The school shooting in Taber, Alberta was another fallen victim to the Principle of Causation. Multiple sources implicated the mass devastation to the circumstances situated around the gunman. However, depending on the individual asked, the factors that prompted the mayhem varied based on the mental, social, and cultural plights the gunman experienced. As evident in the series of letters attempted to vindicate each perspective of the incident, Dufault supported the psychological viewpoint; Davis advocated for the sociological approach; and Chamberlain defended the anthropological method. Focusing on Dufault first, it is highly indisputable that she took the psychological advance in an effort to explain the madness that went down in Taber. This …show more content…
Conversely to Dufault blaming the shooting on the gunman’s unstable psychological state, Davis claimed the motive for the shooting was the proliferation of alienation and the thwarting of social interaction the gunman experienced in school and at home. This is evident as Davis was persistent in creating a, “positive school environment […] to help kids who are troubled” (Davis), while also making safe “home improvements” (Davis) to encompass “open communication” (Davis). This means that Davis was well aware that the act of the gunman is comparable to other school shootings, in which the shooters are typically loners. In contrast with Davis’ sociological blame, Chamberlain’s anthropological reasoning was the myriad of references to violence in the media. The Western Culture of exploiting and appropriating violence in media outlets, such as box office movies, built the tradition of aggression and violence. In fact, this cultural violence is the norm for future generations, as the “too much media coverage” (Chamberlain) put “too many ideas” (Chamberlain) in kids’ heads, which ultimately led to the
On December 6th, 1989, the Ecole Polytechnique engineering school in Montreal would – unbeknownst to everyone in the building – become the backdrop for one of the worst mass murder incidents in Canadian history. 14 women were shot and killed at the hands of a shooter named Marc Lepine, and 13 others were gravely wounded in the process (Maser, 1987). No outright reason was apparent other than the letters left on his suicide note, but it marked a troubled life that began from his troubled childhood. Factors that may have led up to this incident needs to be examined in further detail, using a psychological explanation and a criminological theory. This paper will use the social learning theory to analyze the behaviours that led up to this event, as well as the general strain theory to determine why he committed the crime.
Grisham tells us that two youngsters killed 2 unrelated people after they watched the film, Natural Born Killers, and learned the violent behavior showed in the film and commit crimes afterwards. And he comes to conclusion that this kind of violent movies that will cause bad effects among young people should be not allowed to made. The detail he provides is that nothing in the two perpetrator’s past indicated violent propensities. Stone’s essay is the response to Grisham’s indict. His central idea is that the movies should not be blamed as reasons people commit crime. The details he provides are that: There are many related factor involved if people are guilty, such as their upbringing, parents, schools, and peers, but not films; Teenagers spend more time on watching TV, which also include violent depictions and have effects on teenagers, so TV should have more responsibility on the crime than Natural Born Killers does.
When Victorian Era, England is brought up in most context’s it is used to exemplify a calm and more refined way of life; however, one may overlook how the children of this era were treated and how social class systems affected them. Samuel Butler’s The Way of All Flesh is a novel written to take a closer look at the life of children growing up in the unfair social hierarchy of Victorian Era England. Butler’s main characters are Theobald and Ernest, who grow up during the time period; Overton, who is Ernest’s godfather, is the narrator of the novel and provides insight into Theobald and Ernest as they mature through the novel. Theobald is the son of a wealthy, strict, and abusive father who treats him with no mercy, but leaves him with a rather significant inheritance from his Christian publishing company, at his death. Ernest is the son of Theobald, who beats him with a stern fits over even the pettiest things in
The media fail to acknowledge and educate the public about the relationship between the two, which in turn fails to stop the men from engaging in violent activities. For example, after a series of school shooting at Jonesboro, Pearl, and Columbine in late 1990’s (whom the perpetrators were all young schoolboys), media de-gendered the gendered nature of the events; the documentary shows newspaper headlines speaking of “youth violence,” and of “kids killing kids,” not “boys killing girls and boys”. By refusing to see violence as a gender-related issue, the media reinforce the existing norm of “boys=violence”. It is also important to note how the perpetrators of the shootings saw themselves bullied by the popular Jock Culture that celebrated toughness and muscularity, and shot the guns as the means of heightening their social status. (The perpetrator of Pearl Shooting stated that “I killed people because they were mean to me… murder is gutsy and daring.”) Not only the media reinforces the violent masculinity image, it creates a dominant peer culture that pressures the boys to use violence to assert their manliness. Media, hence, both creates a subset of and reinforces the existing violent masculinity
As the world recovers from recent school shootings, people wondered why these events have occurred. They are focused on drug use, violent society, video games, bullying, and mental issues to try and explain an unexplainable event. The idea that a person would shoot others for little or no reason gave little relief to the survivors.
