SCHOOL shootings like the one that devastated the small German town of Winnenden on 11 March may not just be random acts of violence. A review of similar killings in the US, and of general school aggression, indicates that some schools are more likely than others to be breeding grounds for killers. Schools can’t be blamed for an individual’s actions, but they may be able to reduce the chance of a killer emerging from their gates.
The rare nature of school shootings makes them tough to study in a systematic way. But between July 1999 and June 2006 there were…
