Though there is disagreement on the media’s role in creating copycats, one undisputed fact is that sensationalist news coverage leads people to believe that public mass violence is an escalating problem. Dewey Cornell, a clinical psychologist and professor of education at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education, says that there is “a perception of increase whenever we have a major event like the tragedy in Newtown.” The truth is that school shootings have declined dramatically since the 1990s, Cornell says.