MASS graduate student successfully defends thesis

November 12, 2014

Melanie Hart, second-year student in the Master of Arts in Social Sciences program with a concentration in criminal justice and criminology successfully defended her thesis, “Mass School Shootings: Predicting the Usage of Firearms in Acts of School Violence,” on November 12. Her committee, Drs. Laura Agnich (chair), Christina Policastro, and Bryan Miller, found her research to be timely and her findings unique. In particular, Melanie found that white perpetrators are more likely to use firearms in cases of school mass violence, and perpetrators that target schools in rural areas are less likely to use firearms compared to those in urban areas.