The National Academies Testimony before Congress

Public Laws Containing Studies for the National Academies

Briefings to Congress

Congressionally Mandated Reports

Policy Statements and Historical Documents

The OCGA staff

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
National Research Council and Institute of Medicine
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
Committee on Law and Justice and Board on Children, Youth, and Families

*****

Congressional Briefing
Wednesday, May 15, 2002 -- 3:30 p.m.
2436 Rayburn House Office Bldg.

on

Deadly Lessons: Understanding Lethal School Violence

In the 1990s, youth violence, which had reached epidemic levels in the nation's cities beginning in the late 1980s, took an apparently unprecedented form in rural and suburban middle and high schools across the county. As a result, in PL 106-71, Congress requested that the National Academies study this phenomenon. They specifically asked that detailed case studies be developed of the circumstances that led to extreme lethal violence in urban, suburban, and rural schools. The goal was to use these cases to learn as much as possible about two important questions. First, what could be said about the important causes and consequences of these unexpected, lethal shootings? Second, what actions could individuals and institutions take either to prevent these events from occurring in the first place or to minimize the damage once they began to unfold? Deadly Lessons: Understanding Lethal School Violence addresses these issues.

This briefing was for members of Congress and congressional staff only. The report was publicly released on May 17, 2002 and can be found, in its entirety on the Web site of the National Academies Press.