Criminal Behavior and Mass Shootings

This article examines the relationship between criminal behavior and mass shootings. It discusses the definition of criminal behavior, statistics on gun violence in the United States, and the impact of exposure to violence on individuals. The article also explores the role of video games in shaping violent behavior and suggests the need for societal changes to prevent mass shootings.

Running head: CRIMINOLOGY AND THEORY
Criminology and Theory
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1CRIMINOLOGY AND THEORY
Metzl, J. M., & MacLeish, K. T. (2015). Mental illness, mass shootings, and the
politics of American firearms. American journal of public health, 105(2), 240-249.
This article deals with the connections between the gun violence and the
mental illness. The author has taken the help of various literatures which include the public
health, psychology, sociology and psychiatry, to address the connections. With the help of
research and reviews , the author comes to a conclusion that that the connections between the
mental illness ad gun violence is indeed a complex issue, and that there neither the guns in
the people can be isolated from the social influences. The author addresses the few critical
issues in the article which involves that the gun violence causes mental illness, that the gun
crimes can be predicted by the psychiatric diagnosis. It also looks into the issues of the US
mass shootings that suggest to be afraid of the mentally ill loners, and also the fact that
because of the complex psychiatric histories of the mass shooters, the Tucson, Aurora or
another Newtown cannot be prevented by the gun control.
Fox, J. A., & DeLateur, M. J. (2014). Mass shootings in America: moving beyond
Newtown. Homicide studies, 18(1), 125-145.
The article deals with the examination of the different myths and the different
misconceptions that are related with the mass shooters and the multiple shooting. It also
eventually points out the realities that are associated with the aversion of these kind of
murderous charges. The article has taken the incident of the mass shootings that have taken
place at the Connecticut elementary school, a movie theater in Colorado. Mass shooting at
this venue and the other places have prompted to implement a number of proposals that
would lead to a positive change. The nature of mass murder and the homicides are not valid

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and justified. And this point have been made by the advocates for the tighter gun restrictions,
as well as for expansion of the mental health restrictions.
Swanson, J. W., McGinty, E. E., Fazel, S., & Mays, V. M. (2015). Mental illness
and reduction of gun violence and suicide: bringing epidemiologic research to
policy. Annals of epidemiology, 25(5), 366-376.
The article deals with the evidence of epidemiological evidence that deals with
the risk of the gun violence and the suicidal tendencies related to the psychiatric disorders.
The author here also draws a comparison with the media-fuelled public perceptions of the
individuals who are mentally sick. It involves the evaluation of the laws and the policies that
are designated and implemented to prevent the injuries and the effects of the guns and
firearms and the association of the mortality with the mental illness and substance use
disorders. The author in order to make an effective research in the article makes the use of
methods which involve review of the researches concerting the attitudes of the public towards
the mentally ill individuals. It also reviews the evidences of the clinical and the
epidemiological studies of the incidents of violence and mental illness. Finally with the
policy recommendations, the author comes to a conclusion that the policy making should be
based on the proper epidemiological data which concerns the risk, in order to improve the
effectiveness and the feasibility of the policy initiatives.
Malkki, L. (2014). Political elements in post-Columbine school shootings in
Europe and North America. Terrorism and political violence, 26(1), 185-210.
Since the gun shootings in the schools have been conventionally been
understood as actions of non-political base, the article decides on to the empirical
implications which suggest that not all the shootigs and the massacres are from the non
political base. They are similar to the political violence. The article aims at the analysis of 28

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school rampages that had taken place in Europe in Canada as well as in United States. The
shooting sat the schools in these areas are analysed to prove that the shootigs did contain
political elements . the author studies four cases that had been dealing with the political
communication, 1 cases which deal with the shootings from the previous schools and 11
different cases which are isolated from these. The most prevalent question is whether the
shootings in the schools are genuinely motivated by the political reasons. The author
concludes that the violence in the schools are nothing but the sense of tradition, that are
referred to as the leaderless resistance.
Lankford, A. (2015). Mass shooters in the USA, 1966–2010: Differences between
attackers who live and die. Justice Quarterly, 32(2), 360-379.
There have been researches that have been conducted earlier, which suggest
that there are sufficient differences between the fundamental behavior as well as
psychological behavior between offenders who are guilty of committing murder and
offenders who are guilty and end up committing suicide themselves. The fact is still unknown
whether there is a similar kind of difference existing between for the murders in workplace
and school shooters. The findings specifically, shows that there are differences, between mass
shooters, who die as a result of the attacks and the shooters who still exist. The common
patterns shows that the attacks, the offenders, the victims they kill, might have significant
relationships or even major implications for scholars and security officials alike.
Wallace, L. N. (2015). Responding to violence with guns: Mass shootings and gun
acquisition. The Social Science Journal, 52(2), 156-167.
The article deals with the examination of the impacts of the acquisition of
guns and in the national scenario as well as regionally. It also studies the timing specific
patters to the acquisition of the guns as well as the events of mass violence that follows.

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There have been a researches which observe that there is a steady development in the amount
of gun purchases as well as an increase of the mass shootings. The mass shootings and the
violence contribute to the fear of victimization with the exposure of media.

