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Critical Studies on Terrorism Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rter20 Stories in action: the cultural influences of school shootings on the terrorist attacks in Norway Sveinung Sandberga, Atte Oksanenb, Lars Erik Berntzenc & Tomi Kiilakoskid a Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway b National Research Institute of Legal Policy, Helsinki, Finland c Department of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute, Firenze, Italy d Finnish Youth Research Network, Helsinki, Finland Published online: 30 Apr 2014.

To cite this article: Sveinung Sandberg, Atte Oksanen, Lars Erik Berntzen & Tomi Kiilakoski (2014): Stories in action: the cultural influences of school shootings on the terrorist attacks in Norway, Critical Studies on Terrorism, DOI: 10.1080/17539153.2014.906984 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2014.906984

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ARTICLE Stories in action: the cultural influences of school shootings on the terrorist attacks in Norway Sveinung Sandberga*, Atte Oksanenb, Lars Erik Berntzenc and Tomi Kiilakoskid

aDepartment of Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; bNational Research Institute of Legal Policy, Helsinki, Finland; cDepartment of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute, Firenze, Italy; dFinnish Youth Research Network, Helsinki, Finland (Received 16 December 2013; accepted 14 March 2014)

Terrorism is a cultural bricolage and terrorists are inspired by a wide range of political ideologies and stories. In this study of the terrorist attacks that occurred in Norway in 2011, we reveal how the perpetrator was influenced not only by political rhetoric, but also by the cultural script of school shootings. Anders Behring Breivik was socially isolated and lived his life online. He targeted young people in educational contexts and tried to kill as many people as possible. Preparation was extensive, including cultural products distributed online, and notoriety was the primary objective. By revealing such similarities, we challenge widespread distinctions between types of harm. Keywords: cultural criminology; cultural script; narrative criminology; school shooting; terrorism

Introduction On 22 July 2011, Norway was hit by the worst case of terrorism or political violence since the Second World War. At half past four in the afternoon, a 950-kilo fertiliser bomb exploded close to many government offices in the centre of Oslo. Eight people were killed outright, and 10 were hospitalised with severe injuries. Had it not been for the summer holiday, the death toll might have been many times higher. At about half past five on the same evening, a shooting rampage began at Utøya, where the Labour Youth Party was Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014 holding its annual political summer camp. Sixty-nine people were killed, most of them youths, and half as many were severely wounded. The perpetrator was Anders Behring Breivik; he was 32 years old at the time and had spent years preparing for the attacks. In a manifesto that he posted on YouTube and distributed by email, he claimed that he was protecting Western and Christian values against the threat of Islam. He further described the attacks as political violence and listed several terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Baader-Meinhof Group as sources of inspiration. Studies published in the aftermath have framed the attacks in a similar way (see Asprem 2011; Andersson 2012; Fekete 2012; Walton 2012; Sandberg 2013; Wiggen 2012; Berntzen and Sandberg 2014; Gardell 2014). Using the manifesto as a primary source of data, researchers – the authors of this article included – have thus allowed Breivik to control the perception and interpretation of events. In this study, Breivik’s acts are analysed from the perspective of cultural and narrative criminology to argue that action can be seen as telling a story (Katz 1988;

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

Jackson-Jacobs 2004). The steps taken in a crime, for example, can be analysed as the elements or events in a narrative. When it comes to the terrorist attacks in Norway, three voices stand out: anti-Islamic rhetoric, stories of political terrorism and school shooting scripts. As with other narratives, the story of a crime tends to be intertextual, representing a multitude of voices (Frank 2012), and is best understood as a cultural bricolage (Levi-Strauss 1966). Academics, however, prefer to think in clear-cut categories and distinctions. Studying the many stories of a crime is important because categories of harm influence everything from an understanding of crime and offender to prevention policies and penal responses. It is also important because the story a crime tells may differ from the one told by offenders. The story of the Utøya attack, for example, is not the story that Breivik wants us to hear. Although his manifesto is more than 1500 pages long, school shootings are never mentioned. We have previously explored the inspiration that Breivik drew from anti-Islamic rhetoric and political terrorism (Sandberg 2013; Berntzen and Sandberg 2014). However, when parenthesising his own interpretation of events and taking a closer look at events that took place, we find close similarities to previous school shootings. This is particularly true of the attack at Utøya. Much has been said about how Breivik was inspired by political rhetoric, while the cultural influences of school shootings have gone unnoticed. Exploring these is the main aim of this paper. To be clear, we do not argue that the Oslo 22/7 attacks were a school shooting case. Rather, our aim is to challenge simplified categorisations of harm.

The cultural script of school shootings On 14 December 2012, Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 six- to seven-year-old pupils and six adult staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. In recent decades, some of the most tragic and notorious mass shootings have occurred when students have attacked their current or former school with lethal intent. The USA has witnessed dozens of cases, the most notorious being the Columbine shooting (1999), and the most lethal the Virginia Tech shootings (2007). In Europe, the cases with the most fatalities have occurred in Germany and Finland. It has been estimated that there have been at least 68 mass shootings since the Columbine tragedy. The rate of these incidents has increased dramatically, especially outside the USA (Böckler, Seeger, et al. 2013).

Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014 Table 1 summarises the most renowned school shootings before the Newtown attack. All of the perpetrators were male and committed suicide at the end of their attacks. The school shooters range in age from 16 to 32, and an important factor that differentiates them is their cognitive development and exposure to the world. School shootings have not been traditionally viewed as political acts, but they contain political elements (Malkki 2014). It seems that the older the offenders are, the more verbalised their intents, desires and “political” messages become. This does not hinder a comparison, but although they share a large number of common traits, the degree to which they have articulated explicit political goals is coterminous with a continuum largely defined by their age and development of mental faculties. Systematic studies conducted in Germany, the USA and Finland show that school shooters have had problems with their peer groups and felt excluded or rejected at some point in their lives (Böckler, Seeger, and Heitmeyer 2011; Kiilakoski and Oksanen 2011b; Newman et al. 2004; Oksanen et al. 2013; Verlinden, Hersen, and Thomas 2000; Vossekuil et al. 2002). These social problems might have exacerbated their psychological disorders, including symptoms of depression, narcissistic personality traits and lack of Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014

Table 1. Selected school shooting cases.

