Please hold the Date.
Registration for this FREE Seminar will begin after the 1st of the new year.
In-Person & Virtual Attendance options will be offered. All are welcome!

1st Presentation:

Understanding the Threat Landscape Preceding Mass Public Shootings

PRESENTERS

Jaclyn Schildkraut
Executive Director, Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium, Rockefeller Institute of Government

Hunter Martaindale
Research Associate Professor - School of Criminal Justice & Criminology Texas State University
Director of Research, Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center

Emily Greene-Colozzi
Assistant Professor, School of Criminology and Justice Studies, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Project Associate, The American School Shooting Study (TASSS), John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, University of South Carolina
Project Associate, The Extremist Cybercrime Database (ECCD), John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University

ABSTRACT:

Mass public shootings remain a pressing concern for policymakers and the public. As stakeholders seek effective prevention strategies, it is critical to examine the full spectrum of threat factors that precede these events. As part of its Sharing Information to Stop Mass Shootings (SISMS) project, which draws from more than 136,000 pages of official police and court records and after-action reports, for 172 mass public shootings between 1999 and 2024, researchers at the Rockefeller Institute of Government’s Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium identify the warning behaviors and communications – also known as leakage – that not only preceded these incidents but often occurred simultaneously, creating a “perfect storm” for indicators for impending violence. Linguistic examinations of perpetrators’ words and writings have been analyzed to better understand how they convey threats. Raising awareness of these indicators can enhance public recognition and reporting of potential dangers, thus allowing for more effective bystander intervention models and Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM) team practices. An actual case study of an averted mass shooting that illustrates these findings in action and demonstrates their application to preventing future tragedies will also be reviewed.

2nd Presentation:

Social Media, AI, Technology, and Adolescent Mental Health

PRESENTERS

Mitch Prinstein
Chief of Psychology Strategy and Integration, American Psychological Association (through end of 2025)
John Van Seters Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC)
Co-Director of the UNC Winston Center on Technology and Brain Development

Eva Telzer
UNC Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Co-Director of the UNC Winston Center on Technology and Brain Development
Associate Editor at Child Development and Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

ABSTRACT:

In this talk, we deconstruct the psychological science on youths’ technology, social media and AI use to provide an understanding of all of the questions we scientists are asking, what we have found, what it means for youth today, and what you can do help. Using theories and methods from developmental cognitive neuroscience and developmental psychopathology, our work seeks to understand how adolescents’ social media use may confer benefits to psychological, social, and neural development. We use longitudinal methods, experience sampling, and Functional MRI (fMRI) scans to also examine questions regarding topics such as social media addiction, associations with mood, digital stress, the effects of social media on lost social opportunities, peer influence processes via social media, and the manner in which social media use may be associated with brain development in adolescence. The results are sometimes frightening, but there is some hope, especially if parents, educators, and policy-makers take action now.

Educational Objectives - participants will be able to:

• Articulate the potential effects of digital media use on neural development

• List up to 10 different ways that technology use may influence psychological adaptation

• Learn concrete strategies to enhance development with social media, and protect children from its risks

Kevin Clarke * Barbara & David Elias

Erie County District Attorney’s Office

Founding Sponsors