Most common perpetrator-victim relationship is the parent-child relationship
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Feb. 14, 2025 (HealthDay News) — From 2009 to 2020, a child was most likely to be killed in a mass shooting by a parent or other family member, according to a research letter published online Feb. 10 in JAMA Pediatrics.
Pamela Emengo, M.D., from the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, and colleagues delineated the perpetrator-victim relationship in mass shootings that involved child victims in a cross-sectional study. Data from two sources were compiled to create a list of mass shootings from 2009 to 2020.
The researchers found that from Jan. 27, 2009, to Dec. 25, 2020, there were 121 pediatric mass shootings, which included 308 pediatric deaths (victims’ ages, 0 to 17 years). The largest group was White children (51.9 percent) followed by Black children (19.2 percent). The parent-child relationship was the most common perpetrator-victim relationship, which accounted for 40.9 percent of all mass shooting deaths. Perpetrators related by family to the victim accounted for 59.1 percent of mass shooting deaths when family-type categories were collapsed into a single category. Acquaintances, strangers, and classmates were the next largest groups (14.6, 12.0, and 6.8 percent, respectively).
“As new efforts emerge to address firearm violence in our communities, our findings add to the growing body of literature that suggests one of the most dangerous places for pediatric firearm injury may be within the home,” the authors write.
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