Age of the Year Location perpetrator(s) Weapons Died* Wounded Case description

1999 Littleton 18 & 17 Semi-automatic handguns, 15 23 Two heavily armed students attacked their own school, tried to (Columbine), USA shotguns, explosives, blow up the building and fatally shot 12 students and one and knives teacher. 2002 Erfurt, Germany 19 Semi-automatic pistol 17 7 A former student attacked a school, killing 13 faculty and staff members and two students before committing suicide. 2005 Red Lake, USA 16 Semi-automatic pistols and 10 12 The perpetrator first shot his grandfather and his grandfather’s a shotgun girlfriend, and then attacked his former school, killing a guard, a teacher and students. 2006 Montreal, Canada 25 Semi-automatic carbine, 2 19 A Columbine fan attacked a college by firing randomly in a rifle, pistol and a cafeteria. He killed one person and severely wounded many shotgun others. He committed suicide after being shot by a police officer. 2006 Emsdetten, Germany 18 Rifles, a pistol and 1 37 The perpetrator attacked his former school, wounded several homemade smoke people and committed suicide. He was active online and left Terrorism on Studies Critical bombs pictures and a suicide note on his webpage. 2007 Blacksburg (Virginia 23 Semi-automatic pistols 33 17 A college student killed students and faculty members at his Tech), USA school in two separate incidents on the same day. He initially killed two students, and then went back home and mailed a media package including pictures and a manifesto to NBC news. During the second shooting spree, he killed 30 more people before committing suicide. (Continued) 3 Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014 4 .Sandberg S.

Table 1. (Continued). tal. et Age of the Year Location perpetrator(s) Weapons Died* Wounded Case description

2007 Jokela, Finland 18 Semi-automatic pistol and 9 13 The perpetrator uploaded pictures, videos and a manifesto online two-stroke petrol before entering his school and fatally shooting six students, a school nurse and the principal. He also tried (unsuccessfully) to burn down the school. 2008 DeKalb (Northern 27 Semi-automatic pistols and 6 18 A graduate student on the campus killed five people and wounded Illinois a shotgun several others. He was active online and had shown an interest University), USA in previous school shootings. 2008 Kauhajoki, Finland 22 Semi-automatic pistol and 11 3 The perpetrator killed a teacher and nine students from his own flammable liquid class. He had uploaded videos and pictures onto the Internet prior to the attacks. He tried to burn down the school. 2009 Winnenden, 17 Semi-automatic pistol 16 11 The perpetrator shot people in his school and then hijacked a car Germany and continued shooting people in another town. He committed suicide after a shoot-out with police. 2011 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 23 Two revolvers 13 12 The perpetrator attacked his former school, killing 12 12–14-year- olds and wounding 12 others. The killer made videos prior to the shootings, posed with a gun, and made references to earlier school shootings.

Note: * Includes the male perpetrators who committed suicide. Critical Studies on Terrorism 5

empathy (Bannenberg 2010; Bondü and Scheithauer 2011a, 2011b; Böckler, Seeger, and Heitmeyer 2011; Newman et al. 2004; Robertz and Wickenhäuser 2010). School shootings became a media phenomenon during the 1990s in the USA (Kellner 2008; Muschert 2013; Muschert and Carr 2006). Some authors claim that school shootings were inspired by mass murders in offices where angry employees attacked collea- gues. The most notorious examples occurred in the US Postal Service offices, which saw 16 such attacks during the 1980s and early 1990s. The phenomenon of “going postal” even became a theme of video games in the 1990s (see Ames 2007). Similarly, the idea of armed revenge against one’s employer or school became a theme in mainstream films, which in turn inspired real killers (Webber 2003, 27). The Columbine case (1999) was a watershed event for the cultural meaning and influence of school shootings. The Columbine shooters were active on the Internet, made videos of themselves and detailed their thoughts in a way not seen in previous school shootings. They developed their plan as if it was a movie script, and school shootings became more deeply ingrained in popular culture thereafter. The Columbine shooters thus contributed significantly to what has been termed the cultural script of school shootings.1 This term was coined by Newman et al. (2004), and it has been used by a number of authors (Henry 2009; Kiilakoski and Oksanen 2011a; Larkin 2009; Newman et al. 2004; Newman and Fox 2009). In its simplest form, a cultural script prescribes behaviour. It is not just a “model” that is put into action but rather a toolbox for behaviour. Shooters actively construct, edit and re-edit it, combining performance violence, fame-seeking and extreme forms of oppositional masculinity. The most important part of the school shooting script is: (a) Targeting children and young people in an educational setting. Victims are usually randomly selected, although some are chosen because of their symbolic value (e.g., principals) (Newman et al. 2004). (b) It has become common for shooters to try to kill as many people as possible in efforts to exceed the number of victims in the Columbine shootings (Larkin 2009). (c) School shooting episodes develop over a long period of time, during which the shooters move from violent fantasies to detailed planning and finally the attack (Bondü and Scheithauer 2011b). (d) Shooters have used video games and other popular culture products such as films and music to prepare. (e) Since Columbine, many school shooters have published photos and videos, written statements and provided the mass media with detailed information about themselves (Kiilakoski and Oksanen 2011a). To all intents and purposes, the

Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014 script is designed to make the perpetrator famous (Fast 2008, 9; Larkin 2009, 193–195; Lee 2009, 337–353). The school shooting script is one of the many cultural resources for contemporary mass murder, and it has moved far beyond the realm of the school.

