Random Violence Is Worse Than Targeted Violence

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,

The idea of violence is instilled in everyone’s head in some way or another. From the time we are born we are equipped with the idea that we must react when we are upset. When someone affects us in a negative way, there is an idea in our minds that urges us to fight back or cause harm to that person. This idea of causing harm stays with us from childhood until we take our last breath. Since 2013, there have been 242 school shootings within America. Even worse, there have been over a thousand mass shootings in the country resulting in mass casualties. Most recently, one single man murdered fifty-eight people at a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada and injured over 240 others. Although the motive may have been different between these shootings, one thing remains the same for all of them, the act of violence.

“Shooting massacres” in school settings, a new phenomenon within the past 50 years, are extremely rare events. Over 23 years, 1990-2012, 215 fatal school shooting incidents resulted in 363 deaths, equivalent to 0.12% of national firearm homicides during that time period …… Among these, just three shooting rampages – Columbine High School, Virginia Tech University, and Sandy Hook Elementary School – accounted for 72 (53.3%) of these 135 deaths. The frequency of random/ rampage shooting incidents in schools has remained within the narrow range of 0 to 3 episodes per year.” (Shultz, et al., 2013, p. 84)

Acts of terrorism plants fear and terror into the hearts and minds of individuals but when mass shootings occur in the U.S., they get classified as murder or hate crimes. This research will show that mass shootings and hate crimes inflict the same type of terror in the hearts and minds of individuals throughout communities within the U.S. as terrorist attacks have inflicted on communities.

Hate crimes are difficult to fathom, primarily because they involve the unprovoked physical attacking and, sometimes, murder of people based on race and ethnicity. A more formal definition of hate crimes is presented by Shepard (2017, p. 285). As he writes, “a hate crime is a criminal act that is motivated by extreme prejudice,” This is a very good, concise and accurate definition, nevertheless, hate crimes are not the outcome of unimaginable heights of discrimination. Most people have prejudices and many have stereotypes regarding others, whether it be racial or class stereotypes. Nobody is completely lacking in any form, shape or type of prejudice but, the much greater percentage does not physically attack, beat or murder those whom they

Acts of terrorism plants fear and terror into the hearts and minds of individuals but when mass shootings occur in the United States, they get classified as murder or hate crimes. This research will show that mass shootings and hate crimes inflict the same type of terror in the hearts and minds of individuals throughout communities within the United States as terrorist attacks have inflicted on communities.

Hate violence refers to crimes that are directed against families, persons, organizations, or groups due to their ethnic, racial, sexual, religious identities, orientations or conditions of disability (Whitlock & Bronski, 2016). Accordingly, hate violence included crimes of arson at the business or homes, damage and destruction of religious property, personal assaults, homicides, and cross burnings. In the United States, hate violence has a long history. However, although it might be challenging to assess and estimate the prevalence of this kind of hate in the United States, there are clear indications that the problem has increased in recent years (Whitlock & Bronski, 2016). Connectively,

First, it makes people think that the U.S is weak. When their is attacks in other parts in the world, they never show the U.S helping the other states that are in distress. The U.S doesn't have very good protection either. Especially on the border, there is a lot of people who are terrorist that are sneaking into our states without being noticed. This makes people think that the U.S is not helping at

Past acts of terrorism done by foreigners have provoked fear throughout the American people. 9/11 is one example that brought upon a negative change. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks Americans were scared of foreigners, especially any person that was Islamic, coming into the country. The 9/11 attack caused Americans to associate any Islamic person with being a terrorist. This provoked a change in airport security. According to the article “To Combat ISIS, Welcome Syrians”, Anne Speckhard explains how the negative connotation with the Islamic religion has made it very hard for the innocent Syrians fleeing their country to seek asylum in the U.S. “We have failed to enact efficient practices and sufficient resources to allay our fears that within

of murders went up 100%, Cross burnings went up 200%, and vandalism went up 50%.

Attacks receive more coverage when they harm or kill victims, involve hijackings or aircraft, have known perpetrators, and select targets associated with Western countries. A study of transnational terrorism shows that attacks that inflict injuries are twice as likely to attract media attention as those that do not. The attacks in which the perpetrator can be identified are four times as likely to be reported in a newspaper and ten times as likely to be reported on television (The Media’s Role in International Terrorsim). Attacks in the Middle East or Europe are twice as likely to receive media attention as attacks perpetrated in Latin America (The Media’s Role in International Terrorism). There are very similar factors that influence media coverage of attacks that take place within the United States.

Throughout American history, violent criminal acts against a specific person or a group of individuals were just that, violent crimes. In the 1980’s, the term hate crime was born. The term hate crime was used by a group of advocates to describe a series of violent incidents targeting several minorities (Nij.gov, 2015). A hate crime is “a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender 's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation,

In the documentary Bowling for Columbine by Michael Moore, talks about the root cause of gun violence in the United States of America. The documentary shows how more than 11, 127 people die every year from guns whereas 381 in Germany, 255 in France, 165 in Canada, 68 in the United Kingdom, 65 in Australia, and 39 in Japan. Many say that violent movies, video games, and violent rock artists such as Marilyn Manson contribute to gun violence in America but violent movies are seen in France, violent video games are from Japan, and Marilyn Manson is heard in Germany. Also, guns in America are easy to obtain as in the documentary Moore got a free gun as he signed up for an account and only required to get a background check. However, fear is the root cause of America gun violence as people fear getting killed it leads to others getting killed. For example, in the documentary Moore shows that the media promotes fear in the American news program as they only focus on negative news such as violence and death such as in the news they state, “Tonight in South Central, a drive-by shooting”. It makes people fear certain places such as going to South Central as they portray it to be a dangerous place to go to as the news shows all the negative things that happen there such as crimes which make people fear to go there. Where in Canada news are positive and focus on what is going around town.

“The US Department of Education based on their recent surveys has reported that at least ten percent of the schools in the entire United States of America are faced with problems associated with violence and in these schools there is at least one serious case of crime other than thefts and physical attacks”(School Violence...). The article, School Violence-a Survey, on the School Violence, Weapons, Crime, and Bullying website clearly states a rising problem within the US. It seems as if the news has a constant flow of new school violence cases, and there is no indication of slowing down. It is truly shocking to think that teens could cause so much destruction in their own schools. Nevertheless, school violence cases occur quite

From the lips of the FBI, “Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objective.” On September 11, 2001 the United States of America experienced such actions, it was the largest terror attack experienced by any country. The affect this had on America was tremendous,