.
4. In coming to this conclusion I did literature review on four
relevant studies that were
actually tied into my original proposal of law enforcement and

it’s handling of human trafficking
crimes. The first study I came across was focused on
“identification” of human trafficking cases
by local authorities, they interviewed prosecutors, police, and
victim services in 12 of their local
counties. This helped me to see what had already been done by
other researchers, and forced me
to think on a larger scale of what I could now propose. Policing
Human Trafficking was a great
journal article and a great starting point in my reviews. Since
the focus was on identification the
key points I took away were that law enforcement is aware of
human trafficking but
identification is minimal. Most cases that are investigated are
from tips in the community, and
majority are not investigated because agencies don’t know how.
The obstacles that must be
overcome after this point are huge, because unless it relates to a
minor being trafficked for sex
it’s normally not a priority then. Most agencies have other
priorities that are more clearly
defined based off of the communities needs and the departments
focus, if gang activity increases
in the community that now becomes law enforcements focus and

so on. Now in tying this in
with my proposal I present the elephant in the room. When
Americans or law enforcement think
of human trafficking or immigration they think of foreigners
coming to our country illegally and
breaking the law. Since we view these victims as law breaking
non-citizens the empathy is there
but not the tolerance and in extreme cases some feel they get
what they deserve. So like
immigration you have groups and organizations that look to
help the victims get back home or on
their feet in some manner but that does not stop human
trafficking or immigration. The common
theme is the need and want for a better life, to have the same
opportunities as Americans even if
it means breaking the law. Any of the four literature reviews
that I pondered over all had the
same essence to them, money is there, resources are there,
training is available, and the federal
government is doing something about this as are other
countries. What I’m proposing is a new
view a new angle of the already obvious, that we can train our
local agents, we can conduct

studies and interviews to see what the main issues are, we can
try and learn from other countries,
we can pour more money into agencies on all levels and the list
goes on but so far it’s money
being wasted because of the new issues that come with each of
these. Example in Police Practice
& Research they identified that training and awareness is there
but it isn’t effective. So this new
view is the fact that we have laws, we have study cases, we
have all this knowledge and data and
still we haven’t even begun to penetrate this phenomenon.
Immigration similarly has been at the
front of almost every presidential election and laws have been
passed in states and progress has
been made however in Obama’s time in office estimates say that
“2.5 million illegal immigrants”
came across the border many which live among us. So like
human trafficking studies have been
done, data analysis has helped to make small improvements but
overall it’s still happening and
will continue to happen.
The next literature review which had many similar points as the
first stated that

farmworkers and advocates in North Carolina saw labor
trafficking where on the other hand local
agencies were reluctant to participate or if they did said that
labor trafficking didn’t happen in
North Carolina. This sentiment was shared in the prior review
where it was estimated that
victims of labor and sex trafficking was in the millions in the
US, Canada, and Western Europe
but local agencies only reported a few hundred cases. Another
study which looked into the
future of human trafficking talked about possibly legalizing
migration to decriminalize human
trafficking, and brought up many great ideas to possible
resolving or help narrowing the focus on
other aspects of human trafficking but none seem like long term
solutions. The studies of these
reviews and other articles online all describe the phenomenon
and it’s characteristics in great
detail, and outline solid proposals but the results have shown
that none have truly been effective.
The ambiguity we have as a result of all the studies conducted,
leave us basically with great
concepts and ideas that are being implemented but the only

result is that we are doing something
about it.
5. If I was to take this proposal and run with it, the hope
would be that the proposal
opens everyone’s eyes to the reality that this problem is not
going away. The uniqueness of my
proposal since it is comparative, would need to be distributed
differently. Since a lot of focus
and attention is directed in to society’s needs and the popular
opinion surveys would be
submitted to law enforcement agencies to see if this is a
perception or idea that they can adapt,
and then use that to overcome by thinking outside of the box on
possible solutions. Survey’s or
interviews can be submitted or done among the local public or
among peers at work and school
to see if my proposals premise is something that can be
supported, and feedback would be
collected to see how it can be addressed with this new
realization. This new feedback would be
feasible because it’s a new idea that has not been explored, and
accordingly will provide
different insight and thoughts on what can be done knowing that
past research hasn’t worked or