Studying terrorism as enacted stories This study relies on several concepts, the most important of which are bricolage (Levi-Strauss 1966), narrative (Labov 1972) and cultural script (Newman et al. 2004). Levi-Strauss describes a “heterogeneous repertoire which, even if extensive, is nevertheless limited” (1966, 17). He says that mythical thought is “a kind of intellectual ‘bricolage”’ but notes the following:

The elements which the “bricoleur” collects and uses are “pre-constrained” like the consti- tutive units of myth, the possible combinations of which are restricted by the fact that they are drawn from the language where they already possess a sense which sets a limit on their freedom of manoeuvre. (Levi-Strauss 1966, 19) 6 S. Sandberg et al.

The Norwegian terrorist attacks can be studied as a cultural bricolage that draws on a widely dispersed and heterogeneous repertoire. Breivik is the bricoleur who “addresses himself to a collection of oddments left over from human endeavours, that is, only a sub-set of the culture” (Levi-Strauss 1966, 19). Insights from cultural and narrative criminology are of great help when studying these elements of culture. Cultural criminology synthesises sociological criminology and cultural studies (Ferrell 2007) and has twin foci on culture and crime (Ferrell, Hayward, and Young 2008). It “explores the many ways in which cultural forces interweave with the practice of crime and crime control in contemporary society” (Ferrell, Hayward, and Young 2008, 2) and emphasises that “crime and deviance constitute more than the simple enactment of a static group culture” (Ferrell, Hayward, and Young 2008, 3). With respect to the Norwegian perpetrator, cultural criminology offers several important insights. The modus operandi is “manifold, plural, and increasingly global” (Ferrell, Hayward, and Young 2008, 6), and the violent attacks can only be understood by exploring the “representational hall of mirrors” that defines and constitutes crime (Ferrell 2007, 2). Stories are forceful, persuasive and effective forms of communication, and among the most important cultural elements that direct crime (McAdams 1993; Gubrium and Holstein 2012; Polkinghorne 1988). The main objective of narrative criminology is to bring insights from narrative traditions in the social sciences to criminology and the study of crime (Presser and Sandberg forthcoming). In short, narrative criminology “focuses on how people establish who they are – their identity work – by emplotting their experience” (Presser 2012, 6), and “seeks to explain crime and other harmful action as a function of the stories that actors and bystanders tell about themselves” (Presser 2012, 5). Breivik, for example, was influenced by several cultural stories (Polkinghorne 1991) when planning and committing his acts. Narrative criminology emphasises how stories promote harmful action (Presser 2009) and has typically studied the stories of offenders. The importance of stories for crime, however, can also be revealed by including cultural criminology’s emphasis on studying crime as telling a story (Katz 1988; Jackson-Jacobs 2004). A narrative is essentially concerned with temporality and causality. Events are put in a certain order, and the assumption is that one leads to another, making a plot that provides the moral of the story (Riessman 2008; Polletta et al. 2011). In much the same way, actual events tend to have a beginning, a middle and an end (Atkinson and Coffey 2003). Studying these as

Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014 stories can be a way to include both practice and insights from cultural criminology in a theoretical framework of narrative criminology. The concept of cultural scripts further illuminates the relationship between story and action. In much the same way as narratives, cultural scripts concern temporality and causality. A cultural script refers to a schema that organises a person’s understanding of a situation, creating expectations about the nature of the event and its subsequent media reception (Kiilakoski and Oksanen 2011b; see also Wilkinson and Carr 2008, 1031). The concept of a script, however, accentuates the performative aspect of narratives (Schmidt 2007). Cultural scripts are narratives as acted out, and thus a fruitful way to capture the stories that action tells.

Data and methods Studying rare events, such as terrorist attacks or school shootings, poses a number of methodological problems. Finding similar cases is difficult, and while there are a small number of cases, there are a large number of potential causes. The universe of potential Critical Studies on Terrorism 7

cases is also large, and seemingly similar events may have different sets of causes (Harding, Fox, and Mehta 2002). These problems are especially pressing when the focus of the study is to understand an individual. In this study, the events are analysed by using a cultural sociological approach. The aim is to show that the comparison case problem can be solved by examining the cultural script that connects seemingly different acts, such as the Utøya attack and school shootings. The data for school shootings comprise official reports and scientific studies. We have included material from the police investigations, trials and government-appointed com- missions for the school shootings in Finland and the US (ICJ 2009, 2010; NBI 2008, 2009; NIUTR 2008; VTRP 2007). Furthermore, we rely on the extensive research conducted on the subject (Bondü 2012; Borum et al. 2010; Böckler, Thorsten, et al. 2013; Newman et al. 2004; Verlinden, Hersen, and Thomas 2000; Vossekuil et al. 2002). We have also studied the manifestos and written statements of school shooters. Data for the Breivik case comprise the First Court Psychiatric evaluation by Sørheim and Husby (2011), the Second Court Psychiatric evaluation by Tørrissen and Aspaas (2012) and finally, the government-appointed Report from the 22 July Commission (NOU 2012, 12). Of the three, only the NOU was intended to be publicly available. The documents contain material from the immediate Norwegian police reports detailing the attacks, the subsequent police interviews and investigations into Breivik’s background, as well as recon- structions of the events. The court psychiatric reports also include data from interviews and observations of Breivik conducted over several months before and during the court trial, as well as numerous excerpts from his old health records, interviews with close relatives, former friends, classmates and associates. The analysis below describes the most significant similarities between Breivik’s terrorist attacks and school shootings. It starts with similarities in the backgrounds and personal characteristics of the shooters, and then turns to the main objective of this study: to tease out the similarities in the cultural scripts followed by Breivik and school shooters. Since the perpetrator had his own agenda when describing and interpreting the attacks, a detailed cultural analysis is needed to point out common themes.

