The goal of this essay is to encourage you to think about the similarities and differences of the source material and findings of Langman and Humes. Specifically, your answer should address the following questions:
Why did the youth discussed in each book engage in violent delinquency? What were the most important structural causes? What were the most important individual level characteristics associated with violence? It may be helpful to consider the following sub-questions while writing your answer:
a. Can we pin the cause of violent delinquency on social structural factors or individual level characteristics?
b. Were the same factors or characteristics consistently associated with violence?
What strategies might be used to prevent/control violent juvenile delinquency? Who should be involved in these strategies? Why? Your answer could focus on broader strategies, strategies focused on specific groups or a combination of the two.
Will we ever be able to fully address the root causes of violent delinquency?
Your answers to these questions should connect with specific examples from the Langman and Humes books. These examples should include citations to the source material. Essay format (introduction, body paragraph, conclusion)
Langman’s School Shooters: Intro and Secondary
School
Broad Research on School Shooters
Theories that help explain school shootings
Why did secondary school shooters do it?
Broad Research on School Shooters
Safe School Initiative: Implications for the Prevention of School
Attacks in the United States (2002)
Report
produced by Secret Service (link to SSI report)
Timeline: 1840 to Present
First
shooting (1840); first mass shooting (1893)
Increased attention during 1990s and 2000s
Since 1970
Incidents by
year (link to annual incidents graphic)
Incidents by location (link to incident map)
Broad Research on School Shooters
No single cause; No single type
“There
is no accurate or useful profile of students who engaged in targeted
school violence.” – quote from SSI report
More common characteristics
Sex
Age
Race
Conspirators
Mental
status
Target selection
Theories that help explain school shootings
Psychodynamic theory / Control Theories
Psychological:
Psychodynamic theory
◼ Ego,
Id and Super-ego
◼ Criminals/delinquents have weaker egos
Sociological:
Control theories
◼ Social
bond + self-control
◼ Criminals/delinquents have weaker bond to
society
Both
useful for explaining crime across social
class groups
Theories that help explain school shootings
Social learning theories
Key:
people learn to engage in crime/delinquency
Nine points of Differential Association Theory
◼ Will have
◼
to memorize for Exam 2
Just kidding!
How does differential socialization encourage crime?
Nine Points of Differential Association Theory
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Crime is learned
Learned through process of communication
Principle learning occurs in within intimate groups
Learning includes techniques and motives
Motives guided by perceptions of legal code
Criminal if excess of definitions favorable to crime
Associations vary in frequency, duration, priority and intensity
Criminal behavior learned in same way as conventional behavior
Crime is an expression of needs/values, but not fully explained by
needs/values
Theories that help explain school shootings
Social learning theories
Four
points of condensed version of
Differential Association Theory
◼ All behaviors are
learned through interactions
with others over time
◼
Examples?
◼ Learning
◼
occurs in intimate groups
Who do we learn from?
◼ Motives
guided by behavioral definitions of
right/wrong
◼ Reasons for criminal and conventional behavior
do not differ
Theories that help explain school shootings
Social learning theories
Differential
◼ Additions
◼
◼
to Differential Association
More detail on learning process
Learning occurs in social and non-social
◼ Categories
◼
◼
of behaviors
Respondent
Operant
◼ Learning
◼
Reinforcement Theory
conditioned through reinforcement
Type, amount, frequency, and probability
Theories that help explain school shootings
Cognitive theories
Key
points
◼ Individual reasoning
processes influence behavior
◼ Reasoning is influenced by perceptions of environment
Connection
◼ What
with rational choice theory
decisions do youth make?
Connection
with General Strain Theory
Why did secondary school shooters do it?
Langman’s categorization strategies
Based
on location and shooter
◼ Secondary
school shooters (today)
◼ College shooter (next time)
◼ Aberrant adult shooters (not covered)
Psychological
◼ Challenges
categories
to diagnosing psychosis (link to Ted Talk: Strange Answers to
Psychopath Test)
Why did secondary school shooters do it?
Langman’s categorization strategies
Psychological
categories
◼ Psychopathic
◼
◼
Characteristics
Overlap with behavioral and control theories?
◼ Psychotic
◼
◼
Characteristics
Overlap with cognitive theories?
◼ Traumatized
◼
◼
shooters
Characteristics
Overlap with learning and cognitive theories?
Assuming profile impossible to develop
Areas
of greatest commonality and difference among shooters?
