Adam Lanza Case Study

On December 14, 2012 a very deadly and heart wrenching incident happened in Newtown, Connecticut. The murderer was later investigated to be Adam Lanza. He was a 20 year old man who had been said to have been diagnosed with a sensory-integration disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. For Lanza, growing up could be considered arduous. He had been in and out of treatment for multiple said “diagnoses” and other undiagnosed “problems”. He also took medication for his supposed OCD. His parents often would mistake his odd behavoirs as a simple childhood or teenage stage. Before the school shooting, Lanza had killed his mother by lethal force at her Newton house. Lanza had shot 6 children and 20 adults fatally. After all was done, Lanza had

The control theory is “the view that people refrain from deviant behavior because diverse factors control their impulses to break social norms.” (Chegg) Adam Lanza had a different way of behaving in general, which can make him an outcast to society. Lanza had grown up a more unusual life than most people, therefore making him a peculiar person. Lanza had been detaching from society and social norms by his grotesque acts from OCD and other disorders. In relevance to the crime Lanza had committed, it was out of pure hatred. Lanza had feelings of hate towards society and separation from his mother. This concluded that he thought it was a rational crime to commit which is why he did

If I had to convince a jury why I believe that, I would talk about the strain theory. Even though there is no concrete information on why he committed the crime, there are many theories and assumptions. “Middle and high school students often measure their success in life in terms of their popularity with peers” (Levin & Madfis, 2009) and (Vossekuil et al. 2002) have stated, “most school shooters felt bullied, threatened, or injured by others.” It can be seen that people like Lanza have poor relationships with classmates and family members. Being at just 20 years old, it did not take long for Lanza to realize that he was