Identification of Mass Shooter Typologies Through Unspervised Clustering.

Area of Science:

• Public health
• Criminology
• Psychology

Background:

• Public mass shootings represent a critical public health issue.
• Understanding mass shooter typologies is crucial for effective prevention strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify distinct mass shooter typologies.
• To analyze the characteristics associated with different shooter profiles.
• To examine the temporal trends of these typologies.

Main Methods:

• Extracted 44 devolution and hate characteristics from data on 197 mass shooters (1966-2025).
• Employed clustering analysis to identify distinct typologies.
• Plotted the frequencies of identified typologies over time.

Main Results:

• Identified six distinct mass shooter typologies based on extracted characteristics.
• Observed varying trajectories in the frequencies of these typologies over the study period.

Conclusions:

• The study provides a framework for understanding mass shooter diversity.
• Findings can inform targeted prevention and intervention efforts.
• Temporal analysis highlights evolving patterns in mass shootings.