Is there a therapeutic way to balance community sentiment, student mental health, and student safety to address campus-related violence?

Abstract

This chapter addresses the interrelated dynamics among mental health, public safety, media attention, and community sentiment, and specifically, the law’s response to (and at times impact on) this interplay of issues. For purposes of this discussion, law itself is seen as an intervention that has consequences on behaviors, attitudes, perceptions, and outcomes-positive or less so, intended or not. To ground discussion of law’s role within this context, case examples drawing on recent episodes of campus-based or campus-connected "mass killings" are featured, and reference is made to related developments in the law. Current legal mechanisms for addressing (often) community-fueled requests for action are juxtaposed with a potential alternative framing mechanism-therapeutic jurisprudence. The chapter concludes that teasing out the therapeutic and anti-therapeutic drivers and consequences of our legal mechanisms offers a more effective response to campus safety concerns and community emotions and is consistent with an evidence-based approach.