The purpose of this survey is to guide the study of bullying and its connection to gun violence. In this study, we will look at both physical and non-physical forms of bullying. Bullying can be defined in a multitude of ways, but for the purpose of this study, it will defined as being teased repeatedly and/or the application of unpleasant stimuli such as hitting, pinching or grabbing (Nansel, Overpeck, Haynie, Ruan & Scheidt, 2003). In this study we will also include being cyberbullied. This would be the unwanted teasing over social media, texting or any another online platform. Because previous research has shown a connection between those who are bullied or socially rejected and people who commit acts of gun violence (),the research
Raskauskas and Stoltz (2007) asked a group of 84 adolescents about their involvement in traditional and electronic bullying. The researchers defined electronic bullying as “…a means of bullying in which peers use electronics {such as text messages, emails, and defaming Web sites} to taunt, threaten, harass, and/or intimidate a peer” (p.565). The table below is a frequency table showing the adolescents’ reported incidence of being victims or perpetrators or traditional and electronic bullying.
Cyberbullying has become a new and growing problem within today’s society (Hanel, Trolley 33). On May 9th, 2007, the Minnesota State Legislature first amended the original bullying law from 2005 in attempt to strengthening it (Minnesota State Legislature, “Approved 2005”, “Amended 2007”). As stated on a report by the United States Department of Education, Minnesota has one of the weakest bullying laws in the nation (United States Department of Education, “Analysis”). Bully Police graded Minnesota’s law as a C-, the lowest grade of all bullying laws currently regulated in the U.S. (Weber, “MPR News Investigation”; Bully Police, “Minnesota 2007”).
After watching the documentary, it becomes clear that bullying played a major role in these killings. Another factor was the mental state of these two individuals who both were diagnosed, treated, and prescribed medication for psychiatric reasons, which were documented in the film by Steven E. Pitt a psychiatrist whom stated both “Dilan and Eric did have a mood and psychiatric disorder Eric prominent anger Dylan depression” (class film). There is an immense lack of empathy, remorse, sympathy. There are irrational motives behind these murders and unjustifiable behavior that cannot be explained with logical reasoning bullying along with depression was something these individuals struggled with. They both had little contact with the outside world their inner circle was comprised of each other there was no room for any outside positive influences.
Although parents send their child to school every day to learn, they often come across school violence dealing with bullying, weapons, and threats. School violence has become a serious problem in recent decades throughout many countries. It deals with violence between not only school students, but also attacks by students on school staff. It all began with the Pontiac Rebellion of July 1764. 1927 Andrew Kehoe set bombs off at school in Bath, Michigan. In 1959, Paul Orgeron set off a bomb at a playground in Texas that killed himself alongside teachers and students. Within the time period of the early 1900s until present day the Federal Bureau of Investigation had recorded 272 school violence incidents. (History on School Violence) Violence in school takes many forms and includes, raping, bullying, stealing, harming and killing other students or members of staff. Side effects of school violence after often negative not only does it run the school atmosphere, but it also creates a distraction to students and their concentration. Violence is not something that students see themselves having to deal with at school students who involve
Even nowadays, psychologists and researchers are studying this correlation. In fact, many recent case studies indicate that school shootings were a result of rejection. Although this seems highly unusual and extreme, in an examination of fifteen school shootings between 1995 and 2001, the attackers in almost every case faced some kind of social rejection, with the exception of only two out of the fifteen. In one particularly frightening school shooting in 1997 in West Paducah, Kentucky, the shooter was clearly teased, rejected and bullied. After his arrest, he declared that “he had grown tired of being teased and was quoted as saying, ‘people respect me now.’” (Leary et al.). Furthermore, constant rejection causes the victim to feel threatened, which gives them an urge to retaliate with violence and aggression to regain power or feelings of control (Gerber and
This review of literature examined four different research studies on perpetrators of school shootings. These studies reveal school shooter share common characteristics and identified some risk factors that may influence an individual to become a school shooter. Scholars agree that perpetrators of school shootings mainly share an uniform demographic. Environmental risk factors such as rejection increase the likelihood of becoming a perpetrator of school shooting. Having a mental illness is another factor that increases the chances an individual of becoming a school
A method of preventing school shootings would be to acknowledge risk factors that the student is facing. For example, bullying is a risk factor for school shootings. In a research study done in 2001 of 37 school shootings, it was reported that 75% of the school shooters felt bullied, threatened, or injured by others in which most of the shooters in the report had experienced long-term bullying and harassment from their peers (Duplechain & Morris, 2014). In addition, the authors do state: “School personnel too often accept that children get teased and bullied every day, because teachers, parents, students, and other adults have grown up thinking that bullying is a normal part of school life. It has easily become an accepted part of today’s school culture” (Ibid, 2014). The authors believe that schools view bullying as something that students should get used to. This does show how bullying is an issue in schools. It is not solely to blame in regards to school shootings, but is a risk factor for them.
