Perceptions of School Shooters Depend on Prior Criminal Record but Not Targeted Age Group

Individuals with a prior criminal record are viewed more negatively than those with a clean record, which is often exemplified in harsher sentencing, higher risk assessment ratings, and higher psychopathy ratings. However, what has not yet been explored is whether the age of the targeted victim population (children vs. adults) affects these perceptions. Given that school shooting incidents are a current societal issue, this study aimed to investigate whether the presence of a prior criminal record and age of the victim population affect decisions regarding school shooting offenders. Participants were exposed to school shooting vignettes describing the offender (prior criminal record vs. not) and targeted victims (children vs. adults). They were asked to determine an appropriate sentence and rate the offender's risk of future violence and psychopathy score. Violence risk ratings (measured by the Historical Clinical Risk Management-20 [HCR-20]) and psychopathy ratings (measured by the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised [PCL-R]) depended on the presence of a prior criminal record, such that those with a prior criminal record were perceived as a greater violence risk and as exhibiting more psychopathic traits than their clean-record counterparts. However, punishment severity did not depend on prior criminal record. Likewise, age group of the targeted population had no effect on participants' perceptions of school shooting offenders. These findings contribute to our knowledge of how offender- and incident-specific factors affect perceptions, which has important implications for understanding which factors affect impartiality within our criminal justice system.