Mass Murder Sociology

Mass murder is a serious crime that has been prevalent in many societies globally for many decades. These types of offences take many forms like honour killings, genocide and mass shootings in public places. Incidents of mass murder continue to increase in occurrence which has also led to the increase in fascination by many experts in trying to conclude reasons as to why they happen. These crimes have been studied previously and continue to be a key subject of analysis not only in the criminal justice system but more recently in the world of social psychology as well. Through this analysis, several theories have been assembled. One theory talks about how psychological abnormalities like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and anti-social personality

The problem may be anti-social personality traits but the possibility of these traits being linked to a lack of proper socialization has been the new focus of research. Every person is born with the innate desire to fit in and to adhere to social standards and to fulfill social motives. There are four social motives that a person develops through social interaction; the need for achievement, the need for power, human aggression and the need for affiliation (Williams, 2007). A person will always seek this acceptance throughout their lives be it at school, work or within the family. If and when this acceptance is denied, the person is immediately ostracized (Williams, 2007). The consequences of being ostracized, both intentionally or unintentionally, lead to the degradation and shift in one’s personality and self-esteem. Emotions of sadness and loneliness lead to anger and distress which ultimately threaten the fundamental social motives and needs (Williams, 2007). Unfortunately, the only manner this can be dealt with by some is the brutal act of mass

Mass murderers, particularly those who commit violent acts in a school system generally have 3 behavioral traits in common. They have a history of antisocial-personality traits, they suffer from mental illness such as depression or psychosis and lastly they tend to obsess about how others, whether other individuals or society at large, has wronged them (Lester, 2002). These persons fume with rage and hatred and misery, until they decide to lash out at individuals or a society they believe has done them great injustice (Lester, 2002). Interestingly, schools have proved to be a popular and frequent target to these individuals. The reason behind this fact is that these perpetrators can lash out against society in the most vicious way possible, inflicting the most pain that they can. They try to inflict the same degree of pain they themselves felt or even surpass it in order to undo the injustice (Lester, 2002). The analysis of three tragic mass murder cases will entail information that lead to the conclusion of social rejection being a primary cause of mass homicide and thus providing great support for the hypothesis. The three cases are the Virginia Tech shooting, the mass shooting at the Polytechnique engineering school in Montreal and finally the Columbine high school