Bullying's Role In The Columbine Killings

In Psychology, there are perspectives and approaches that are looked into when trying to understand how the intricate human mind works. These perspectives are respectfully derived from different ideas and time periods, exemplifying different ways of thinking. These perspectives include: sociocultural, biopsychological, psychodynamic, behaviorism, cognitive, and humanism. These approaches are critically essential in solving something as serious as murder, or simply even why someone acts the way they do. There are many instances where there will be shocking news stories about people committing murders—people that are so unexpected to do such harm. However, when the six

Since bullying isn’t taken care of, society ends up with school shootings and suicides on our hands. After either shootings or suicides the police have to determine the cause of death, and when bullying is the contributing factor of death, often the media and others argue about the official cause of death. Hence, there is a debate as to whether bullying or the emotions of depression and anger are the

The psychological approach is made up of many theories. The social learning theory, the social control theory, and the social identity theory. They all apply to The Columbine Shooting. According to Ronald L. Akers and Robert L. Burgess’s Social learning theory differential association is learned criminal behavior. Criminal behavior is often learned from interacting with certain social groups in person or via the internet. Criminal behavior is easily learned by individuals being introduced to techniques of committing the crime and specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes. According to with today’s technology on the rise school shootings can be understood by societal concern of the increase of violent video games

In order to solve the problem of violence in schools, we must first find out who the problem is. Being that not every teenager is prone to participate in such violent acts as what happened at Columbine, there must be specific environment imposed on a particular biology to turn a teenager into an Eric Harris or a Dylan Klebold. These are not normal, healthy teenagers, and they don’t just become killers overnight. They become killers because they are already deeply disturbed individuals who can be sent over the edge by all sorts of innocuous influences. Violent teens often have specific characteristics that put them at high risk for committing these crimes. These high risked students may display some of the following traits. First,

Almost twenty years ago, on April 20th, 1999 just seemed like any other regular day of that time. Everyone went about their regular routine; parents going to work, children going to school, young adults going to colleges. But two high school seniors of Columbine High had no intentions of going about their regular days. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered their school with mind made of never leaving that school again alive but not before committing the most heinous and bloody massacre ever committed in the United States history. There has been bombing where the death toll was significantly higher than Columbine shooting. But what made this tragedy so terrifying was this was not any terrorist or radicalized person trying to avenge authorities; these were two teenagers killing their fellow classmates and teachers. Something that none thinks about, it was like a parent’s worst nightmare coming true. Eric and Dylan killed a total of thirteen people, students and teachers combined, and seriously injuring over twenty others . This shooting sent shockwaves across the country, but most evidently sent criminal justice community scrambling looking for answers into why these two boys did what they did? What happened that made them mass murderers? To explore these questions criminologists started applying crime theories to the both their present life and their upbringing.

On April 20th 1999, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris committed a planned mass murder at their high school killing 13 people and injuring 20 in just an hour (XxSlenderMotorX, 2012). They planted bombs throughout the school, but they did not detonate. Sadly, they also took guns to kill people, so even when the bombs did not go off they were able to go through with their act. There original goal was to kill plenty more people than they did. They wrote journals and claimed to want to be like the LA Riots, the Oklahoma Bombing, Vietnam, etc (XxSlenderMotorX, 2012).. They named there desired massacre after a movie called Named Born Killer or NBK, they felt like they related to these boys in the movie and felt superior to their other students (XxSlenderMotorX, 2012). Sadly, a lot of their problem stemmed from kids not letting the boys participate in social events. These boys felt shut out and unwanted, but also felt better than anyone else. In the end, Dylan and Eric also ended up killing themselves. So, who were these boys and what potentially caused them to attack their school?

The link between school violence and bullying has increased in attraction exponentially after the Columbine shooting. “The shooters were classified as gifted children who had allegedly been victims of bullying for four years.” Many of those who are close to them regarded them as “the losers of the losers (Ball)”. Klebold has also made remarks to his father about his hatred toward the jock culture in his high school. He added that Harris had been victimized by the jocks by stating to his father “They sure give Eric hell.” There is no doubt this helped drive them to the decision they made.