Family environment and the press are two major influences resulting in the recent tragic school shootings. As much as society continues to focus the killing rampages on factors such as television and music, what children are exposed to in reality contributes to the violence. The most recent school shooting in Michigan involved a six-year-old first grader who killed a classmate with a .22 caliber pistol. The news coverage had vanished after two or three days, and I was left wondering what had happened. Considering the fact that the media wore the Columbine incident out, I wanted to know why they did not pay more attention to this school shooting. As evidence did arrive, it was discovered that the child lived in a household where cocaine, heroin, and many other illegal drugs were commonplace. Also in this “home” guns were easily accessible to the child. Children growing up in this type of environment certainly are likely to be held accountable for future violence. Even though I am against the news media presenting too much school violence, Americans should have been deeply disturbed by this shooting because of the child’s young age. The Michigan shooting should have enlightened Americans to the dilemma we face in this country. Two weeks after the Columbine High School shooting, information on the mass murder was still being broadcast on television. The press was feeding young viewers ideas on how to kill their classmates. News was reported how the teenage murderers acquired information regarding building bombs, obtaining guns, smuggling guns into the school, and proceeding to kill their classmates. A mentally unstable teenager could simply watch these news reports and write a book entitled, “How to Slay Your Classmates”. This onslaught was ridiculous and the news coverage should not have been permitted to continue for countless weeks. Society has determined three reasons on which to blame the shootings. First, the nation blamed it on television’s violent programs. Following that, Americans gave the music recording companies the evil eye as well as attacking the gun manufacturers. All of these reasons involve material objects that are unable to think for themselves. Televisions and CD players do not control themselves, people control them. Finally, boundaries controlling the television programs children view should be set by the parents. The same explanation applies to firearms. How can it be a gun’s fault that a person killed another human being?
School shootings have gone up in tremendous numbers since the Columbine mass shooting in 1999. This unfortunately opened a door to cause malicious copycats to react such crimes that still happen to this year. There have been 200 shootings at school in the last past decade. School shootings have an impact on how we go to school everyday without knowing there is a possibility of being attacked because of a heinous crime. One of America’s most deadly social problem is school shootings because it can create mental problems for students, they occur because of bullying, and can lead to unemployment.
According to John Davidson's essay Menace to Society, "three-quarters of Americans surveyed [are] convinced that movies, television and music spur young people to violence." While public opinion is strong, the results of research are divided on the effects of media violence on the youth in this country. Davidson wrote that most experts agree that some correlation between media violence and actual violent acts exists, yet the results are contradictory and researchers quibble about how the effects are to be measured (271). Moreover, Davidson is not convinced that the media is the sole problem of violence, or even a primary problem. He points out that other factors, such as "poverty, the easy accessibility of guns, domestic abuse, [and] social instability" may have a greater impact on a child becoming violent than the influence of the media (277). Even though other forces may be stronger, media violence does have some adverse effects on the members of society. If senseless violence on television and in movies had no effect, it would not be such a hotly debated topic. What type of effects and whom they affect are the most argued aspects of the discussion.
The school shootings at Westside Middle School were orchestrated by two juveniles. On Monday, March 30, 1998 two boys ambushed students and teachers outside Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Andrew Golden a youth of 11 years and Mitchell Johnson who was 13 years old were responsible for this hideous tragedy. Apparently, Mitchell Johnson hid in the woods while Andrew set off the fire alarm causing the students and teachers to run out of the building. Armed with three stolen rifles and four handguns, the documentary explained that the two youth flushed kids and teachers out of the school by means of a false fire alarm then opened up on them. When they stopped shooting, four students and a teacher lay dead and 10 students were wounded.
Langman, Peter. “Rampage School Shooters: A Typology.” The Lee Salk Center for Research, 2001. Web. 7 May 2014.
  ; High School shootings have been occurring throughout the United States. Why is it that a student would come into their school and open fire? Why is it that no one notices the signs before the incident? How is it possible that they were able to bring the firearm into the school?
Why do people resort to gun violence? This question has taken off in recent years, especially following the tragic shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in December, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary. It’s hard to say why exactly people resort to gun violence mainly because most shooters are usually killed by themselves or they are shot by police officers at the scene of the crime so we don’t have a chance to question them and figure out what they were actually thinking. Shooters that we are able to capture and question are usually so mentally gone that it’s hard to figure out what exactly they were thinking. There are a plethora of likely causes for school shootings, some more plausible than others. People believe that anything from video games to mental disorders to bullying to attention, and many others, could be the main reason for why people decide to shoot up schools. You can’t point to one thing and decide that is why the shooter attacked, it will usually be several factors that affect the shooter that they end up breaking down and think gun violence is perfectly fine.
Consequently, our media, which provides us with important information or gives us entertainment, also takes part of the violence of school shootings. Violence media and entertainment might not affect some, but psychologically damage others. From video games to the local news, we see violence in forms, bringing fear, entertainment, and awareness. After the Sandy Hook attack drills were taken place in elementary and
There have been 175 school shootings in the United States since 2013 (175 School Shootings). Mass school shootings have become an immense problem in America in the past few decades. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of cases of school shootings and this is becoming a problem in society and a problem for school children and staff. There are too many people who are able to map out a plan and shoot innocent school children. Too many lives are being taken due to school shooters and America as a whole needs to come up with a plan to stop such crimes. The problem with school shootings will never be fully eradicated, however, there are measures we can take to prevent these actions by creating stricter gun laws, becoming more aware of unusual behavior, and providing better security in schools.
One of the first steps to changing our gun culture is to take gun violence out of the media. Kids are exposed to violence in television, video games and movies everyday. Dr Norman B Anderson of the American Psychological Association says there was a link between Adam Lanza’s (the gunman of the Sandy Hook shooting) violent video game obsession and his killing spree that cost far too many innocent lives. A study done at Brock University showed children and teens who played violent video games over a long period of time showed increased development of aggressive behaviors. This goes without saying that there must be a decrease of violence in the media. The kids watching violence on television are the future of society. They cannot all be aggressive, violent people who believe that shooting civilians is okay or stealing cars is something to take lightly. We must change this by