This book tackles the important question of how we can understand and learn from the school
rampage killings that have been prevented. In the flood of recent accounts and analyses of
deadly school rampage killings that plague society and inspire widespread public fear very
little attention has been given to the incidents that almost were. Building on Madfis' previous
book The Risk of School Rampage: Assessing and Preventing Threats of School Violence (2014)
this vital work addresses key gaps in school violence scholarship through the examination of
averted school rampage incidents in the United States and advances existing knowledge through
ground-breaking insights from the latest research on mass murder violence prevention
bystander intervention disciplinary policy and threat assessment in school contexts. This
empirical study utilizes in-depth interviews conducted with school and police officials
(administrators counselors security guards police officers and teachers) directly involved
in averting potential school rampages to explore the processes by which threats are assessed
and school rampage plots are thwarted. Madfis finds that many common contemporary school
violence prevention policies and practices are ineffective at preventing rampage attacks and
may actually increase the likelihood of their occurrence. Rather than uncritically adopting
such problematic approaches Madfis argues that schools must model prevention practices upon
what has proven successful in averting potentially deadly incidents.
