title: Youth-violence prevention in the aftermath of the San Diego East county school shootings: a qualitative assessment of community explanatory models.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In March, 2001, 2 separate incidents of school shootings occurred within the same school district in San Diego's East County.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine community explanatory models of the causes of the school shootings and strategies for preventing such events.
  
  
  METHODS
  A qualitative study was undertaken in 4 East County communities over a 6-month period following the 2 events. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 85 community residents identified through maximum variation sampling. Interview transcripts were analyzed by coding consensus, co-occurrence and comparison, using NVivo text analysis software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four sets of theories as to the cause of these events were identified, based on the following: 1) unique or idiosyncratic characteristics of the 2 shooters (newcomer to community who was a victim of bullying, victim of child abuse with a history of mental illness), 2) universal factors (culture of violence, violence in the media), 3) family-centered characteristics (single-parent households, dysfunctional relationships), and 4) community-specific characteristics (reputation for social intolerance, widespread access to guns). Beliefs in family-centered and community-centered theories of etiology were associated with optimism in preventing such events from occurring in the future through increased recognition and response to problem behaviors, while beliefs in idiosyncratic or universal determinants of youth violence were associated with pessimistic assessments of prevention.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this community, youth-violence-prevention programs that focus on taking responsibility for recognizing and responding to problem behaviors in at-risk youth are more likely to gain community support and participation than programs that focus on increased security, surveillance, or behavior change.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0807, USA. lpalinkas@ucsd.edu
authors.forename: Lawrence A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Palinkas
authors.forename: Erica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Prussing
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Landsverk
authors.forename: Vivian
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Reznik
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002140:California; D003625:Data Collection; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D012574:Schools / Q000592:standards; D014754:Violence / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014948:Wounds, Gunshot