Date of Conferral

8-2-2025

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Policy and Administration

Advisor

Lori Salgado

Abstract

Mass shootings represent an urgent and persistent threat to public safety in the United States, yet most research has focused on individual-level characteristics, leaving community-level socioecological conditions comparatively underexamined. This study addressed this gap in knowledge through an examination of the statistical correlations between community-level characteristics and mass shooting incidence using Ostrom’s social-ecological systems theory as a guiding framework. A cross-sectional quantitative design was employed using secondary data from The Violence Project, the U.S. Census Bureau, Neighborhood Atlas National Data Archive, and publicly available law enforcement and policy records. Multiple regression analysis was performed to test both main and interaction effects across independent variables, including socioeconomic instability, educational attainment, mental health resource availability, and law enforcement policy indicators. Findings revealed that the presence of proactive law enforcement programs was negatively correlated with mass shooting rates. These results suggest that proactive law enforcement infrastructure, especially formal community policing and violence prevention programs, may serve as a protective factor, whereas broader structural conditions alone may not sufficiently predict variation in mass shooting incidence. Implications for positive social change include providing evidence-based guidance to local policymakers and communities on allocating resources and implementing proactive policing and violence prevention programs.

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