been as effective as hoped.
6. The key variables in my question will be effected by the
group or sample of
individuals I will send my survey out to or interview with. The
answers provided will obviously
differ based on subjects’ feelings or thoughts on the matter, and
again how big of a priority they
see it as or how big of an issue it is seen as. To best achieve
measurements and data collection I
would use probability sampling with the stratified random
sampling approach. This is a better
start since my sample size will start with local law enforcement
agencies and my specific group
of peers and co-workers. The disadvantages don’t really
concern me in this sample because the
advantages of having that more accurate sample will be more
beneficial in seeing where I can
take my proposal to next and what ideas I can get from that.
The weaknesses in using this
approach is that it’s group targeted and not indicative of
societies view of human trafficking or
random individuals like I could have incorporated with random

sampling. Cluster sampling
would be another approach I would use and could be as
effective for me as stratified. I would
like to use this approach to because it’s one used in common
studies but the weakness there is it
has been done before and I’m trying to show how my approach
will stand out above what has
already been done. To minimize weaknesses and make my
results credible, I can show the
subgroups that I select what has already been done and the
results obtained from prior studies.
Being able to conduct interviews and surveys with a target
population that has been targeted
before will be important because I can now say hey we’ve
studied identification, we’ve studied
the laws on human trafficking, we’ve analyzed how society
feels about it, how your agencies feel
about it, now what about this approach? The other weakness I
see is that because it is a proposal
that doesn’t have clear results agencies can possibly pass it off
as irrelevant and ignore survey’s
or follow up calls because it’s forcing them to act. My best
resource would be by doing in
person interviews so that way there is no room for vagueness or

confusion, or I could even
provide the survey while in person so if there is any
misunderstanding I would be there to clarify
it. By doing in person interviews and expounding on the issues
we already are aware of, I can
help produce more feasible steps that can be made moving
forward. By saying hey human
trafficking is the new immigration, I’m addressing the fact that
we have spent millions in trying
to do something about it like we have with immigration and yet
we are achieving the same
results. We have made no great movements forward and money
is being wasted, what the heck
are we going to do about it now! By controlling the variables
and moving them forward in
another direction I can achieve a new result, I can say hey more
research needs to be done on
issue A, B, C, D so forth let’s move forward because we can’t
keep doing the same things we did
before.
7. Approval would not be needed in my paper, because the
interviews and questions

would be done through ethical interview practices. It is my job
to make sure that whoever I
interview or survey understands my purpose, by building trust
and rapport this will help my
credibility and also reemphasize my intent on providing
resourceful results. If consent is needed
it will be asked for beforehand to add to trustworthiness, and
the confidentiality of any data
gathered will be handled by myself only and group if this topic
is chosen moving forward. The
ethical issues I would have to be aware of is sensitivity on the
topic of comparing illegal
immigration to human trafficking. The contexts are different
because entering the country
illegally is not the same as being forced to have sex with
someone or work against your will, but
helping participants understand my true purpose and what I plan
to do with the results of my
research will be key. The studies being conducted besides the
issue of context should not be in
violation of any ethical issues because the goal is to find a
solution to a huge problem.
8. The timetable would be 6 months, the first 3 months would
be used to complete

interview questions and surveys that can hit all the hot topics
already covered by prior research.
Time to carefully plan on how the surveys will be disseminated,
and coordinating with agencies
to set up these 1 on 1 interviews. Also, covered in the first 3
months will be the actual interviews
and surveys being sent out. In the final 3 months, the data
gathered will be analyzed and the
group can now have time to write up a new proposal on how to
move forward with these results.
So if the survey’s and interviews provide us with new insight on
what we can do to implement an
action item for agencies this can be planned during the final 3
months and this will be our testing
stage moving forward. The timetable is reasonable because 6
months is more than enough time
to plan, coordinate, execute, and provide tangible results.
9. Farrell, Amy, and Rebecca Pfeffer. "Policing Human
Trafficking: Cultural Blinders
and Organizational Barriers." Annals of the American Academy
of Political and Social
Science 653. (2014): 46-64. EconLit with Full Text. Web. 23
Apr. 2016.

