Perpetrators Of School Shootings

While several shooters had several traits in common, none of these traits were shared by all of the shooters who have been studied. The most common trait among active shooters is the perception that they were wronged in some way by someone or some entity. The majority of active shooters were not seen as loners and many had friends. Also, the majority of these shooters experienced some type of major loss (death of family member, etc.) prior to the incident. What the study found did not have any noticeable effect was violent video games, movies or other type of media. Very few active shooters showed any interest in this type of media prior to the active shooter event. However, over a third of active shooters did themselves write violent stories or poems (Ferguson, Coulson and Barnett, 2011). This study did focus more on school shootings, rather than active shooters as a whole. However, it appears these same traits can be found in some of active shooters who commit their crimes outside of a school setting. It should also be noted, active shooters who commit their crime because of an ideological purpose (i.e. Fort Hood attacks or the recent South Carolina church shooting) also may not necessarily display any of the above

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

Rampage-style school shootings are rare and tragic events. Although measures of prevention have become more advanced, school shootings have increased in frequency over the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. Here in the United States, they have become especially prevalent, with 63 shootings just this year (Acevedo). The aftermath of rampage shootings leaves gaping holes and questions in communities. People try to heal and seek closure at their own pace, but the biggest question most are left with is “why”? In Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings, Katherine S. Newman seeks to answer this question. She lays out her research and methodology for studying rampage shootings and comes to the conclusion that shootings are not spontaneous, but rather the build up of psychological issues and negative sociological situations within a student’s community that causes them to seek to regain power over their own lives through a rampage shooting. The story Rampage builds out of the narratives of shooters and their victims along with national data and trends is important because it highlights the places that our societies fail in providing a safety net for deviant students and their peers.

They vary so much that professionals have given up on the idea that they can predict who will become a school shooter. [SOURCE] While there is no way to categorize and profile a school shooter, there are many similar motives: 24% crave attention or recognition, 27% are suicidal, 34% see it as a solution for their problems, 54% had multiple motives, 61% are motivated by revenge, 75% felt bullied or threatened by others. [SOURCE] Most of these kids are often victims of being ostracized by their peers, and they tend to suffer from some degree of social marginalization. Their social lives are chaotic due to the fact that they don't get along easily with others, but they’re not loners. They tend to be people who try to socialize with others and join groups but get rejected — their social experience is one of being rejected and excluded rather than isolating themselves. This pattern is mostly displayed throughout “modern” shootings that have happened after the Columbine High School shooting in

"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

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,

I believe the biggest misconception I had about school shooters is their feelings. I have always assumed that someone who is capable of committing such actions does not feel anything. What I have learned is that there is typically a guiding factor or initial issue that festers in someone and causes them to act out. These students typically have the brightest futures yet remain the most misunderstood. Most of these students who carry out shootings intend on killing themselves in the end, giving them a lifetime worth of attention they were clearly seeking without any repercussions for their actions. Lastly, the students who plan attacks have behavioral issues that they are good at hiding from most people, including family members. It is more often you will hear “I did not know this person was capable of this,” than “I am not surprised that this person committed such an act.”

The earliest known school shooting in the United States took place in 1764 and was known as the Pontiac Rebellion School Massacre; out of 13 children enrolled in the school, only three survived (Dixon, 2005). Since then early 2000’s there has been 186 active shooters nationwide. People are now asking the question what is making these kids become school shooters. The question seems pretty straight forward, but no one knows a straightforward answer. Scientists and mental health professional have found there to be three main afflictions to cause people to become school shooters. The causes are being bullied, side effects of prescribed drugs, and abusive/neglective households.

So how could someone commit a mass shooting? Many psychologists have given their own thoughts as to why someone would fulfil such a deadly personal mission. For the most part, it would appear that many school shooters do what they do for their moment in the spotlight. In this day and age of modern technology, there's no doubt the killer's face will soon be on everybody's social media feeds and on the front of newspapers all over the globe. Others, however, may commit a mass shooting to make themselves seem powerful. This is common when the shooter has been a victim of bullying or abuse, as being the one with control over everybody else gives them a certain rush of adrenaline and feeling of dominance they may have never had had before.

Even though a lot of shooters are loners, they are not all unstable, angry white men. Mass shooters will sometimes be the victims of bullying and they will see that shooting up their school as a way to deal with these bullies. Sometimes, there will be a group of people that believe the world is crashing down around them and they need to shoot up a place to deal with their problems. Even though it is easier to take down one person instead of a group of people, they need to be taken down. They need to realize that what they were planning to do or have done is not the right thing to do.

There have been a number of school shootings over the past few decades. When school shootings are analyzed there is not one school shooter that is the same. There are plenty of ideas that the common person has conjured about school shooters that are wrong. This is why it is important to be critical and understand the distinct characteristics that trouble many school shooters. After looking at the research, “there are two main characteristics that are consistently found in school shooters, peer and social rejection. Not only are school shooters rejected, they lack social support and prosocial relationships” (Bartol & Bartol, 2014). Having no other way to cope they become angry and begin to seek out other forms of comfort. “A school shooter can find comfort in being cruel to animals. They can even pick up an interest in guns and other weaponry. Often times they have easy access to weapons, whether it comes from home or a peer” (Bartol & Bartol, 2014). There can be a correlation found between rejection and support and seeking out alternative ways to cope. School shooters have psychological characteristics that can be attributed to the events prior to the school shooting. Usually, there is a romantic rejection plus other psychological problems. “Some problems can include depression, lack of impulse control and antisocial behavior. A vast majority of shooters have a fascination with death, also known as macabre” (Bartol & Bartol, 2014).

Like any math equation, to be able to find a solution, we must first understand the problem. We must use this same concept into this public health issue. Research and reports are beginning to provide patterns for understanding the individual’s motive to kill and the characteristics of the different schools where shootings occur (Wike and Fraser 2009). According to Wike and Fraser, making sense of the senseless, holds the key for designing prevention programs. An individual’s drive to commit such crimes can extend from factors such as bullying, their mental health, their environment, and lack of support.

Emotional wellness issues have been frequently shown another big cause of these shootings. Most school shooters were mentally sick or demonstrated side effects of psychological wellness issues. An opportunity for mental and psychiatric help could help stop these shootings. According to newyorker.com, ¨, from 2011 and 2013, more people believe that mass shootings result from a failure of the mental-health system than from easy access to guns. Eighty per cent of the population believes that mental illness is at least partially to

The first factor is a Lack of belonging or otherwise known as social exclusion. Social exclusion is the painful feeling that comes with the realization that students don’t fit in with the popular “cliques” in their schools. This leads to a vacuum of being left out of a group which is known as social exclusion. This effectively reduces an individual’s sense of belonging to their supposed ingroup and moves them to the outgroup. In other words, social exclusion takes these would- be- school shooters into “outsiders’ in their own school. This causes a catalyst for their anger and aggressive feelings. Social exclusion in many ways can be seen as the foundation of a teenager’s aggression.

In the past 12 months, 20 percent of over 15,000 high school students surveyed by the US Centers for Disease Control reported they were the targets of bullying. Because of the threats from school bullies, four percent of all students admitted they brought a weapon to school in the past month.