Psychology Perspectives: Columbine Massacre

Barbara Dority author of “The Columbine Tragedy: Countering the Hysteria”, illustrates how society becomes hysterical after a teen commits a mass school shooting. The Columbine shooting occurred April 20, 1999 in Littleton, Colorado. It was caused by two adolescents Eric Harris and Dylan Kledold, collectively killed 13 students and wounded 23 others. After the Columbine shooting, society looked in every direction for who is to blame for such a horrendous act of violence caused by teens. Dority expresses how society tends to panic, and take away the youths’ pleasures such as video games, music, and the very basic rights young people have. While society posit that media or Goth music is the catalyst for teen violence, it is not the media or Goth who are to blame for teen violence.

One of the keys to life is socialization. Socialization is the extended period of dependency for human children allows them to learn the complexities of culture through human affection and interaction. Both Harris and Klebold both lacked any socialization skills. Their school was not welcoming, a place that should be fundamental to socialization. Their family environment seemed to be normal however; this is not something we confirm. With children making homemade bombs and destruction home videos makes me wonder how normal their life could really be. The groups that they surrounded themselves by were angry kids just like them, maybe not to the extent Harris and Klebold were but the Trench coat Mafia had felt the same abuse.

It was 11:19 am when the first set of gunshots pierced through the walls of Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. In 49 short minutes, two high school seniors, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 students and 1 teacher, and then killed themselves. Months prior, the pair planned out the attacks in a series of journal entries and video diaries. The attack at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999 raised many questions; the biggest one being, why did they do it? While the common media misconception is that the Columbine shooting was a war against jocks and outcasts, the shooting was actually perpetuated by psychopathy and depression in the shooters.

School shooters usually do not plan on getting away with the crime because the shooter has adopted a kill or be killed attitude and as such, is willing to take one’s own life. The third element of the social bond theory involvement. Harris and Klebold, spent a substantial amount of time involved in a lot of illegal online activities that included searching for information as to how to make pipe bombs and other explosives. Revenge is a motive in more than 50% of the school attacks because the offenders believed that retaliation is the only way to get revenge for the wrongful behaviors and actions of others, some investigators believed that the Columbine Shooting was out of revenge, and others believed that Harris and Klebold just had severe mental issues. The last element is belief. Belief is a common value system within a culture. Belief plays a role in deviance in two ways, the criminal either neglects the moral beliefs they have been taught, or justifies their deviant behavior beliefs so that they can engage in criminal activity, while still believing it’s wrong. Harris and Klebold belief was a mix of both, they disregarded the social norms of society and they justified their belief even though they knew it was wrong. A tape left behind showed footage of the boys confessing they wrong doing and how devastated their parents would be, but still followed through

Homicide always will be an aspect of life, whether it is in the 16th century, 21st century or in the future. At times of extreme stress, people may turn to murder as an outlet of a greater problem they cannot fix or control. Presently, homicide has a greater value in society due to popular culture references through the media such as television, film and writing; society constantly has homicide and murder in the subconscious. In David M. Buss’ findings in The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind is Designed to Kill,

They returned back to their cars after planting the bombs awaiting the explosions to shoot any students trying to escape. On their way back to their car, a classmate by the name of Brooks Brown approached Harris and asked him why he had missed a test in the earlier class. Brown recalls Harris telling him “It doesn’t matter anymore. Brooks, I like you now. Get out of here. Go home.” The boys then reached at their cars and waited for the bombs to explode. After noticing that they had failed to go off, Klebold, who was armed with a 9-mm semi-automatic handgun and a 12-gauge double-barrel sawed-off shotgun, Harris, armed with a 9-mm carbine rifle and a 12-gauge pump sawed-off shotgun, and both with numerous knifes and bombs , chose to walk toward the school, hiding their weapons in their black trench coats.

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.

Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were normal teenagers, who did what normal teenagers did. They both came from solid homes, with both of their parents together and older brothers. They similarly had jobs at the same pizza parlor, enjoyed playing video

In later years, the Columbine High School Massacre reflected tales of adolescents captured by darkness where they took part in an evangelical youth movement (Pike 647). This movement caused an uproar in legislation involving church and state (Pike 647). The massacre also effected public school dress codes and behavior policies, and most importantly, shaped Americans’ reasoning about teens deviance and normality (Pike 647).