Psychological problems and social life online Both Breivik and several school shooters had a history of social isolation and showed

Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014 signs of mental problems. Breivik was born in 1979, and foster care was recommended for him early on because it was judged that “the care situation is so lacking that he is in danger of developing a more serious psychopathology” (Sørheim and Husby 2011, 52, authors’ translation). The child welfare committee rejected this recommendation in 1984. Later, Breivik had periods when he fared better, but he was frequently described as a loner, intense, with strong opinions and an unpleasant presence (Sørheim and Husby 2011). In the last few years before the terrorist attacks, his psychological problems increased. In 2006, he moved in with his mother, and from 2010 onwards, he often locked himself in his room and became increasingly “obsessed” with his ideas and projects (Sørheim and Husby 2011, 57). The two psychiatric teams that diagnosed Breivik after the attacks reached different conclusions. The first team stated that he had a serious lack of empathy, a flat range of affect, paranoid delusions and grandiose misconceptions. They diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia and argued that he was psychotic when preparing for and committing the attacks (Sørheim and Husby 2011, 224–225). The second team, on whose opinion the court based its verdict, rejected this diagnosis and concluded instead that he had 8 S. Sandberg et al.

narcissistic personality traits with a grandiose self-image (Tørrissen and Aspaas 2012, 273). Terrorists are typically psychologically normal (Cottee and Hayward 2011, 963), whereas school shooters tend to have various mental problems, such as narcissistic personality traits and depression (Bondü and Scheithauer 2011a, 2011b). There is no single psychological profile of school shooters (Vossekuil et al. 2002,19–21), but many are introverted and have been socially marginalised. Social isolation and peer group rejection are risk factors (Newman et al. 2004; Verlinden, Hersen, and Thomas 2000,12–13). According to Newman and Fox, young school shooters are “failed joiners” more than loners. Older college shooters, however, much like Breivik, are more likely to be disconnected and to have chosen to isolate themselves from their peers (Newman and Fox 2009,1304). Breivik’s online engagement played a significant part in his social isolation. He immersed himself in online interactions and communities, such as Facebook, and this came to substitute for other forms of social interaction. Breivik also sought and found ideological support on the Internet. He was engaged in ideological debates in more than 40 online forums, ranging from the Progress Party’s own website, the conservative website Document.no, and the comments sections of several large newspapers to fringe and more extremist forums such as Stormfront.org. His online activity increased over the years, and particularly during the days leading up to the fatal attacks. Breivik’s social life on the Internet has clear parallels with those of school shooters. The Columbine shooters were the first to use the Internet, and school shooters since then have been active online. The Montreal school shooter, for example, kept an online diary and was active in social media (Cohen-Almagor and Haleva-Amir 2008; Paton 2013). The Emsdetten (2006) shooter was active online and posted videos on YouTube (Böckler and Seeger 2010; Paton 2013), and the Jokela shooter also had an online identity (Kiilakoski and Oksanen 2011a). Both Finnish shooters found encouraging communities online, but offline their fellow students or friends disapproved of their talk about school shootings (Kiilakoski and Oksanen 2011b; Oksanen et al. 2013). Social media has created gateways for like-minded people seeking approval and support for radical ideas (Hawdon 2012). Like many of the school shooters, Breivik was not one of the most active members of the Internet communities in which he participated, but he was clearly influenced and encouraged by the ideas that he found online. The Internet attracts members of marginalised groups and assists in their identity

Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014 construction. It is a practical space where the marginalised can experiment with identity, contact similar people and more easily ignore objections and rejections (Williams and Copes 2005). Most young people maintain an online presence today, but online commu- nications and forums serve a specific purpose for socially excluded individuals. For Breivik and many school shooters, the Internet and social media made it easier to live their lives outside local communities and ordinary social arenas. Online communication increased their radical beliefs, gave them script knowledge of violent attacks and allowed them to establish a “super-sized” persona inspired by other mass shooters and solo terrorists. The opportunity to select friends and to ignore negative feedback made it easier to gain support for extreme ideas and acts. Such narratives, and the way that they are enacted in cultural scripts, will be the focus of the remaining analysis.

Six key similarities in cultural scripts Breivik’s attacks, especially at Utøya, have several similarities to the cultural script for school shootings. The narrative he enacted includes shared elements in the following six Critical Studies on Terrorism 9

key categories: target, goal, cultural consumption, preparation, cultural products and main objective. They are closely interlinked, and separated here mainly for analytical purposes. Together they constitute an efficient media strategy appealing to lonely young men with narcissistic tendencies, a fascination for violence and an interest in new technologies.

Young people/children in an educational social context The most important part of the school shooting script is the target. Attacking schools is a strong symbolic act with huge implications for the subsequent framing and interpretation of events. Schools are chosen because children and young people are easy victims and because attacks on youths and the public location maximise attention. The choice of target is not incidental, and school shooters have had discussions about the suitability of schools and educational contexts (Oksanen et al. 2013). The Jokela shooter, for example, considered schools suitable targets because an attack on a school would create more publicity than attacking parliament or a shopping mall (NBI 2008, 402; Oksanen et al. 2013). Schools symbolise growth, progress and values worth teaching to the next generation. School shootings are not only acts of individual revenge against the school; rather, schools are often chosen because of what they represent (Fast 2008). The self-perceived ostracism from the community that perpetrators live in is tied into this maelstrom, underpinning the need for attention. Younger school shooters have a simple and “close” perception of their lifeworld, while older shooters often connect their experiences to society at large. Breivik attacked two different targets on 22 July 2011. The government quarter in Oslo consists of several large buildings some 300 metres from the parliament and various ministries. For a terrorist antagonistic towards the government and the State, this was a predictable target. The other target, however, was unexpected. The island of Utøya lies a short distance from the mainland in Tyrifjorden lake, about 40 kilometres northwest of Oslo. Every summer for the last 50 years, the youth wing of the Labour Party (AUF) has held a summer camp there. Hundreds of youngsters from across the nation attend the camp to learn about politics, to make new friends and to have fun. Apart from political debates and lectures, the young people engage in social activities and sports. The rationale of school shooters is that extreme violence against particularly innocent groups will generate the most public attention. There are no references to such a principle in Breivik’s manifesto, and during his trial he repeatedly returned to the political back-

Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014 ground of the youths that he killed to justify his acts. If his motives were entirely political, however, he could have picked a more suitable target. In much the same way as school shooters, Breivik chose to attack youngsters in a setting that is valued for learning and socialisation into the culture from which he was marginalised. For school shooters, this is mainstream society, whereas for Breivik, it was the cultural and political Leftist elite. In both cases, the shock effect of killing young people is not incidental but an important part of the story they enacted.

Killing as many as possible using firearms For both school shooters and terrorists, a high death toll is important. A higher number of victims equals more publicity, as demonstrated by the Columbine school shootings. School shootings can be compared to terrorist attacks in terms of the number of victims. The Jokela and Kauhajoki shootings, for example, are the worst violent tragedies in modern Finnish criminal history. In Germany, the shootings in Erfurt and Winnenden had high death tolls, even when compared with attacks committed by notorious terrorist 10 S. Sandberg et al.

groups, such as the Baader-Meinhof Group. The importance to school shooters of killing a large number of people is evident in the diary entry written by the Jokela shooter following the school shooting with the most fatalities in recent US history:

A historic day, Cho Seung-Hui has just killed 33 people in a university in Virginia. The new record in so-called educational institution shootings. There’s not much more to write at this point. I think I’m going to do a massacre in Hitman [First-Person Shooter (FPS) video game]. (NBI 2008, 9, translated from the Finnish).

Many subsequent mass shooters have aspired to surpass the Columbine body count (Larkin 2009). An Internet site named spreekillers.ch lists different shootings based on the death toll, and in a previous incarnation it included pictures of previous school shooters as “honorary members”. In order to be included on these lists, killings must be committed one by one using firearms. In FPS games, players roam virtual environments and kill characters in the game relatively randomly. The Columbine shooters also described using FPS games (Doom and Quake). They created their own levels and even sought to enhance and reprogram the games to be more violent. As Ralph Larkin (2007, 171) points out, for the Columbine shooters, “the characters in the video games were stand-ins for people [they] wanted to kill in real life”. The goal in FPS games is to kill (score) as many as possible, and in school shootings this principle is transferred to real life. The Columbine shootings have often been seen as revenge for bullying, but the shooters did not attack a select few (Newman et al. 2004). The target was everyone in the school. Breivik started his killing spree by killing an unarmed police officer (NOU 2012, 14, 26). During the next hour, he killed 67 of the 564 people on the island, some as young as 14, and most of them at close range (Tørrissen and Aspaas 2012,43–48; NOU 2012, 14, 26–29). When he encountered people who were injured or lying down, he approached them calmly and shot them in the head, and when people ran away, he tried to shoot them (Tørrissen and Aspaas 2012,45–46). This “manhunt” of innocent victims may have been inspired by similar acts committed by school shooters. They simulate video games in which victims are trapped inside a building with few escape routes. In some cases, such as the Virginia Tech shooting, the main entrance doors were chained, leaving students with no escape routes at all (VTRP 2007, 28). Breivik chose an island from which the only

Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014 means of escape was by swimming, entailing the risk of drowning. Breivik’s commitment to a school shooting story is revealed in his decision to set off the bomb during the summer holidays, thus prioritising the shootings at Utøya. If his aim had simply been to kill as many people as possible, shooting is a relatively inefficient method. It leaves the perpetrator at risk of being overpowered or encountering technical problems with their weapons, increasing the likelihood that people can escape. The long response time of the police made the Utøya attack highly lethal, but Breivik could not have predicted that. Thus, for both Breivik and school shooters, the use of guns can only be understood as a symbolic act with implications for the narrative interpretation of the perpetrator. This is illustrated by the way they pose with them in pictures and videos. The use of firearms is not primarily an efficient means of killing a large number of people; it is a way to create a specific symbolic spectacle (Kellner 2008). It is difficult to take a life, and repeatedly committing such acts face-to-face with the most vulnerable of victims exemplifies the ultimate cruelty. Terrorists are frequently romanticised as freedom fighters, martyrs or revolutionaries who use “violence against implacable authorities of the state who are responsible for perpetrating human suffering Critical Studies on Terrorism 11

across the planet” (Hamm 2007, 157). The image of school shooters is quite different. They are seen as evil, “crazy” and cynical enough to kill innocent children, one by one, to feed their own egos. In much the same way as works of art can be instruments of shock (Benjamin 1969, 238), the cruelty of shooting rampages is designed to create a particular effect in the media. As opposed to acts of terrorism, in school shootings the emphasis is not on achieving popular support or resonance, but on notoriety through the construction of a particularly brutal image of the perpetrator.

