ADAM LANKFORD
Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice at
The University of Alabama
Research on criminal behavior, targeted violence, mass shootings, and more.
Dr. Adam Lankford is an internationally recognized criminologist and one of the nation’s preeminent experts on mass shootings and targeted violence. His findings have been cited by The White House, by every major media outlet in the United States, and by international media from over 40 countries.
As a professor at The University of Alabama, Dr. Lankford has presented his findings for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) and for events sponsored by the National Academy of Science, National Science Foundation, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, Swedish Defense Research Agency, Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP), Addressing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation to Terrorism (AVERT) research network, and more.
Dr. Lankford received the “Innovation in Research and Publication Award” from the National Association for Behavioral Intervention and Threat Assessment, and his research has been funded by the National Institute of Justice.
Research Areas Include:
Mass Shootings
Studies of perpetrators’ homicidal intentions, extreme ideologies, mental health problems, suicidal motives, fame-seeking tactics, copycat behavior, and firearms acquisition–along with strategies that could reduce the prevalence of their attacks.
Suicide Terrorism
Studies of perpetrators’ pathways to self-destruction. How are they psychologically and behaviorally similar to individuals who commit conventional suicides, murder-suicides, and unconventional suicides? How are they like mass shooters, cult members, and kamikaze pilots?
Sexual Frustration Theory
An exploration of how sexual frustration may contribute to many forms of aggression, violence, and crime–including stalking, intimate partner abuse, bar fights, robberies, gang violence, homicide, mass shootings, terrorism, serial killings, pedophilia, and rape. Could sexual frustration be an important cause of misogyny?