Cho poked his head in the room a couple of times and looked around before exiting and entering a different room. The first shots were heard across the hall, in the hydrology class. It sounded like a nail gun or hammer hitting concrete blocks.
Society plays a big role in the development of a school shooter. When an individual feels isolated or excluded from a community and is a target for bullies, it often causes them to take out that repressed anger and lash out in heinous ways. Nowadays, students are typically at school five days a week for six to seven hours a day. That is a lot of time spent with classmates, and unfortunately, bullies. Bullying usually involves an imbalance of power, in which the bully hopes to establish a feeling of dominance over their victim. (Bullying, 2017) Being the victim of bullying is certainly an emotionally damaging situation, especially when one feels helpless and alone. Anger or discontent from the victim may develop into something deeper like hatred and the need for revenge, which is the reason why some individuals turn to shooting schools- to finally hurt others instead of being the one getting hurt. One horrifying example of bullying taking
After researching more in depth about school shootings for my last write up, I decided that reading and learning about the reality of school gun violence was important. In the late 1990s there was a downward spiral of youth violence. Suburban areas stayed out of the spotlight, which helped keep the fear of school violence to a minimum and brush under the rug the violence. In non-suburban areas the majority were experiencing gun violence which led to fear in many peoples eyes. The typical schoolyard fights had turned into murders and much more dangerous. There was a line that mentioned students not bringing home homework anymore but coming home with bullet wounds. The amount of school shootings in these non-suburban areas was really reflecting
Scholars and practitioners often times refer countless other youths, who are indirectly affected by gun violence as the "survivors" of such violence. Such survivors are witnesses to indirect gun violence either at their schools, homes, communities or media (Garbarino et. al., 2002; Wilkinson, McBryde, Williams, Bloom, & Bell, 2009)). Myriad of research done by public health researchers, psychologists, criminologists, sociologists, and legal scholars demonstrates that firearm related violence could affect youth, families and communities psychologically, economically and socially (Sheley, Wright, & Wright,1998).. Firearm related violence is both a public health and criminal justice issue. For this reason, prevention strategies geared toward reducing
With sound, scholarly evidence, Newman argues that a majority of school shootings are caused due to the surroundings of the shooter. Therefore, she examines the connections of the individual shooters and takes a deeper look at their culture and communities. She finds that overall, “fifty-three percent were called names, fourteen percent were threatened and five percent were physically hurt”, and gained the knowledge that out of many incidents of school shootings, sixty-three percent of the cases were triggered by bullying (Newman 504). There has been a growing body of research that link a strong relationship between bullying and mass violence. For instance, Professors Michael Kimmel and Matthew Mahler of Stony Brook University found that most
In the last three years gun control has been a more important issue do to bringing them to school. In 2011, 20% of high school students were bullied at school, and 33% reported being involved in a physical fight in the year before. In one month, nearly 6% of high schoolers stayed home because they felt unsafe at or own their way to school. More than 7% of 9th through 12th graders reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property at least ones in the last year. An additional 6% admitted to bringing a weapon on school property for protection. More than 50% of children who have been bullied online do not report the behavior to their parents, with no idea regarding this behavior. In 2011, one million children were harassed,
Bullying and Media Violence is a serious and widespread problem that can lead to school shootings. "Bullying is probably the most frequently occurring form of violence in American schools today and it's really the engine that's driving the majority of violence" (Niolon). For example, On April 20th, 1999, Eric Harrison and Dylan Klebold of Columbine High School
Back in the past many have focused on drug and alcohol use in school students along with students carrying weapons to schools, and it seemed as if no one was recognizing the significance of school bullying. For victims of bullying, they go to school every day facing harassment, taunting, and humiliation. Kids today come home and kill themselves or never want to go back to school because of BULLYING. “Studies show that 25-35% of teens encountered some type of bullying in their lifetime (Nansel et al,).” Bullying is a form of violent behavior that happens not only in the schools but everywhere. Kids everywhere have been exposed to bullying in school for generations and ages . Although bullying has always been a factor the consequences for