Why Kids Kill

Inside the Minds of School Shooters

By: Peter Langman PhD

Narrated by: Matthew Josdal

Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Ten years after the school massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, school shootings are a new and alarming epidemic. While sociologists have attributed the trigger of violence to peer pressure, such as bullying and social isolation, prominent psychologist Peter Langman, argues here that psychological causes are responsible.  

Drawing on 20 years of clinical experience, Langman offers surprising reasons for why some teens become violent. Langman divides shooters into three categories, and he discusses the role of personality, trauma, and psychosis among school shooters.  

From examining the material evidence of notorious school shooters at Columbine and Virginia Tech to addressing the mental states of the violent youths he treats, Langman shows how to identify early signs of homicide-prone youth and what preventive measures educators, parents, and communities can take to protect themselves from the tragedy.  

Contains mature themes.

©2009 Peter Langman, PhD (P)2018 Tantor

Excellent

This book was so engaging and fascinating. A must read for parents, teachers and school counselors!

the reading was monotone

reading was monotone so it was hard to be engaged. I wish he had talked more about the trauma type, because for the other two type he was clearer about the difference for the motivations to go on rampage to the school.

Beyond Fascinating!!

I wouldn't have read this book if the author didn't have his P.H.D in psychology and history of evaluation violent children. Mr. Lyman does an incredible job going into the minds and histories of school shooters ranging all over the timeliness of history. He breaks down characteristics, interactions these scarred souls had with they're peers and family, he also identifies many personality types and disorders which I had to listen to twice it was so fascinating!! Remarkably Amazing book written by someone who has first hand boots on the ground experiences with these types of people. Read this book!

Really Fascinating Read!

It was a really fascinating read! I feel that I learned a lot about these situations!

Very little inflection

It was a bit hard to follow without having it in front of you but overall a good read.

Hard To Follow

Maybe it was me but this audiobook was difficult to follow. It kept jumping from person to person and story to story so it was difficult to follow which school shooter they were talking about at any given time.

The title is a little misleading also because it is never really stated why kids kill. It pretty much states what others already know, there is no answer as to why they kill.

It does appear that many of these shooters had some sort of psychological issue but that is it.

Reader is annoying

This reader’s voice and intonation made the book very hard to enjoy. His over pronouncing of words is grating.

Interesting, but frustrating.

Interesting points and information. I was annoyed to know end by the overuse of the word “thus” along with the way the narrator held vowel sounds in short words such as “thus” and “but”… both of which were frequently used. The way charts were read made them impossible to understand unless you write down the columns and rows as they’re read.

Great Book Bad Narration

This book is great. Has a lot of good information and it’s quite interesting. The narrator bugs me though. Very monotone and strange. I can’t really describe it. If you can look past that then I highly recommend this one!

Excellent!

A must read for anyone who enjoys studying school shooters. Excellent read for school officials.

what about the guns?

Not once was gun control mentioned in the last chapter! It was all about making a potential shooter feel better, feel included. might be time to shove that constitutetion up your ass.

Poor Quality Narration and Arguments

The arguments put forward by this author leave a lot to be desired. Failing to acknowledge the significance of the access to guns in mass murder is striking. As is also the linking of physical disability or impairment with narcissisism. Good psychology should move beyond using physical disability/ impairment as a coat hanger on which to harness negative traits. The style of narration makes this a very hard audiobook to listen to with any degree of ease.

Unbelievable

A 14 year old with a hunting licence smh
America is like one big mental asylum, I'm glad most can't afford to come to or live in my country

Irritating reader and poor arguments.

I couldn't listen longer than an hour, the reader over pronounces the S especially at the end of words, surely this could have been caught early on in the recording and dealt with?!
Despite the author's credentials I find arguments like 'most kids with access to guns don't go on a rampage, so access to guns can't be the problem' delusional, these factors are important.

Thought Provoking

This was a very interesting listen. i was left feeling like i would like to delve more into the subject matter and try to understand why these terrible things happen.

A somewhat brief introduction to the subject matter and i have listened to it several times now

Well worth a listen