Conference on Establishing an Evidence-Based Approach to Understanding and Countering Mass Violence

大规模暴力事件在美国已司空见惯。大规模暴力有多种形式：家庭屠杀、恐怖袭击、与其他犯罪（如抢劫）有关的枪击、帮派暴力以及罪犯袭击目标个人和/或随机陌生人的其他事件。近年来，经常针对陌生人的不分青红皂白的大规模公共暴力现象尤其引起了公众的极大恐慌。大规模的公共袭击似乎越来越频繁，越来越严重，导致我们的社区、学校和大学等产生了更强烈的民族恐惧感。虽然这类事件似乎是随机发生的，但它们可能不是，因此在许多情况下可能是可以预防的。事实上，这些事件与许多主题有关：精神疾病，家庭暴力，怨恨，偏执，政治两极分化，模仿行为，以及边缘群体的崛起和更开放的行为，仅举几例。大规模暴力已成为一个紧迫的问题，需要更新和当代的研究证据基础，翻译活动，将研究转化为有效的干预措施，并改善社会服务，以确保干预措施得到良好的实施。为期两天的会议的目标将是：1）审查已进行的大规模暴力研究; 2）确定现有研究的共识点; 3）确定研究知识的差距和实质性分歧点; 4）确定来自既定研究知识的政策影响;和5）制定研究建议，以解决该领域的知识差距和争议。 会议结束后，研究结果将传达给研究人员和政策制定者。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。

Mass violence has become a common occurrence in the United States. Mass violence takes many forms: family massacres, terrorist attacks, shootings related to other crimes (like robbery), gang violence, and other incidents in which offenders attack targeted individuals and/or random strangers. The phenomenon of indiscriminate mass public violence, often directed at strangers, particularly has generated the most public alarm in recent years. Mass public attacks appear to have increased in regularity and severity, leading to a heightened sense of national fear in our communities, schools and colleges, and so on. While such events are seemingly random, they are likely not, and therefore possibly preventable in many instances. Indeed, these events are linked by numerous themes: mental illness, domestic violence, grudges, bigotry, political polarization, copycat behaviors, and the rise and more open behavior of fringe groups, to name a few. Mass violence has become an urgent problem that needs an updated and contemporary research evidence-base, translation activities to turn that research into effective interventions, and improved social services to ensure the interventions are implemented well. The goals of the two day conference will be to: 1) review research that has been conducted on mass violence; 2) determine points of consensus in the available research; 3) identify gaps in research knowledge and points of substantial disagreement; 4) identify policy implications stemming from established research knowledge; and 5) develop research recommendations to address knowledge gaps and controversies in the field. Following the conference, findings will be communicated to researchers and policy makers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.