Long and detailed preparation The shootings at Columbine were exceptionally well-prepared (Larkin 2007), which is a pattern that has also been seen in later shootings (e.g., Böckler, Seeger, et al. 2013; Bondü 2012; Bondü and Scheithauer 2011a). The Jokela shooter wrote his first diary entries on the “Main Strike” eight months before the shooting: “I’ll kill as many bastards as I can. … The one-man war against everyone and everything can start sometime next autumn at a dooms- day dawn” (NBI 2008, 9, translated from the Finnish). In a letter that was found in his flat, the Kauhajoki shooter wrote that he had been planning the shooting since 2002 (i.e., six years before the act) (NBI 2009, 41). A US Secret Service report about US school shootings in the 1980s and 1990s concludes that school shootings are not impulsive acts. Almost all of the studied cases (n = 38) were planned (Vossekuil et al. 2002,23–24). Long and detailed preparation is an important part of the cultural script of school shootings because it reflects the desired identity of the perpetrator. By planning well in advance, important symbolic boundaries (Lamont and Molnár 2002) are drawn between these attacks and more chaotic, emotional and “irrational” crimes and offenders. Assiduous planning differentiates school shootings from more impulsive spree or mass shootings (e.g., “going postal”). Breivik talked up his claims of having planned his attacks for a decade. Concrete preparations, however, did not start before 2009, so there seems to be a distinct rhetorical point involved. School shooters probably want to avoid being associated with more impulsive shootings, while Breivik had an additional concern about being seen as “irrational” or “crazy”. The longer the preparations, the more rational the act would appear. Most school shooters have not been as rigorous as Breivik and have not spent years planning their attacks. In May 2009, Breivik established Breivik Geofarm ENK, a

Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014 company that served as a cover for leasing a farm and purchasing the large quantities of fertiliser that he later used in his bomb (NOU 2012, 14, 344). Like many terrorists, he was systematic and disciplined in his approach. For example, he spent a great deal of time during the winter of 2009–2010 gathering email addresses that he used to distribute his manifesto. He also took steroids for a long period of time as part of his preparations (Sørheim and Husby 2011, 64). In sum, in the three years before Breivik committed the attacks, he was more or less totally preoccupied with preparing what was to come. In this regard, his attacks share commonalities with many acts of terrorism. They are complex operations that take time to plan. Two elements distinguish the Oslo incidents from most terrorist attacks, however. First, preparation seems to have had a separate symbolic value. It was not only instru- mental in preparing the attack, but important per se. This can be illustrated by Breivik’s insistence on having planned his attacks for a decade and his punctilious documentation of them. A large part of his manifesto is dedicated to a day-by-day report on the preparation of the bomb. Second, like school shooters, much preparation focused upon building the image of the perpetrator. Breivik took a lot of self-portraits, bought materials to make a 12 S. Sandberg et al.

“Knights Templar uniform” and wrote a narcissistic manifesto full of personal biographi- cal details (Sandberg 2013). The attacks in Norway and most school shootings are carefully thought-out acts of ceremonial violence with a particular choreography and style emphasising the role of the perpetrator (Fast 2008). This takes time to plan, and the perpetrators must step into their new role prior to the attacks.

Video games, films and music In the final year before the Jokela attack, when his preparations were becoming more serious, the shooter changed most of his cultural preferences to those of the Columbine shooters (NBI 2008, 558; Oksanen et al. 2013). This included computers, Internet, aggressive music, violent movies, and FPS (First-Person Shooter) computer games (Kiilakoski and Oksanen 2011a). Other post-Columbine shooters have shared similar tastes in cultural consumption, most importantly FPS games, but also films and music (Bondü 2012; Bondü and Scheithauer 2013; Kiilakoski and Oksanen 2011a; Robertz and Wickenhäuser 2010; see also Vossekuil et al. 2002). While he was living at home with his mother, Breivik spent a huge amount of time playing online video games, such as World of Warcraft (NOU 2012). He was successful at this particular game and led or co-ordinated groups of up to 40 people. He also spent time playing Call of Duty and Modern Warfare (NOU 2012, 14, 343). He was completely committed to these video games and frequently used language and expressions taken from them. This immersion into virtual gaming and the transposition of virtual reality into real life are traits he shares with school shooters. Video games, films and music are often portrayed as causes of both the Norwegian terrorist attacks and school shootings, but such causal links are difficult to establish (Bondü and Scheithauer 2013). Consumption of these cultural products is widespread in Western culture, and the interest school shooters have displayed could just have easily been prompted by their violent fantasies or plans (Kiilakoski and Oksanen 2011a). Yet, media violence may have an impact on this small minority of aggressive individuals (Baumeister 1997, 278–280). There is great variety in the cultural tastes of school shooters, and apart from FPS computer games, Breivik did not share them in general. Still, they all used products of Western popular culture when preparing for attacks and integrated them as parts of their acts. Breivik, for example, used music as a source of motivation (Tørrissen and Aspaas

Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014 2012, 57), and watched the movie Sleeper Cell and the miniseries Carlos (about the 1970s terrorist Carlos the Jackal) several times in the days leading up to the attacks (Tørrissen and Aspaas 2012, 58). Media and cultural products are not isolated items but combine to play an important part in the school shooting script. Sometimes they even become part of the act itself, such as when shooters listen to a particular kind of music to get motivated, or when they mimic a video game during the act. Breivik tried to conceal the cultural tastes he shared with school shooters. In police interviews, for example, he claimed that he did not like FPS games and did not need to listen to music during the attacks to maintain morale (Tørrissen and Aspaas 2012, 57). Nevertheless, he did play FPS games extensively and had a playlist that he recommended for violent attacks. The police also found an iPod at the scene, and survivors reported that he was humming various tunes during the attack.2 This suggests he was aware of such possible connections, and self-presented to avoid being associated with school shooters. Music and other cultural items contribute to the ceremonial nature of violence (Fast 2008), and constitute important elements of the spectacle that school shooters create for their (presumed) audience and themselves. Films, video games and music are not causes Critical Studies on Terrorism 13

of these crimes, but a framework of cultural or narrative criminology can be used to understand how they inspire and shape these events. Playing particular video games and integrating Western popular culture products into preparations and attacks are key parts of the story of school shootings.

