Shots were fired Monday morning at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin. A student, a teacher and the shooter were killed and several others were injured. While school shootings have become all too common across the United States, there is one fact that sets this shooting apart: the shooter was a woman.
Fifteen-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who was found dead at the crime scene, joins the short list of female shooters who perpetrate mass violence and target schools.
“95 percent of mass shootings are committed by men,” James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University, told Northeastern Global News. “The vast majority of violent crimes – particularly homicides and firearm homicides – are committed by men.”
According to the Mass Killings Database, which breaks down data on mass killings in the United States, there have been 349 killings in American K-12 schools since 2000. Of these shooters, only twelve were female and only nine were girls under the age of 18.
In part, Fox says, a key difference that could contribute to the wide margin in the statistics lies in the way these genders deal with violence. On the one hand, in many cases involving female perpetrators, family members are affected.
“Women tend to use violence as a self-defense mechanism to deal with the threats they perceive to themselves,” Fox told Northeastern Global News. “Men often use violence as an offensive weapon – to gain control.”
Additionally, NPR has reported over the years that many experts believe there are more male mass shooters than women because men are more likely to externalize blame rather than themselves, which could translate into anger and hostility.
“Some research supports the idea that men are more likely than women to develop negative blame that is external in nature, that is, 'The cause… of my problems is someone else or a force outside of me,'” said the former director of The School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska, Omaha Candice Batton told NPR in 2013.
Although it is rare for a young girl to perpetrate mass violence at her school, the circumstances in this case fit a pattern seen in other school shootings.
“If we take a step back, we see the same story repeating itself over and over again. A student insider. In crisis. Suicidal. With access to a gun,” James Densley, co-founder of the Violence Project Research Center, told KTSP.
According to Densley, over 90% of mass school shootings show clear signs of crisis leading up to the shooting, and just as many announce their plans in advance.
The Violence Project's research uncovered a common pathway to violence among school shooters, finding that 73% had a known history of childhood trauma and 92% had committed suicide before or during the shooting. Additionally, most access to guns came through family or friends, with 58% of school shooters obtaining firearms from someone they knew but who did not properly secure them. These patterns persist regardless of the sex of the shooter, suggesting that while female perpetrators are rare, the underlying factors that lead to school shootings remain consistent.
On Wednesday, CNN reported that authorities are investigating the authenticity of a document circulating online that is believed to be the gunman's manifesto. Additionally, her social media is being examined for her interest in neo-Nazi ideology and her participation in online forums that venerate mass shooters.
