School shootings: criminal law investigation

The problem of adolescent violence and the cases of violence in the school environment associated with the mortality are of the high-degree urgency and cause a wide public outcry. Mass murders involving firearms, when an attack is committed by the students and the victims are students or school staff, are of particular concern. An important factor influencing the spread of school shooting in Russia is the growth of availability and popularization of social networks among young people. However, the problem is not only in the common availability of the information about the ways of committing the crimes, but in the fact that for many adolescents, such acts of massacre become a way of solution to conflicts with classmates and teachers. The paper reveals the concept of school shooting and specifies its characteristic features. The authors consider school shooting both as a negative social phenomenon and socially-dangerous act violating the norms of criminal law. Based on the study of the most famous cases of armed attacks on educational institutions of Russia and the official statistics data, the authors analyzed their reasons and the specific responsibility measures applied to attackers. As the priority directions of school shooting counteraction, the authors name the restriction of arms in circulation, the improvement of safety in social networks, and the improvement of criminal legislation. Special significance in the struggle with this phenomenon, the authors give to early recognition of forthcoming attacks on educational institutions, especially preventing bullying among the students.