Pictures and texts distributed on the Internet The production and consumption of cultural products are intertwined. Again, the Columbine shootings constitute a defining moment. Pre-Columbine school shootings were not public events, and the perpetrators did not try to manipulate the media. The Columbine shooters, however, videotaped themselves and explained their motives and agenda (Larkin 2007, 2009). One of the Columbine shooters even had a webpage akin to an early form of a blog. The material that they produced became important source material for potential shooters (Kiilakoski and Oksanen 2011a; see also Larkin 2009). Inspired by the Columbine shooters’ media strategy, the Virginia Tech shooter submitted material directly to NBC News (VTRP 2007). Similarly, the Jokela shooter distributed videos to the file-sharing site Rapidshare, a procedure that the Kauhajoki shooter copied (Kiilakoski and Oksanen 2011a). The Emsdetten and Rio de Janeiro shooters also made explanatory videos prior to their acts (Paton 2013). The broadcasting of text and pictures offers perpetrators an opportunity to influence the interpretation of events and to become famous. The production and distribution of rather elaborate cultural products is an important part of the cultural script of school shootings. It is also part of a highly effective media strategy. On 17 June 2011, Breivik bought the website domain www.thenewknighthood.com. His last acts before the attacks were to send a 1518-page manifesto to an estimated 8000 addresses and to upload a propaganda video to YouTube. To make sure that these items would be seen, he buried several memory cards containing this material at different locations (Tørrissen and Aspaas 2012, 50). The manifesto primarily reproduces anti-Islamic rhetoric (Berntzen and Sandberg 2014), but it also includes a sort of diary and a self-made question-and-answer session describing Breivik’s background, family, personal reasons for committing the attacks and sacrifices made (Sandberg 2013). This part of the manifesto stands out as something akin to an extended suicide note. At the end of the manifesto, Breivik included several edited pictures of himself and his family, as well as

Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014 pictures of himself in a self-made uniform, in a suit and pointing a rifle towards the camera. The 12-minute YouTube video mirrors the manifesto, and ends with several pictures of Breivik posing with weapons. The video is accompanied by melodramatic music similar to that used in Hollywood movies such as Gladiator and in role-playing computer games. Breivik’s YouTube video and manifesto follow the same pattern as the Columbine, Virginia Tech, Jokela and Kauhajoki shooters. All of these perpetrators published statements or manifestos about their shootings. In the same manner as Breivik, seven earlier school shooters also posed in pictures depicting themselves with a gun pointing towards the camera. The pictures mimic the positions and photo angles of Hollywood villains. Using the movie metaphor, the picture can be seen as the movie poster for the film that the school shooter script describes. The image is intended to signal strength and danger and emphasises the lead character’s ultra-masculine persona and identity. Such pictures are different from those distributed by jihadist terrorists, for example. They also pose with guns, but those pictures show groups of people, and the guns are at their sides, depicting strength and the potential for violence. While the terrorist has a 14 S. Sandberg et al.

relatively limited target (a particular group of people), the school shooter stands alone and attacks everyone. By aiming at the audience, the message is that no one should feel safe. There are no political or religious concessions that will mitigate the rage of the school shooter. Although Breivik viewed himself as a political terrorist, the cultural products he made, including self-portraits and texts, had much more in common with school shooters than with previous terrorists.

Notoriety, the primary objective Attention is the main objective of most school shooters (Larkin 2009); school shootings are the dark side of a culture that idolises fame and despises the ordinary. School shootings are primarily about the person committing the act. The Columbine shooters were certain that their acts would create a spectacle that would be recounted in movies. In a well-known episode of their basement tapes, for example, they discuss whether Spielberg or Tarantino would be most likely to film their story (Twenge and Campbell 2003, 261). The primary aim was to become famous, and the huge media interest in Columbine made it a model that later school shooters would emulate (Larkin 2007, 193–195; Lee 2009, 337–353). The Red Lake shooter sought fame and studied the Columbine shootings repeatedly (Newman and Fox 2009, 1290, 1303). The Jokela shooter similarly claimed before his acts that he was going to go down in history (NBI 2008,212–213). Of all the elements in the school shooting script, the role of the perpetrator seems to have held particular appeal for Breivik. In fact, much of what he did and wrote seemed to be motivated by a narcissistic and grandiose self-image. Breivik devoted a lot of space in his manifesto to his personal life and habits. Everything from his family, upbringing and friends, to his tastes in food, favourite travel destination and even favourite cologne is covered in great detail. He also had plastic surgery on his nose to improve his looks, gave himself the title “Knight Justicar Grand Master”, and wore a homemade uniform and medals to court. Making a grandiose spectacle of himself was a fundamental part of Breivik’s attacks. One can rightly argue that terrorists share many of the elements in the school shooting cultural script, such as the creation of a visual spectacle, violent acts (Juergensmeyer 2001)or the existential motives of the perpetrators. Cottee and Hayward (2011) argue that terrorists are motivated by three desires that are typically disregarded: excitement, glory and ultimate Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014 meaning. Emotions, identity and the lifeworld of the terrorist are crucial to understanding terrorism. For school shooters, however, the self-centredness seems to occur on another scale. These acts are, as opposed to terrorism, fundamentally narcissistic (Twenge and Campbell 2003), which appears to be a rather fitting description of the attacks in Norway as well.

