Community solidarity, or community cohesion, is vital for a community's recovery. However, cohesion tends to decline after an initial surge immediately following a disaster or tragedy. This research project will examine how communities both grieve and restore a sense of normalcy after tragic events using data from mass shootings in Blacksburg Virginia and Omaha Nebraska in the U.S. and at Jokela High School in Finland. The main goal is to discover what types of social relations sustain community cohesion and provide the most efficient means by which community members can recover from a disaster. By extending research conducted at Virginia Tech to different types of communities and a different culture, the investigators will determine if the relationship between tragic events and community cohesion depends on the type of community that suffers the tragedy, and if the social relationships people use to deal with a disaster vary by type of community. The research strategy is to compare the survey data from a Virginia Tech study with survey data collected in Jokela and Omaha. Like the Virginia Tech study, the community surveys will include measures of the social relations in which individuals engage and measures of "recovery." The surveys include items that measure respondents' mental health, physical health, and fear of crime. By testing a general theory of community relations, the investigators will contribute to sociology by enhancing scholarly understanding of how communities operate and how they recover from disasters. The research will have theoretical implications for disaster research and community development research. The research also has broader impacts including addressing fundamental issues of community and community building. The results will have implications for any attempt to strengthen communities. Given the importance of community in several areas of life (e.g., crime control, economic prosperity, and general quality of life), this research will benefit researchers as well as community development practitioners. The project will also enhance graduate and undergraduate education by informing classes in the areas of criminology and community. The research will also foster cross-cultural relations among faculty members and graduate students in Finland and the United States. Finally, the research may provide strategies for communities to follow to help them recover from mass tragedies more quickly.
