He is on staff at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he served as the director of Adult Forensic Training for four years, and is on the psychology faculty of Harvard Medical School. He has a private practice with office in Wellesley and Arlington. The tragic shooting deaths at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO, have led to renewed questions about violence. The Littleton tragedy is reminiscent of other recent, highly publicized incidents in which a student or students murdered fellow students.
People struggle to understand how such incidents can happen in suburban schools.
Psychologists are among the professionals consulted to help people understand why this happened and how to prevent this from happening again. Psychologists can assist in this process by placing this incident in context and explaining what is known about the prediction and prevention of violent behavior. Although receiving tremendous media attention, school violence such as the Littleton massacre is extremely rare. Nationally, violent crime, including violent youth crime, has continued to decrease. The latest crime statistics reveal that the violent crime rate has steadily decreased over the past seven years.