What is Seriously Emotionally Disturbed

Understanding why people commit mass shootings in the United States is perplexing and discerning perpetrators' motivations is difficult because there have been a fairly limited number of shootings. In addition, there is incomplete research on mitigating historical evidence about the perpetrators. Thus, this chapter takes a broader approach to understanding why these shootings may have happened by reviewing the empirical literature to identify possible correlations from childhood and adolescent trauma experiences (and subsequent mental health problems) to later adult violence. This review supports a hypothesis that these experiences are potential links to explaining mass shooting outcomes. The trauma experiences that are identified to be most impactful include maltreatment, poverty, witnessing violence, domestic violence, deaths (violent and non-violent) of family and friends, and adolescent bullying.