Summary
Long history of violence in schools, but attention increased during
the 1990s and 2000s
Several theories help to explain actions of school shooters
Individual
characteristics, traits and experiences
Difficulties in profiling and predicting secondary school shooters
Three broad explanations of juvenile violence. The conflict/feminist category focused on
broader structural forces that encourage competition for resources. Our discussion focused
on resources related to race and sex/gender, but we also talked a little bit about class
differences. A resource that is unique to youth that may be associated with delinquency is
competition for popularity. Environmental influences focus on who we are exposed to and
what kind of environments we operate in. Individual level explanations focus on correlates
such as individual strains and stresses, our social bonds, how much self-control we have and
who we learn from/how we learn appropriate and inappropriate behaviors.
The most important research mass school shootings to date was conducted by the United
States Secret Service after Columbine. The findings of this study highlighted some broad
characteristics, but ultimately concluded that there is no single profile of mass school
shooters.
2. Mass school shootings have a long history and were distributed throughout the United
States, but they are more common in southern states. It’s not clear why this is the case, but
some researchers have argued that violence is more acceptable in the south due to honor
culture and others have argued its because of the greater availability of guns.
3. Langman categorizes shooters into psychotic, psychopathic and traumatized groups, but
many shooters fit in multiple categories. We briefly discussed and recapped several
criminological theories that help to explain the broader reasons of mass school violence
across Langman’s categories.
4. Langman also categorized shooters based upon target selection. Only about half of
shooters sought out specific targets. The other half were victims of convenience or
bystanders. This helps to explain why it is so hard to develop a profile of shooters. This also
helps to explain why most preventative measures focus on target hardening by encouraging
potential victims to consider how best to protect themselves or encouraging the
construction and use of protective features in places (locked doors, metal detectors, etc).
5. Our best efforts to develop a profile suggest strain and stress in combination with mental
illness explain why individuals engage in mass shooting events. BUT, it is important to
recognize that the correlation of mental illness with ANY form of violence is tenuous at best
and is likely a function of mental illness with a variety of other factors. Ensuring people
receive good mental health care is important, but this is not the single answer to the mass
shooter problem.
These broad findings will be highlighted in the next few bullets.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Langman engages in a great deal of discussion of sociobiology in the content for this
week. For example, he says that many of his subjects were short or experienced
physical abnormalities. Its important to recognize first that he is doing a simple
correlation analysis and second that these characteristics were important because
these individuals have other issues also. For example, a statement from page
158: Simply being short and weak can be devastating for males, particularly
if they have other identity issues.”
The importance of media consumption is often discussed as a major cause of
violence, but violence was a problem well before the development of mass
media. There is some evidence that individuals with violent tendencies may
seek out violent music, movies or video games, but it is the predisposition to
violence, not media consumption that is the actual cause of violence.
Similar to Singer and Sullivan, Langman discussed the importance of
peers. Peers can help kids engage with troublesome ideas and
behaviors OR they can report those ideas and behaviors to people who
can help assure those ideas and behaviors do not become reality. This is
a lot of pressure of kids to intervene, but kids are the most immediate
sources of information we have about potential violent activities.
Langman discussed several types of strains and stresses. Each of these
types was important to specific individuals, but the broader point is that
individuals who experience strains and stresses have a greater
likelihood of engaging in crime and delinquency unless they are
provided and taught how to use appropriate coping tools.
Many school shooters commit suicide, but most do not. The age of many
school shooters raises some ethical challenges as we must engage with
whether shooters can be rehabilitated. Are these actions so extreme
that we should just give up on these individuals and incarcerate them
for the rest of their lives for example? There is no clear answer here, but
we will return to similar ethical challenges in our a discussion of
juvenile corrections in the remainder of the course.
Trying to determine the best option for preventing school shootings
continues to be a challenge. We cannot or least have yet to develop a
full profile of shooters, so most of our preventative measures focus on
target hardening of potential victims or of potential shooting locations.
Prevention strategies should be team-oriented and involve the efforts of
teachers, parents and of youth. Each of these groups has the potential to
identify things that the other groups may not. Encouraging trust and
communication among all three of these groups will assure that
problematic behaviors and ideas are engaged with as soon as possible
and in the most appropriate fashion.
•
•
The juvenile justice system was founded on the idea of rehabilitation, but we have
increasingly moved toward punishment. This was occurring during the period
leading into the 1980s but this became especially prominent during the 1990s with
the rise of the myth of juvenile superpredator.
