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Peter F. Langman

American psychologist and author

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ60049877
Source-derived summary

Peter Fabbri Langman (born February 20, 1960) is an American counseling psychologist and author. He is a known expert on school shooters.

Professional career

Langman received his B.A. in psychology from Clark University, his M.A. in counseling psychology from Lesley College, and his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Lehigh University.

In 2009, he published his research on ten school shooters based on the analysis of the Columbine High School massacre, the Virginia Tech shooting, the Red Lake shootings, the Thurston High School shooting, the 1998 Parker Middle School dance shooting, the 1998 Westside Middle School shooting, the 1997 Heath High School shooting, and the 1997 Bethel Regional High School shooting. Langman's book Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters has been translated into German, Finnish, and Dutch. When the book had been found in the Munich shooter's home as well as in the Arapahoe High School shooter's home, a discourse began regarding whether the shooters had used the book as inspiration or for looking for a role model, someone to emulate.

In 2015, he continued his research by extending the number of analysed school shooters from ten to 48 and published the book School Shooters: Understanding High School, College, and Adult Perpetrators. On the website Psychology Today, Langman hosts a blog, "Keeping Kids Safe," but it has not been updated since 2016. [1]

Books

Peter Langman: Warning Signs: Identifying School Shooters Before They Strike. Langman Psychological Associates, LLC, Allentown, PA 2021.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Peter F. Langman” as american psychologist and author. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Peter, Langman and American.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1960, 2009, 1998, 1997—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1960-02-20. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Peter, Langman and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Peter F. Langman”, the useful work is to connect “american psychologist and author” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q60049877. VIAF identifies the subject as 4263546. The Library of Congress control number is n99032276. 1 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960, 2009, 1998 and 1997.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Peter F. Langman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.