Trafficking But Law
Enforcement Does Not: Challenges In Identifying Labor
Trafficking In North
Carolina." Crime, Law & Social Change 61.2 (2014): 205.
Publisher Provided Full Text
Searching File. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.
From the Future." European
Journal of Criminology 7.1 (2010): 95-100. PsycINFO. Web. 23
Apr. 2016.
Local Law Enforcement to
Engage In US Anti-Trafficking Efforts: An Assessment of
Human Trafficking Training
and Awareness of Local, County, and State Law Enforcement
Agencies in the State Of
Georgia." Police Practice & Research 13.6 (2012): 487-500.
Academic Search Premier.
Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

SCHOOL PROTECTION: HOW FAR
DO WE NEED TO GO?
1
SCHOOL PROTECTION: HOW FAR DO WE NEED TO GO?
CJ 4880
12/14/14
Problem or Objective
School shootings have never been absent from our society. It
seems as though the media has taken a
dramatic increase in attention to this problem. Finding out what
actions schools are taking to make sure
that we protect our children from school shootings has
particularly caught my interest. How far do we
need to go to make sure that we feel secure about sending our
children to school? I plan on researching
this issue through a series of studies that find out how effective
the measures are that we are taking to
protect schools. I will be gathering insights from students,
teachers, parents, and the community in
general. I want an array of samples from different perspectives;

this seems to be the only way to really
protect our children from active shooter situations. Through the
research I am striving to unveil the very
best ways to prevent school shootings. The purpose of this study
is to make sure that we are taking the
necessary actions to protect our children.
Research Question
My question is, are the actions the schools taking really
protecting our children and schools? There has
been much focus on protecting our children from active shooter
situations lately, Even though there has
always been school shootings. Sandy Hook School shooting
really started this drive on making our
schools a safer place. Each individual state, I believe, has taken
their own course of action in some sort
of way. I have noticed an increase in national cooperation in
fixing this problem. I will be using studies
that have been done on specific ways/actions schools are taking
to drive my data on how far we need to
DO WE NEED TO GO?
2

go. There are a few words that people need to feel at this point,
with all the publicity of school
shootings, peace of mind, sense of security, safe place for my
child, etc. People need to know that
schools are taking the right measures to protect their children.
Literature Review
Preventing, Preparing for Critical Incidents in Schools
Beth Schuster breaks down this article into three different
sections. First, A Closer Look at School
Shootings. This section breaks down a study done by the U.S.
Secret Service. They did a study on 37
incidents of school shootings between 74’ – 00’. The interesting
thing about this section is that there is
no definable profile for an active shooter; they range in every
aspect, from race, to age, to GPA, etc. A
lot of the attacks were well planned and many of the
guns/weapons were used from their own homes.
The attacker’s behavior prior to the incident was completely
erratic and showed need for concern/help.
In a lot of these cases the attacker told a friend what they were
going to do.
Second, How Prepared Are Schools. This section gives statistics

of a study done to show how prepared
schools are. 95 percent of schools had a plan for a crisis. 82
percent had the funding for training of the
faculty. It also talks about how schools that had police officers
monitoring the school felt that the school
was unprepared for an active shooter situation and that training
was not done enough.
Third, Helping Schools Prepare and Respond. This section has
suggestions on what can be done to help
prevent and how to respond to an active shooter situation. The
programs that are listed are, school
crime operations package, school safety plan generator, a
critical incident: what to do in the first 20
minutes, incident commander, and active shooter. Each of these
go into more detail about what they
are and how to implement the program and how to do proper
training.
DO WE NEED TO GO?
3
This article helps understand what can be done, but I want to
know, what has been done? I know there

