Dear readers and colleagues, I
am pleased to inform you that the fourth, supplemented edition of the Handbook
of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in Schools and Other Educational Institutions
has been completed, albeit with a slight delay (originally planned for April
11). The file has already been posted on the website
and is available for download. The new edition corrects some errors and
inaccuracies in previous editions and adds new information sent to me by
colleagues from the Republic
of Kazakhstan.
When I first started doing
research on the security of schools and other educational institutions, the
first problem I encountered was the lack of statistical data on crimes of this
category collected and systematized in one source. I had to spend a great deal
of time and effort to collect information from dozens of different sources and
recheck it, because the completeness, reliability and objectivity of the
published information often raised reasonable doubts. It became clear that
there was a need for a unified information and reference resource containing
information on crimes of this category and at least a brief (minimum) set of
factual data on their details and circumstances. Without this information, it
is simply impossible to see an objective picture of what is happening and
assess the real scale of this threat, as well as to conduct a qualitative
analysis of data, comparative, cross-checking, to assess the development of
events in dynamics. Without the results of such analysis it is extremely
difficult to explain the criminological processes taking place, and most
importantly, to identify and identify the factors that affect them, which in
turn makes it very difficult to predict the likely development of events.
When there is no understanding
of the vector and features of threat development, it is impossible to develop
effective countermeasures. This can be clearly seen now, when after another
mass murder or terrorist attack in an educational institution, various experts,
political scientists, law enforcement officials, educators and journalists,
discussing the tragedy, ask the question: «Why did the measures developed and
implemented as part of the security strategy to prevent and suppress threats
not work?». The answer is simple: they were developed on the basis of
incomplete data, and in many cases the data was not only incomplete, but also
unreliable.
I often come across statistics
in media publications that are very far from reality. For example, when
commenting on another mass murder at a school or university, the author
supports the article with figures of general statistics of incidents at
educational institutions, despite the fact that most of these incidents are
neither mass murders nor terrorism. For the most part, these are crimes of
general criminal orientation, committed on the basis of personal animosity
between specific people, or related to material motives (robbery, robbery,
extortion), committed with hooligan motives or even unintentionally.
Therefore,
it is crucial not only to know the statistical numbers, but also to understand
the meaning behind them. Proper sorting of data is equally important. All
collected cases should be cross-analyzed, comparing information from different
sources, with preference given to police press releases, reports and court
records because these contain more facts than speculation. All collected
incidents should be divided into groups and subgroups according to various
criminological characteristics. Such a division will make it possible to
clearly see the nature of the development of the situation in a certain time
period, both in comparison and in dynamics.
On the
basis of qualitatively collected and systematized statistical data, it is
possible to create fairly accurate criminological models and forecasts, and
most importantly, thanks to these models and forecasts, it is possible to
develop truly effective measures for preventing and combating these threats.
This is the main goal and primary objective of applied criminology: to
understand the nature of the threat, assess the prospects for its development,
identify vulnerabilities, develop a strategy to counter the threat and
eliminate it. This requires reliable raw data, validated and systematized,
collected in a single source.
In the
fall of 2023, I set about creating it. As a form of data presentation, I chose
a format similar to a police incident report, in the form of a summary of the
circumstances of the event containing such information as: date, time, place,
manner, subject, object, subject, victims, consequences, outcome, and other
reliably established facts.
In
February 2024, the first edition was published on the website of the Public
Order and Safety Project, which included statistical data for 24 years (from 2000
to 2023 inclusive). Then I received a lot of feedback, recommendations,
additions and edits from colleagues around the world, already 2 months later,
in April 2024, the second edition was published, which contained more than 100
additions and edits. During 2024, taking into account the requests from readers
and colleagues, the information was updated and supplemented, the third
edition, published in January 2025, contained updated information for 25 years.
Today, the fourth edition has been published, which contains additional
information and edits. As new data becomes available, work will begin on the
fifth edition, which I plan to publish by the end of 2025. I would welcome any
help in working on the new edition, and you can find out how to do this in the
final part of the guide, in the section «Prospects for new editions».
My
goal is to make a useful, reliable, informative, user-friendly and, most
importantly, publicly available reference and analytical tool for researchers
and specialists in ensuring the safety of schools and other educational
institutions from threats of various types and nature.
Once
again, I would like to thank all those who assisted me in collecting new
information, clarifying and correcting previously published data, creating and
editing sections, and other work on the handbook.
With
respect.
Author
and Editor-in-Chief of the project - Roman Grishin.
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