James Densley

In a 2019 op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, The Violence Project presented a new, hopeful, framework to understand mass shootings. Based on a study funded by the National Institute of Justice, Peterson and Densley found mass shooters had four things in common: (1) early childhood trauma and exposure to violence at a young age; (2) an identifiable grievance or suicidal crisis point; (3) validation for their belief system, have studied past shootings to find inspiration; and (4) the means to carry out an attack. This new framework highlights the complexity of the pathway to a mass shooting, including how each one can be “socially contagious”, but also creates a plan to prevent the next shooting. Each one of the four themes represents an opportunity for intervention. By reducing access to firearms (means), slowing contagion (validation), training in crisis intervention de-escalation (crisis), and increasing access to affordable mental healthcare (trauma), a mass shooting can be averted. Densley and Peterson's research also shows that to really understand the profiles of mass killers, you have to look at the types of locations they target because K-12 school shooters are different from house of worship shooters, who are different still from workplace shooters and so on.

In 2017, Densley launched The Violence Project with psychologist Jillian Peterson of Hamline University. Densley and Peterson built a database of all public mass shooters since 1966 coded according to 100 different variables. Their research on mass shooters included in-depth analysis of K-12 school shootings and how the Columbine High School massacre became a blueprint for future massacres. Densley and Peterson are critical of active shooter lockdown drills in schools for traumatizing young children and normalizing school violence.

Densley also studies illicit drug dealing. In 2012, he warned about the county lines model of drug distribution in which drug‐selling gangs from the major urban areas, like London, send vulnerable youth to exploit markets in other towns and areas: “Most youngers are employed by their elders to work what was known colloquially as the ‘drugs line,’ although some are sent out ‘on assignment’ to explore ‘new markets’ in areas where they are unknown to police; notably commuter cities with vibrant nighttime economies”. His later work looked at debt bondage and child exploitation in county lines drug dealing, and how expressive uses of social media by gang members, such as posting rap videos to YouTube, helped advance gang members’ material interests in county lines.

The 2011 England riots occurred just weeks after Densley had finished his PhD, a study of gangs in London. After the UK Prime Minister David Cameron blamed the riots on gangs, Densley was one of the first academics to question this logic. Densley's first book, How Gangs Work, grew out of his PhD research and reflects upon the “war on gangs” launched after the 2011 riots. The British Journal of Criminology mentions the book's “critical ethnography and first-class fieldwork”, concluding that “Densley’s work points the way to how gang research should be done in the future.”

Densley is co-founder of Growing Against Violence, a London-based charity that since 2008 has delivered violence prevention programming to nearly 200,000 children and young people in hundreds of schools. Densley wrote and piloted the original curriculum and later conducted an evaluation of the program. In 2017, Densley was awarded the Prime Minister's Points of Light award for his “outstanding” volunteerism.

Densley received his B.A. in sociology with American studies from the University of Northampton in 2003. He earned a M.S. in sociology from the University of Oxford in 2004, and then moved to New York City where he enrolled in the NYC Teaching Fellows and taught 7th and 8th grade special education at University Neighborhood Middle School in Manhattan's Lower East Side. In New York, he earned his teacher's license and a master's degree in education from Pace University. In 2007, Densley moved back to England to complete a D.Phil. in sociology from Oxford University's Extra-Legal Governance Institute. Densley studied under mafia scholars Diego Gambetta and Federico Varese, and his work seems to reflect his time with them from his methods, to his theory, and focus on social organizations. Densley graduated in 2011 and was hired by Metropolitan State University that same year. He was promoted to full professor in 2019, aged just 37.

James Densley (born April 13, 1982) is a British-American sociologist and Professor of Criminal Justice at Metropolitan State University. Densley has published extensively on street gang issues and has been described as "among the most accomplished rising leaders of modern gang research in criminology." Densley is best known for his ethnography of gang life in London, England, and his applications of economic signalling theory to gang membership. Densley's research examines group processes in gangs and compares gangs with other violent collectives such as hate groups and terror groups. He once compared the Islamic State to a “street gang on steroids”. Densley writes about the “glocalisation” of gang culture, cyber violence, and the role of rap music and social media in gang violence. He is also known for his research into mass shootings.