have been a lot of programs that have been mentioned and what
can be done. It’s not what I am looking
for but it does help me to know about some of the programs that
are available. This article also helped
me to understand a lot of the characteristics of active shooters
and how they act. One of things that I
couldn’t agree with more in this article is “Schools should be
places of learning and development — not
violence and fear. Keeping students and schools safe should
continue to be at the top of every school
administrator's and police department's agenda. NIJ's ongoing
efforts will help them achieve that goal”
(Schuster, 2009).
A Call for a More Effective Prevention of Violence
This article is mainly focused on the Sandy Hook Elementary
School Shooting. It is not even completely
directed towards schools in general but more to mass shootings
anywhere. I did like this portion of the
article, “While schools are of paramount concern, the location
of a shooting is not its most important
feature, although it is the most visible. From the standpoint of
prevention, what matters more is the
motivation behind a shooting. It is too soon to draw conclusions

about this case, but in every mass
shooting we must consider two keys to prevention: (1) the
presence of severe mental illness and/or (2) an
intense interpersonal conflict that the person could not resolve
or tolerate” (Astor et al., 2012). This
article also mainly focuses on getting mental health help in
schools. That we need to address the
problem before it even starts. To do so, you are talking about
increasing the awareness of bullying, poor
home interactions, bad upbringing, depression, etc. How do you
do that?
The Article is strictly talking about Mental Health as I have
mentioned and this is how they state it,
“These plans should include access to mental health services for
youth and adults who are showing signs
of psychological distress, including depression, anxiety,
withdrawal, anger, and aggression as well as
assistance for the families that support them” (Astor et al.,
2012). This is a great article about mass
http://curry.virginia.edu/articles/sandyhookshooting
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4

shootings in general and raises really good points about
preventing shootings before they have a chance
to happen. I believe that it can be impossible, in some
situations, to even prevent someone from doing
some barbaric action no matter what. This is not the answer
that I am looking for in my study. I want to
be able to find out what the schools are doing to prevent mass
shootings.
10 ways to put brakes on mass shootings in schools
I found this article to be similar to the first one. There are a lot
of great suggestions on what should be
done and what steps we need to take to protect our schools and
children. This article was great because
CNN actually sent out a survey to get the communities response
and suggestions. This would be similar
to what I am doing, but then again, I am looking at what schools
have done and draw my conclusions
from that. Based on the responses from the survey, the top 10
suggestions where, 1. Strengthen gun
laws, 2. Keep gun regulations the same or relax them, 3. Arm
the schools, 4. Improve school security, 5.
Cut down violence in the media, 6. Improve mental health care,
7. Think about the families, not the

shooter, 8. Focus on parenting, 9. Bolster kids’ social skills,
and 10. Watch out for one another. I think
these are some really great ideas and honestly they are some of
the same ones that we have seen
before. So, which of these programs are schools really
implementing? This article evolved around the
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting as well.
Youth Violence Prevention Article
This article is going over the U.S. Secret Service Safe School
Initiative. There has been a lot of building
blocks off of this initiative. There has been a lot of talk about
sending these type of youth into the adult
system. This could be a really good fear factor. Could you
imagine a 15 year old being sent to an adult
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5
prison? Again this article is going back to some of the statistics
of the Safe School initiative. This really

helps to understand who we are dealing with and even is great
for shedding light on what the killer is
thinking before they go through with their plan. We learn a lot
more about the youth in this article than
anything else. Even though the majority of mass shootings are
done by someone between the ages of
10-19, this article is really focusing on how we help the youth.
“Conversly, the role of family and parental
factors, influenced by social learning, modeling, and
identification with the aggressor, with respect to
aggressive, physically abusing, and criminal parents is well
cited in the literature as predictive of
aggressive/antisocial behavior” (Barker 2007). This article is
giving us statistics of indicators that can
help us depict who a shooter is before the shooting takes place.
Irrelevant to my study as it suggests
some themes of programs that can help and we need to have a
more direct focus on how to help the
youth.
Preventing School Shootings (A Summary of a U.S. Secret
Service Safe School Shooting Initiative Report)
“An important effort in prevention may be to ensure that young
people have opportunities to talk and
connect with caring adults” (“NIJ”, 2002). This article was