The beginning of the nonfiction, Columbine by Dave Cullen, takes place four days before the Columbine massacre at Columbine High School’s assembly in Littleton, Colorado, just before the weekend of Prom. Ironically, Principal DeAngelis, the one who had hosted the school assembly, provides a lecture of everyone coming back alive and safe after prom. Soon after, on April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold arrived at Columbine High School with two bombs based on portable propane bottles, decoy bombs in their cars and across town, and dozens of small pipe bombs, along with guns and ammunition. Their original and only plan was to shoot anyone and everyone who escapes from the building after the bombs detonated, and they had expected to be shot to death by police; however, their plans partly failed when the bombs planted inside the school did not go off. Although their plan of distraction did not succeed as expected, Harris and Klebold entered the school and began shooting and firing pipe bombs for a little over fifteen minutes. Afterwards, after roaming the school for a short amount of time, they returned to the library where most of their victims had died, set off one final bomb, and committed suicide by shooting themselves. Although their bombing failed, the ensued shooting resulted in a new era of school violence and had left “a lasting impression on the world.” However, by the end of the day, the horrifying incident was falsely blamed on bullying, the popular “Goth”

It was a day of mourning in Littleton, Colorado after Columbine High School suffered a deadly shooting, leaving 12 students and 1 teacher dead along with 24 others injured. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are the perpetrators responsible for the massacre, both students in their last year at the school. Many people are left curious as to why the two boys did what they did. Was the intent to kill as many people as they could? Investigators later found that around 11:10am the pair walked into the cafeteria and placed 2 duffel bags each containing a 20 pound propane bomb set to explode at 11:17am. The boys then went back outside to wait for the bombs to go off. When the bombs failed to detonate, Eric and Dylan began their shooting spree. “Do You

The Columbine High School Massacre was a school shooting that took place on April 20th, 1999 in Columbine, Colorado. It was a highly planned attacked that included a bomb to confused firefighters, propane tanks that were made into bombs to blow up the cafeteria, 99 explosive device, and some car bombs. The masterminds were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, they were both seniors. Collaboratively they murdered 12 students and 1 teacher. Aside from the kills they injured 21 other people, and an additional 3 more while trying to escape the horrendous event. After their killing rampage, the murderers committed suicide.

It was discovered that these teenagers committed these crimes because they were apart of a group called the Trenchcoat Mafia who was fascinated by goth culture. It was considered that because of the boys playing violent video games and listening to dark music, it influenced them into becoming killers. Though none of these theories can actually be proven it was speculated by many investigators that those were the reasons for their killing spree. Klebold was actually found to be sort of a nice person, after some investigation into the people that had come in contact with him, but he was also hurting inside but Harris was totally different. Eric Harris wanted to hurt people, he was mentally ill and had a vendetta against all people who saw were inferior to him. Psychiatrists diagnosed him as an actual psychopath, he was one to have complete awareness to what he was doing and never really had remorse. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris had also gotten into a lot of trouble, they were accused of robbing a van, but they avoided prosecution for the robbery by participating in a "diversion program" that involved counseling and community service. They had began with small petty crimes and just progressed from there up until the point where when shooting their victims would stop and watch them writhe with pain and

Cullen, Dave. “The Depressive and the Psychopath: The FBI’s Analysis of the Killers Motives” The Columbine Alamac (20 April 2004)

It is very rare to study something that is as fascinating yet as bewildering as the distinctive paradox, that is the human brain. Every individuals conflicting behaviour and elaborate character that make them the person they are must have a justification. I originally established a fascination in forensic psychology as I read about a sequence of homicides committed by Gary Ridgway, otherwise known as the “Green River Killer”. Upon discovery of this case, questions began to pervade in my head about what may be the cause for an individual to execute such things, and just how someone’s mind could be so peculiarly dissimilar to my own.