Why can homicidal behavior, such as was seen in the Columbine school shooting, be predicted more accurately?
In brief, behavior with a very low base rate of occurrence are nearly impossible to predict accurately. Unfortunately, the best researchers and mental health professionals can do is identify risk factors shared by those who commit the behavior. Unfortunately, these risk factors may not set them a part from a much larger number of people who may share many of the same characteristics. For example, with reference to recent school shootings in the US, there may be hundreds of thousands of boys who share some of the characteristics of the shooters but almost none of them will go on to commit similar crimes. See www.apa.org for more information on this topic. Q: I’ve been reading a lot about “road rage” lately. What causes road rage and how can it be prevented? A: Road rage refers to a number of dangerous physical, emotional and/or behavioral responses triggered by driving situations such as heavy traffic. In short, road rage is an example of the “fight or flight” response. When we perceive