written before anything was final for the Safe
School Shooting Initiative. It really gives us a break down of
the study and what is taken place. It seems
that there has been a huge focus on our youth and reaching out
to make sure that everything is ok. This
article makes a list of what the attackers does. 1. Attackers will
generally always tell someone about a
plan to attack or kill someone, 2. They will make said plans, 3.
Generally there is no stereotype or profile
for the attacker, 4. Attackers had easy access to guns, attackers
are encouraged by others, 5. Bullying
can be a huge factor, 6. There are warning signs. “Schools can
make the best use of their resources by
working with law enforcement on prevention efforts as well as
critical incident response plans” (“NIJ”,
2002). This is where I believe that a lot of attention needs to be
focused on. There should be an SRO
(School Resource Officer) in every school. What better way to
really align the school and law
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6

enforcement? Separate from my study this article is underlying
on what we should be looking for and
some suggestion on what we can do to prevent youth from
coming to the conclusion of killing someone
or many.
The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative
Simply enough, this is the final report of the actual Safe School
Initiative. Most of the report is talking
about how to identify someone that could possibly be an active
shooter. What I was most interested in
was, what the initiatives that are going to be implemented are.
“Educators, law enforcement officials
and others with public safety responsibilities may be able to
prevent some incidents of targeted school
violence if they know what information to look for and what to
do with such information when it is
found” (Borum et al., 2004). “In sum, these officials may
benefit from focusing their efforts on
formulating strategies for preventing these attacks in two
principal areas:
• developing the capacity to pick up on and evaluate available
or knowable information that might
indicate that there is a risk of a targeted school attack; and,

• employing the results of these risk evaluations or "threat
assessments" in developing strategies to
prevent potential school attacks from occurring” (Borum et al.,
2004). To what extent have these
actually been implemented? Even though this report does a
great job on drilling down on what we really
need to do to help prevent school shootings, wouldn’t it be nice
to see on the back end of that, what the
schools really are doing to prevent an outrage of violence.
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7
Subjects for Study
In this study I will be surveying mainly individuals from
schools. I want to be able to gain insights from
the faculty, students, parents, and law enforcement officers. The
main area of data will come from the
faculty, which I believe may have the biggest impact on what

actions schools need to take to better
protect the schools. The reason why I will be focused so
strongly on the faculty is because they have the
duty of protecting not only themselves, but more importantly,
the students. My mother has been an
elementary school teacher for over 20 years. If there is ever a
problem with a child or a child needs help
with an issue (i.e. bullying, personal problem, home conflict,
etc.) the child is instructed to tell their
teacher. Teachers have a duty to help kids in any way possible
to better themselves in this world and to
learn the necessary skills to be functional adults in the real
world. That is why I believe teachers are a
main driving factor in choosing the best protection for our
schools. I am not saying that teachers are the
only ones that can come up with ideas, I am simply saying that
they will be the enforcers of the
procedures for school shootings, their role may be of the highest
importance.
The way that I have setup my surveying and data collection will
easily gather the information and results
desired. With school shootings being a huge topic right now, I
believe that what I am proposing will not
only bring the results desired, but will also shed new light on

some ways to protect our children. There
are thousands of schools throughout the nation, from elementary
school to colleges/universities. I plan
on having an array of data gathered from each level of
education. This will help keep a wide spectrum of
data, that way we are not seeing continuing replication of
similar results.
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8
Measurements and Data Collection
The method that I have chosen to conduct my research is purely
anonymous surveys. This will be done
through a web-based tool. The reason why I have chosen this
method is because of the wide range of
respondents that will be included in the study. I want an easy
way to gather data, but also to have the
appropriate amount of data to make the results effective. I am a
strong advocate for online surveys, I

