Campus Attacks: Targeted Violence Affecting Institutions of Higher Education

The study, released by the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Department of Education and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, explores incidents of targeted violence at institutions of higher education. It finds that targeted college campus violence, from serious assaults to the mass shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007, is up sharply over the last two decades.

Targeted violence is defined as an incident of violence where a known or knowable attacker selects a particular target prior to their violent attack. Researchers identified 272 incidents of targeted violence from 1900 to 2008. The incidents, which range from domestic violence to mass murder, resulted in 281 deaths and 247 injuries. Of those deaths, at least 190 were students and at least 72 were employees. The number of cases of targeted violence rose from 40 during the 1980s to 79 in the 1990s and 83 since 2000. The report analyzes motivating or triggering factors, gender, subject affiliation, pre-incident behaviors, method of attack and related factors.

The report was released on the third anniversary of the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech. It comes as a result of recommendations from a federal panel that studied the 2007 tragedy.

Read the report.