{"id":120909,"date":"2018-12-13T14:21:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T19:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=120909"},"modified":"2018-12-14T12:22:57","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T17:22:57","slug":"bates-rocque-is-co-pi-in-499k-effort-to-publish-mass-shooting-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2018\/12\/13\/bates-rocque-is-co-pi-in-499k-effort-to-publish-mass-shooting-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates criminologist shares $499K federal grant to study mass shootings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The response to mass public shootings such as those in Parkland, Pittsburgh, and Las Vegas has become depressingly predictable.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time there’s a mass shooting, we say the same things, and people argue past each other, and then we do nothing,\u201d says Michael Rocque, a criminologist and an assistant professor of sociology at Bates. \u201cAnd then the next one comes along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the problem with the public conversation around such shootings, says Rocque, is that it\u2019s fueled by politics and perceptions, both poorly supported by data.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see all kinds of research that uses slightly [divergent] terms, or you’re not really sure where the data come from,\u201d he says. \u201cThere is no systematic, comprehensive data set that we can all draw on.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that will change during the next three years, and Rocque is one of three researchers who are making it happen, thanks to a nearly $499,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice.<\/p>\n

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Assistant Professor of Sociology Michael Rocque, shown here at a December 2016 planning meeting for the college’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance, is one of three researchers who will use a federal grant to study mass shootings in the U.S. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

Titled \u201cThe Nature, Trends, Correlates, and Prevention of Mass Public Shootings in America, 1976-2018,\u201d the team\u2019s NIJ-funded project comprises six ambitious research goals \u2014 including a forecast of the severity of mass public shootings in years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time there’s a mass shooting, we say the same things, and people argue past each other, and then we do nothing.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Principal investigator for the project is Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox, a prominent authority on violent crime. Working with Fox as co-principal investigators are Rocque and Grant Duwe, director of research and evaluation at the Minnesota Department of Corrections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important object of this grant,\u201d says Rocque, is to illuminate mass public shootings with data that is publicly accessible and broadly accepted, and whose provenance is clear. (There is no standard definition of a mass public shooting at the moment. The definition used by Rocque and his colleagues is representative: an incident in which four or more victims are fatally shot in a public location within a 24-hour period, and not in the context of other criminal activity.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we’re having a conversation about data rather than anecdotes, then I think we’ll be in a better place,\u201d he says. \u201cWe can actually build some strong empirical evidence, a foundation to actually start talking about these things. And maybe we can move forward in a way that actually helps make society safer.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the shooting-severity outlook, here are the proposed research outcomes for the project:<\/p>\n