believe that it gives the respondent enough time to do the
survey at their own time and leisure. They
are not pressured to do the survey right away, but will give
them a time frame in which the survey needs
to be completed.
I believe that I will be able to have a great combination of
quantitative and qualitative data which is
important to have in a study. I will be able to gather large
amounts of data, while being able to have
data that will drive my study in the right direction. This is
accomplished through the creation of the
survey itself. It will be a combination of demographic
questions, hot spots, rank and order, text entry,
etc. This will reduce survey fatigue, which will be one of the
biggest challenges of this study. In order to
make sure that I am getting the quality of data I need, I will
have to make sure that I make the survey
intriguing and not too long. There will be certain questions that
have certain validations on them to
make sure that specific questions are being answered. These
questions will be some of the biggest
driving factors to my research. This will also increase the
reliability and validity to the study, along with
making the survey engaging. There will also be logic placed

throughout the survey to make sure that I
am getting rid of unqualified data.
Ultimately, to make sure the data is reliable, I will be making
sure there is the required amount of force
validation on questions, logic will be placed to file out
unwanted responses, varying question types to
reduce survey fatigue, and enough time spread to eliminate a
pressure of getting the survey done. I
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9
believe that by doing these things this will help me get the
results that I am looking for to have
persuasive data.
Ethics
There are very few possibilities of ethical issues. The only ones
that really could be an issue are consent,
the participants do not know what they are being surveyed for,
and the giving of personal information.
All of these issues have been addressed; here is how, 1. We
have them consent at the beginning of the

survey, 2. There will be an introduction explaining what the
survey is about and how the findings will
help protect schools from active shooter situations, and 3. The
survey will be anonymous, so there will
be no personal information required. There will be a series of
demographic questions to help us
determine age, sex, city of residency, etc. nothing personal
enough to identify anyone.
Timetable for Research
The entire study from start to finish should take no longer than
2 months, here is how I have broken it
down. First, I will have to create my panels that will be
surveyed (separated by different schools, grades,
faculty, students, etc.), this should take no longer than 3 weeks
to create. Second, the survey will have
an open period, were the participants will be able to take the
survey for a month (Survey creation
should take no longer than a day). Third, analysis and reporting
we will give a week, to make sure that
we have all the necessary graphs and tables created and filtered.
During the month in which the survey is open for taking, there
will be reminders setup to take the
survey periodically for those that have not taken the survey.

Also after participating in the survey, the
participants will be redirected to a statistics website, where they
can learn more about School
Shootings. This time frame should give us plenty of time to
create the proper panels, to create an
outstanding survey, and to do the analysis for a valuable study.
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10
Works Cited
Schuster, Beth (2009). Preventing, Preparing for Critical
Incidents in Schools. National Institute of Justice.
NIJ Journal 262. Retrieved from
http://www.nij.gov/journals/262/Pages/critical-incidents-in-
schools.aspx
Astor, R. A., Cornell, D. G., Espelage, D. L., Furlong, M. J.,
Jimerson, S. R., Mayer, M. J., … Sugai, G. (2012).
A Call for More Effective Prevention of Violence. Retrieved
from
Saidi, N. (2012). 10 ways to put brakes on mass shootings in
schools. Retrieved from.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/14/us/connecticut-shooting-
reader-suggestions/
Barker. M. (2007). Youth Violence Prevention Article.
Retrieved from.
http://www.childsworld.ca.gov/pg1324.htm
National Institute of Justice. (2002). NIJ Journal No. 248.
Retrieved from
https://www.illinois.gov/ready/plan/Documents/PreventingScho
olShootingsSecretService.pdf
Borum, R., Fein. R. A., Modzeleski, W., Reddy, M., Vossekuil,
B. (2004). The Final Report and Findings of
the Safe School Initiative. Retrieved from.
https://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/preventingattacksreport
.pdf
http://www.nij.gov/journals/262/Pages/critical-incidents-in-
schools.aspx
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/14/us/connecticut-shooting-
reader-suggestions/
http://www.childsworld.ca.gov/pg1324.htm
https://www.illinois.gov/ready/plan/Documents/PreventingScho
olShootingsSecretService.pdf
https://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/preventingattacksreport

.pdf
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