Ceremonial Violence: A Psychological Explanation of School Shootings

(Overlook Press)

The author examines more than a dozen school shootings and focuses in detail on five, four committed by teenaged boys and one by a girl, in order to present the multifaceted reasons why a child would engage in a suicidal rampage. He outlines common risk factors and looks at the effects such violent acts have on schools and communities. Fast is an associate professor at Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work.