The Violence Project

Using first-person accounts from the perpetrators themselves, along with data from the writers' groundbreaking research on mass shooters, The Violence Project charts new pathways to prevention and innovative ways to stop the social contagion of violence. Two years ago, frustrated by reactionary policy conversations that never seemed to convert into meaningful action, special investigator and psychologist Jill Peterson and sociologist James Densley started building The Violence Project, the first comprehensive database of mass shooters. Their goal was to establish the root causes of mass shootings and figure out how to stop them. With funding from the United States Department of Justice, they have coded hundreds of data points in the life histories of more than 150 mass shooters-from their childhood and adolescence to their mental health and motives. They've also interviewed seven living perpetrators, along with families, friends, teachers, social workers, victims, and leading experts. For the first time, instead of offering thoughts and prayers for the victims of these crimes, Peterson and Densley offer data that can prevent and reduce such tragedies that have defined our modern era.