The Columbine High School Shooting was a tragic day for many 2 students Dylan and Eric killed 14 students died and 1 teacher in the most infamous school shooting of its time. Many wonder what caused these 2 students to decide to shoot up their school. Some say it was bullying others say it was because they were a part of a school group called the trench coat mafia.

When thinking about school shootings names like Columbine and Sandy Hook pop up. Those are the most tragic by far, however everyone always ask why such a horrible crime happens, but no one has never stopped and researched why such hate crimes like those happen. Instead people resort to Channel 2 or Fox 5 for answers, not realizing that their story isn’t the full truth. I am truly against school shootings; looking for answers myself. If there’s one thing I’ve picked up from the media is how they portray school shootings with mental illness, but according to Alfred.edu/teen violence says, “They want to get back at those who hurt them or revenge.” Many adults always struggled to realize why things as vigorous as shootings happens; also fail to realize they are the start of something so tragic. There are several reasons that lead to a school shooting but only five are common.

On this day in 1999of April 20, two teenage gunmen kill 13 people in a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, south of Denver. At approximately 11:19 a.m., Dylan Klebold, 18, and Eric Harris, 17, dressed in trench coats, began shooting students outside the school before moving inside to continue their rampage. By 11:35 a.m., Klebold and Harris had killed 12 fellow students and a teacher and wounded another 23 people. Shortly after noon, the two teens turned their guns on themselves and committed suicide. This event made me feel safe around schools with uniforms because it makes it more unlikely for students to bring weapons. It shows that teens may be all able to get weapons easily making me aware of the people surrounding me.

Since mass and school shootings are on the rise it is crucial to find a way to categorize these school shooters in an effort to minimize the amount of people who actually carry out the horrific act and to help pinpoint the most effective treatment intervention. Some of the factors that the media coverage focuses on are social factors such as peer harassment and the influence of media violence (Langman, 2009). In order to categorize Christopher Harper-Mercer, the examples provided in Peter Langman’s article on Rampage School Shooters: A Typology will be compared and assessed. Through this article Langman assesses the acts and history of 10 school shooters and separates the shooters into three distinct categories: Traumatized, psychotic, and

"I'm angry someone would do this to us. There are lives ruined, families ruined, and our whole school year is ruined" (Brackely 1). Casey Brackely, once a student that attended Columbine High School, remembers the tragedy of the horrific Columbine shooting that killed and injured many students. Mass shootings in the United States have been on the rise since the 1980’s, especially in the last decade. These shooters motives and profiles are almost all terrifyingly alike. Many of these shooters try to imitate and parallel the tragic shooting of the Columbine High School in 1999. These shootings have made peaceful organizations, such as an elementary school; become a place of violence and death. Currently, in the United States, an epidemic of

When looking at the events at Columbine High School most Americans have reached one of two conclusions as to Why they did it. The first being the pair were outcasts of “Trench Coat Mafia” and were taking revenge against bullies what had made school miserable for them. The second conclusion is that this massacre is inexplicable and we will never be able to understand what drove them to such horrific violence. However the FBI and world renowned mental health experts such as psychiatrist Dr. Frank Ochberg and supervising Special Agent Dwayne Fuselier of FBI have come to very different conclusions.

There are those who want justice for the victims who had taken their lives due to the bullying that has been done to him/her. This is due to the falling snowball that started and continued as the teasing and taunting continue on. He or she can’t keep putting up with it and try to look for a way out. When he or she turns to suicide it doesn’t solve the situation instead it makes it worse the family and the friends are deeply impacted and wounded by the tragedy. The bullies who had driven their victims to take his or her own life and to destroy the lives or his or her family and friends should be convicted of murder. The deeds he or she has done are the reason and motive for why

Spree killing is a very rare phenomenon in our society. Spree killers tend to no longer feel as though as they belong, or even feel connected to society. They become so alienated around others, that they feel like their life has amounted to absolutely nothing. Spree killers turn to killing when their emotions are triggered. These killings are defined by several factors, including the involvement of students. Spree killers are likely to murder, within a short while in more than one location with almost no time difference between them. The killings are usually carried out by a lone shooter, usually in a public place (Preti, 2008).