On April 20, 1999, two disturbed teenage boys Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris began a killing rampage at Columbine High School in the suburban town of Littleton, Colorado. This was considered one of the worst school shootings to occur at that time. In the morning of April 20, before noon, the two juveniles had killed 13 people to include 12 students and 1 teacher; they also wounded another 23 people before turning the guns on themselves. This event would change the theories as to why school shootings would occur. (History) Social Control theory can be used as a reliable and valid psychosocial explanation of school violence, specifically in explaining the actions of the Columbine school shooters. Kempf-Leonard and Morris described control theory in their journal in a way that provides an explanation for how behavior conforms to that which is generally expected in society. Some control theories emphasize the developmental processes during childhood by which internal constraints develop. Social control theories, however, focus primarily on external factors and the processes by which they become effective. Deviance and crime occur because of inadequate constraints. For social control theory, the underlying view of human nature includes the conception of free will, thereby giving offenders the capacity of choice, and responsibility for their behavior. As such, social control theory is aligned more with the classical school of criminology than with positivist or determinist
In the book Columbine by Dave Cullen, Dylan and Eric are the two teenage boys who was in control of the high school shooting. We can only assume why they did it. The boys both had their own problems and just seemed to click when they were together. Eric was a psychopath and Dylan would listen to him.
One of America’s Top Tragedies: Columbine On April 20, 1999, a tragedy struck America that would gradually change school laws and security over time. Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 18, started shooting and throwing homemade pipe bombs inside Columbine Highschool. There were 13 deaths and over 20 injured, making it infamous as one of America's worst school shootings. Many were inspired to create items and writings that hover around the thought of the Columbine incident, many works include Columbine by Dave Cullen and Rachel Scott journals by Beth Nimmo and Debra Klingsporn.
The shooting at Columbine Hight School created a nationwide shock and horror for all people that watched the news clips. I remember going to school and not being allowed to carry our backpacks to school. The girls had to have a clear see through purse to be able to carry their personal belonging. The two shooters that were involved in the massacre at that school were Eric Harris (18 at time of shooting) and Dylan Klebold (17 at time). Both of these boys displayed abnormal behavior and I am going to explain in this essay their possible psychological issue with Eric Harris.
The book “Rampage The Social Roots Of School Shootings” written by Newman et al, offers many different views and theories behind the issues of Rampage school shootings. In this paper I will give the reader an in depth overview and evaluation of the aforementioned book. Offering researched based reasons to why these school shootings actually happen. They explore the communities of Heath and Westside, the grounds of two horrific acts of rampage shootings by Michael Carnell, Andrew Golden and Mitchell Johnson. They explain various angles of there research such as identifying an issue, how signals given by children can be misinterpreted, the effects of social capital and how mental factors play a role in the acts of the shooters.
On April 20, 1999, two teens named Eric Harris (18), and Dylan Klebold (17), went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. They ended up killing 13 people and wounding over 20 others before turning their guns on themselves and committing
Social process theory has several subdivisions including: social control theory, social learning theory and social reaction (labeling) theory (will only focus on social control theory). Social control theory insinuates every person has the possibility of becoming a criminal, but most people are influenced by their bonds to society. It contends that individuals obey the law and are less likely to commit crime if they have: learned self-control, attachment (to family, friends, peers, education, etc.), commitment (to school, learning, etc.), involvement (in leisure activities, sports, etc.), and belief (those that are positive). According to social control theory, an individual is more likely to be criminal/deviant if they are detached and alienated
When someone commits an act there is usually a reason behind it, no matter how ridiculous. However, in rare circumstances it seems impossible to identify a driving force. This seems to have been the case for the Columbine massacre that occurred in April of 1999. Many professionals have dedicated countless hours to drawing a conclusion as to why Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris terrorized their school and murdered their fellow classmates. By using the clues and evidence, some have managed to draw very strong arguments as to why the two teens committed the outrageous deeds they did.
School Shootings: How We All Miss the Point... The aftermath of a school shooting is tragic, depressing, and causes hatred for the lives lost and the person who took them. Everyone, especially the media, tries to interpret why the shooter killed their victims, or why they felt the need to end others’ lives and their own. How We All Miss the Point on School Shootings, by Mark Manson, explains what and why these mass shootings happen. He starts by using examples of shootings and the murderer’s past.
The tragedy of what happened on April 20th, 1999 will never be forgotten. 13 people were killed in a bloody massacre planned and carried out by Columbine students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in their own school. Many things had to fall in place for the shooting to occur. Arguably the biggest factor that caused it to happen, though, was the close relationship between the shooters. Had Dylan and Eric never met, there likely would never have been a Columbine shooting.
He killed two students and wounded a third before shooting his algebra teacher in the back. Three years later, April of 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold launched their infamous attack on Columbine High, Colorado, the slaughtering had continued. Threw the thirty-two killed and seventeen wounded by Seung- Hui Cho in Virginia Tech in 2007. What Gladwell has believed that “school shootings mostly involve young white men”, they were scattered instances of gunmen or bombers that has attacked schools in the years before Barry Loukaitis but had been lower profile.
Symbolic interactionism illuminates fundamental elements that attribute to school shootings. According to Jeanne Ballantine and Joan Spade in their book, Schools and Society, A Sociological Approach to Education, “Symbols are the concepts or ideas that we use to frame our interactions” (2015:19). Symbolically, a sense of self and hierarchical place is determined by social interactions (Ballantine and Spade 2015). Students find themselves determining how they see and feel about themselves by how their cohorts, parents, siblings, teachers, and others interact with them. Sadly, the young perpetrators of school shootings have derived their sense of self from their social experiences of isolation, bullied harassment, and low hierarchical status, producing skewed and biased self-perceptions.
(Sub-subpoint 1) 87% of students said that the main cause of school shootings is because they want to level the playing field. (Alfred University) 2. (Sub-subpoint 2) For example, a 12-year-old from Nevada opened fire at school because he was bullied. He was called “an idiot, a retard and gay”.
Dave Cullen, had published Columbine ten years after this tragic event had occurred. Two of the students at columbine high school, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, had decided to try and create one of the biggest chaos’s trying to take out over 400 people. This school shooting took place in April of 1999, with 13 dead and around 24 wounded. This event had the country shook, having been one of the most well-known school shootings. In parts one and two of the book, Columbine, written by Dave Cullen, he creates suspense by the way he structures his writing, even though majority of the audience reading is aware of the outcome of this event.
Social process theory has several subdivisions including: social control theory, social learning theory and social reaction (labeling) theory (will only focus on social control theory). Social control theory insinuates every person has the possibility of becoming a criminal, but most people are influenced by their bonds to society. It contends that individuals obey the law and are less likely to commit crime if they have: learned self-control, attachment (to family, friends, peers, education, etc.), commitment (to school, learning, etc.), involvement (in leisure activities, sports, etc.), and belief (those that are positive). According to social control theory, an individual is more likely to be criminal/deviant if they are detached and alienated (from friends, education, family, etc.),
Many factors and reasons can explain why it is that juveniles commit certain actions and explain why some of them are delinquent. Due to these actions which are committed by juveniles, there certain theories that can help to identify why they commit these specific actions. Theories such as the control or social bond theory, opportunity theory and the trait theory can help to highlight why it is that these juveniles commit the delinquent actions. Siegel (2012) highlights that the social control or social bond theory, developed in 1969 by Travis Hirschi, states that people have the potential to violate the law and that modern society presents many opportunities for illegal activity. Siegel (2012) also highlights that person break the law due to a breakdown with their societal bond by typical social behaviours.