College of Education and Behavioral Sciences News

The Mary E. Hensley Lecture Series is excited to host Dr. Peter Langman, a renowned psychologist who has received international recognition for his extensive research on school shooters. 

The lecture, entitled “Identifying 3 Types of School Shooters” is part of a series of events on school safety being hosted by the WKU College of Education and Behavioral Sciences (WKU CEBS) and the Green River Regional Educational Cooperative (GRREC). 

Dr. Langman will speak on WKU’s Campus on May 28 at 7:00 PM in the Gary Ransdell Hall auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the community. A summary of the presentation from Dr. Langman’s website says, “This presentation dispels common misconceptions about school shooters always being bullied loners by demonstrating the diversity of perpetrators. It then presents a psychological typology of school shooters, dividing them into three categories: psychopathic, psychotic, and traumatized. A case example of each of the three types is presented to demonstrate the range of perpetrators and the contributing factors in their violence.”

Dr. Langman is a psychologist whose research on school shooters has received international recognition. His book, Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters, was named an Outstanding Academic Title and was translated into German, Dutch, Finnish and Russian. His work has been cited in congressional testimony on Capitol Hill and he has been interviewed by the New York Times, The Today Show, 20/20, Nightline, Fox, CNN, the BBC, and 500 other news outlets on five continents. After the Sandy Hook attack, the CEO of the American Psychological Association presented Dr. Langman’s recommendations on school safety to President Obama. He has presented at the FBI National Academy in Quantico and has been hired by the Department of Homeland Security to train professionals in school safety. He maintains the largest online collection of materials relating to school shooters at schoolshooters.info, including over 600 documents totaling 70,000 pages. His book, School Shooters: Understanding High School, College, and Adult Perpetrators, was published in 2015. His latest book is Warning Signs: Identifying School Shooters Before They Strike. You can learn more about his research at https://schoolshooters.info. 

Contact: WKU CEBS, 270-745-4662