Does anyone have the ability to predict who will become a mass shooter? What, if any, profile have psychologists, sociologists, and law enforcement officials developed to identify when someone may be at risk for carrying out a mass shooting?

“The pathway that we see consistently over and over again is that these perpetrators start out in families filled with a lot of violence, experience a lot of childhood traumas, sexual abuse, physical abuse, [the] death of a parent,” says psychologist Dr. Jillian Peterson. “That builds over time, and the perpetrators become depressed, isolated, hopeless.”

Dr. Peterson says many mass shooters have previously attempted to kill themselves before turning their self-hatred outward, looking for someone else to blame. School shooters, in particular, she says, tend to blame their classmates and their schools for what’s gone wrong in their lives.

Sociologist Dr. James Densley says, “This is unresolved trauma, and it bubbles back up later in life, and it reaches what we call a crisis point.”

Dr. Densley and Dr. Peterson, co-founders of The Violence Project and co-authors of the book “The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic,” along with Rudy Perez, president of the National Association of School Resource Officers, join Dr. Phil on Thursday’s episode, “School Shooters: Is There a Solution?”

Tune in to find out what these experts say are some of the red flags that can alert us to when someone may be at a crisis point, as well as steps that can be taken to slow down, if not prevent, mass shootings and school shootings in particular. Plus, hear from the mother of a school shooting victim at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.

Check your local listing for viewing times.

WATCH: ‘I Saw Kids From Her Class Running Out. They Were, Some Of Them, Just Clothes Full Of Blood,’ Says Mother Of School Shooting Victim
 

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What Motivates A School Shooter?

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