Conclusion: terrorism as a cultural bricolage School shootings have been the most widely discussed rampage acts of the 1990s and 2000s, and their cultural impacts have been wider than is commonly recognised. The cultural impacts of school shootings are the untold story of the 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway. Research into lone-wolf terrorism has much to offer (Kaplan 1997; Moskalenko and McCauley 2011; Spaaij 2011; Pantucci 2011), but isolating this kind of terrorism as a clear-cut phenomenon and studying it within a limited field of research risks losing sight of the more complex picture. The Norwegian terrorist attacks are best understood as being culturally influenced by both previous terrorist attacks and school shootings. This study Critical Studies on Terrorism 15

has emphasised the latter because they have been neglected in research and popular conceptions thus far. Breivik wanted to be part of a social movement and had much clearer political aims than most school shooters (Berntzen and Sandberg 2014). Illustratively, most of his manifesto describes his political ideology, and he had a history of engagement in political debates. He was also older than previous school shooters, did not target a group he had been involved with, did not commit suicide and left no explicit references to other school shooters. The latter characteristic has been a common factor in many of the more recent shootings. In these respects, Breivik was not a typical school shooter. But nor was he a typical lone-wolf terrorist either. The 2011 attacks in Norway bear important similarities to previous school shootings. The perpetrators were deviant individuals with social and mental problems, the targets were innocent young people in an educational context, and the aim was to kill as many as possible using firearms. Moreover, the preparations had a symbolic dimension to them, the perpetrators used FPS video games as part of their preparation, and manifestos, videos and other cultural products were made prior to the attacks. Most importantly, the shooters primarily killed to gain notoriety (Larkin 2009). School and rampage shootings thus appear to be part of a culture previously populated by figures such as serial killers (see Seltzer 1998). The importance of the school shooting script can be demonstrated by the fact that although Breivik received little recognition as a political terrorist, he has been “celebrated” as a mass murderer. The acts committed by school shooters have generally been condemned, but small online communities have supported them (Böckler and Seeger 2013; Kiilakoski and Oksanen 2011b; Paton 2013). There are several similar marginal blogs idolising Breivik as a mass murderer; for example, comparing him to James Holmes, the young man who went on a shooting spree at a screening of the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises in the USA in 2012.3 There has also been speculation that the Newtown shooter (2012) was inspired by Breivik and wanted to kill more people than Breivik did.4 On the other hand, Breivik’s acts at Utøya were considered exceptionally brutal and out of proportion even among the most radical anti- Islamic and counter-jihadist groups.5 The terrorism and school shooting scripts share some elements – and some of their elements can be combined – but the specific targeting of children and young people constitutes an unbridgeable chasm between the two. Terrorism draws upon a multitude of cultural sources and should be analysed as a cultural bricolage (Levi-Strauss 1966). Moreover, the stories that inspire and shape

Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014 terrorism include multiple voices (Frank 2012). This problematises distinctions between different types of harm. It is not always obvious what counts as terrorism, school shootings, massacres or any other sort of crime. Cultural and narrative criminology can help us to understand the subtleties of cultural influences on crime, and thus the nature of it. Cultural criminology regards offending as “reflected in a vast hall of mirrors” and insists on reading crimes “in terms of the meanings they carry” (Hayward and Young 2004, 259). Narrative criminology studies narratives that promote action (Presser 2009), and it views narratives as “agency conditioned by culture and context, and as attempts at coherency and unity drawing on a wide variety of cultural narratives and discourses” (Sandberg 2013,80–81). This framework easily lends itself to, and should be developed to include, cultural criminology’s emphasis on reading action as narrative (Katz 1988; Jackson-Jacobs 2004). Cultural scripts are narratives acted out or performed, and thus this concept can be helpful in studying the multitude of stories that action tells. In narrative criminology, stories are central to crime: stories promote criminal acts, and action also tells a story of its own. The stories that action tells may differ from the ones told by offenders. Uncritically reproducing offenders’ stories is problematic, both 16 S. Sandberg et al.

methodologically and ethically. We fail in many respects if we uncritically reproduce intentional and strategic narratives. This is particularly important when studying acts primarily staged for the mass media, such as terrorism and school shootings. Both journalists and researchers have bought into Breivik’s self-narrative too easily. We have thus let the offender’s story-telling become the de facto interpretation of events. The terrorist attacks in Norway call for a study of the global character of criminogenic scripts and narratives, and of the complex role that the mass media and social media play in such acts. Combined with a study of offenders’ narratives, this will enable us to understand the importance of stories for crime.

Acknowledgements We would like to thank Dr Lois Presser for helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Funding This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not- for-profit sectors.

Notes 1. Other concepts similar to that of Newman’s “cultural script” include Tonso’s analyses of the “school shooter” as a “trope” (Tonso 2009) and Muschert and Ragnedda’s notion of adhering to a “performative script” (2011). 2. http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/11/13/nyheter/innenriks/terror/anders_behring_breivik/utoya/ 18992765/ (accessed 18 November 2013). 3. This blog is now closed, but it used to be located here: http://dub-me-holmie.tumblr.com/post/ 29551657816/russianfebruary-han-f-ler-seg-sikker-pa-at. See also how Breivik is portrayed as something akin to a cartoon hero here: http://revcon.tumblr.com/post/41435744532#notes 4. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57569958/newtown-shooter-motivated-by-norway- massacre-sources-say/ (accessed 18 February 2013). 5. According to the Norwegian Police Security Service: http://www.dagbladet.no/2013/02/18/ nyheter/innenriks/pst/anders_behring_breivik/25816391/ (accessed 18 February 2013).

Notes on contributors Sveinung Sandberg is Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, Downloaded by [84.215.202.88] at 01:21 03 May 2014 University of Oslo. His research focuses on processes of marginalisation, violence, masculinity, illegal drugs and social movements, often using a narrative or discourse analytical approach. Atte Oksanen is a researcher at the National Research Institute of Legal Policy. His research focuses on unexpected mass violence and on the area of social problems, including crime, drug abuse and financial problems. Lars Erik Berntzen is a PhD researcher in the Department of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute. His research focuses on normative conflict, diffusion of ideas and political violence, with an emphasis on right-wing populism, extremism and anti-Islam. Tomi Kiilakoski is a researcher at the Finnish Youth Research Network. His research focuses on educational institutions and policy, cultural philosophy and youth studies.

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