The juvenile court was founded on informal treatment of youth, but has since
become more formal. This trend is largely the result of several Supreme Court
decisions that helped to define what rights juveniles have and which they do not. I’m
attaching a quick summary of those cases to this email.
Why Do Youth Engage in Violent Offenses?
How much delinquency is violent?
Explanations of youth violence?
How is juvenile violence combatted? (Brief)
How much delinquency is violent?
Juvenile Arrest Rates 1980-2017
Source: OJJDP
3000.0
2500.0
2000.0
1500.0
1000.0
500.0
0.0
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
Violent Crime Index
Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter
Forcible rape
Robbery
Aggravated assault
Property Crime Index
2012
2016
How much delinquency is violent?
Juvenile Arrest Rates 1980-2017
Source: OJJDP
600.0
500.0
400.0
300.0
200.0
100.0
0.0
1980
1984
Violent Crime Index
1988
1992
1996
Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter
2000
2004
Forcible rape
2008
Robbery
2012
2016
Aggravated assault
How much delinquency is violent?
Juvenile Arrest Rates 1980-2017
Source: OJJDP
300.0
25.0
250.0
20.0
200.0
15.0
150.0
10.0
100.0
5.0
50.0
0.0
0.0
1980
1984
Robbery
1988
1992
Aggravated assault
1996
2000
2004
2008
Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter
2012
Forcible rape
2016
Explanations of youth violence?
Broad explanations
Conflict/Feminist oriented
Environmental
Individual
level
influences
Explanations of youth violence?
Conflict/Feminist oriented
◼ Competition
for resources
◼ Racial differences in violence
◼
◼
Minorities more likely to be arrested OR victimized
More about social structure, less about individual characteristics
Explanations of youth violence?
Juvenile Arrests by Crime Type by Race
Source: OJJDP
900.0
800.0
700.0
600.0
500.0
400.0
300.0
200.0
100.0
0.0
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
White Homicide
White Robbery
White Aggravated Assault
Black Homicide
Black Robbery
Black Aggravated Assault
2012
2016
Explanations of youth violence?
Conflict/Feminist oriented
◼ Competition
for resources
◼ Racial differences in violence
◼
◼
◼ Sex
◼
◼
Minorities more likely to be arrested OR victimized
More about social structure, less about individual characteristics
differences in violence
Socialization of aggression
Hegemonic masculinity
◼ Link to video about the incel community
Explanations of youth violence?
Arrests Rates by Sex of Offender and Crime Type
Source: OJJDP
500.0
450.0
400.0
350.0
300.0
250.0
200.0
150.0
100.0
50.0
0.0
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
Male Homicide
Male Robbery
Male Aggravated Assault
Female Homicide
Female Robbery
Female Aggravated Assault
2012
2016
Explanations of youth violence?
Environmental influences
Recap
◼ Theories:
Social Disorganization/Collective Efficacy; Broken Windows Thesis
◼ Importance of neighborhood: Singer and Sullivan
Community
and neighborhood-based contexts
Emphasis on the community
◼ Relationships
◼ Street
◼
◼
◼
and social control
gangs
Difficult to study
Gang statistics
Reasons for joining?
Explanations of youth violence?
Environmental influences
Emphasis
on context (focus on school context)
◼ Crime
in AND around school
◼ Economic AND social resources in school
◼ Communal School Organization (CSO)
◼
◼
◼
◼
Supportive relationships among teachers, administrators, and students
Common set of goals and norms
Sense of collaboration and involvement
Research about CSO’s implications
◼ How
◼
problematic is school violence?
Link to National Center on Education Statistics School Crime
Explanations of youth violence?
Individual level
Socialization
◼ What
Social
is learned? From who?
control theories
◼ Social
Strain
theories
bonding and self-control
theories
◼ General Strain
Theory
Characteristics associated
◼ CORRELATED, but
with violent behavior
not casual
How is juvenile violence combatted?
McNamara and Bucher’s options
Limited
evidence in support
School-based options
Resource
officers and zero-tolerance
Key components of successful interventions
Target
risk factors
Focus on behavior, not individual
Weaknesses AND strengths of youth
Target higher risk FIRST
Incorporating adult role models
Summary
Youth engage in a lot of violence, but still relatively uncommon
McNamara
and Bucher focused on chronic violence and gang violence
because of high profile
Several explanations for why youth engage in violence
Best
explanation draws upon several categories and/or theories
Best interventions guided by Risk-Need-Responsivity model