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Introduction:
 Overview of the problem
Mass shootings in the literal term means mass killing or murder of a great number of
people. The people fall a victim to the violence of firearms and guns. This type of homicide
and the issue of gun violence is getting famous and appears frequently on the media. The
number of mass shootings in United States have become a great issue. Whether it is an
educational institution such as college, school or church and concerts, gun violence and
shootings are occurring on a regular basis. The primary research question that this report
sought to answer is that in the present generation of video games and videos on the internet,
whether the gun violence or the mass shooting is a learned behaviour. Taking the help of
Albert Bandura who had theorized about the social behaviours of the people, and the
environment that affects the behaviour of the mass shooters, it can be said that the social
learning theory imply that the shooters learn this violent behaviour from them. The
magnitude of the problem suggests that there needs to be an effective solution for the gun
violence behaviour and the solution needs a pre-emptive solution, apart from the mere gun
control policies or the simple reactionary measures. This study examines the environment
where the children are raised and the whether it is the childhood experiences are responsible
for this criminal behaviour. In the generation of constant access to video games, it must be
the negative experiences of the childhood experiences of exposure to violence or exposure to
guns in the homes, which encourage the people to take up guns. If the children are exposed to
such an environment, which involves the exposure to gun violence in media or video game,
they would definitely mimic the same behaviour that they see and experience. According to
the social learning theory, the people learn the specific behaviours from the people based on
their direct experience or what they observe and encounter. Thus this kind of imitation is

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harmful if there is no change in the social behaviour. There is a need to develop the societal
changes and the environment where the children grow up, so to the criminal theory that they
are exposed to get neglected. It would also help to prevent the continued mass shooting that
was going on.
Discussion:
 Definition of Criminal Behaviour
Mass shooting is the form of Criminal behaviour that involves killing or homicide of a
large number of people. These mass shootings occur by the agencies and the active shooters
who are responsible for killing the people. According to the definition of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation (2013), an active shooter is an individual who is engaged in active murder
and killing of the people in a particular confined area. The FBI does not use the term mass
shooting though. The bureau defines these events of mass slaughter as active shooter
incidents. These incidents include the gun violence acts or the acts of gang violence. Also
mass killing is defines as three or more killings in a single incident. The FBI releases annual
reports on these active shooter incidents with every detail of different states, details on the
behaviour of the shooters and conclusion on the recent trends. They also release the
occasional reports on these mass killings which are indeed informative as well as are a
reliable resource. The Gun violence archive has worked with local law enforcement agencies
across the country since 2012 to keep records on shootings. According to its website, the
archive defines a mass shooting as a situation in which four or more people are shot.
(www.gunviolencearchieve.org, 2019).
 Statistics regarding criminal behaviour
According to a Congressional Research Service, in the year 2013, there had been 78
mass murders that had been carried out in United States, during the time period of 1982-2012

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(Lemieux, 2014). According to the investigation reports by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI, 2013), there were 160 active shooter incidents in United States, where
more than one shooter had been involved actively in killing the people of a populated
location. In accordance with mass shootings, there had been other relevant cases of homicide
and gun violence in the other states. More than 32,000 people who were killed by the gun
every year (Kleiman et al., 1996). In comparison to the other nations, including Germany,
Canada and England, there are more number of deaths of people from guns, in the United
States than in any other country. The statistical data reveals that about 40 percent of the
Americans own a gun or live in a household that possesses a gun (Lemieux, 2014).
According to the survey conducted in the year 2017, the murder and homicide by the guns is
the highest in the developed countries. In 2017 itself there were almost 11 thousand deaths as
a result of gun violence (Metzl& MacLeish, 2015) .In about 13% of cases, the FBI does not
have data on the weapon used. By removing these cases from the overall total of gun deaths
in the US, the proportion of gun-related killings rises to 73% of homicides (Fox & DeLateur,
2014). According to the study conducted by Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there
were a total of more than 38,600 homicides as a result of guns in the year 2016 (Markey,
Markey, & French, 2015). Also the shooters did include the people who had committed
suicide. Out of these deaths, there were almost 22 thousand deaths that had been caused as a
result of suicidal attempts. These suicides by the firearm or the guns accounted for more than
half of all the suicides in the United States, as stated by the Center for Disease Control (Fox
&DeLateur, 2014) .
Researchers provide an extensive support regarding the criminal behaviour and the
reason why these behaviour do arise. In one study Swanson et.al., (2015) discusses that if
there is greater exposure to the violence, the acts of crimes and the varieties of the criminal
acts, then it is likely that he or she would be affected and they would be arrested for violent

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crime. Based on the social learning theory, and on the models of learning, he had made his
hypothesis. Agreeing to this hypothesis, Malkki (2014) concluded that actual exposure to
criminal acts and experiences have stronger impacts on the people than merely observing
these acts of violence. Spano, Pridemore, and Bolland (2012) have studied longitudinal data
to examine the impact of childhood exposure to violence and violent behaviour on
subsequent gun carrying and use. It has been founded by these authors that if one is exposed
to violence, and exposure to such behaviour can make him more prone to carry a gun. This is
indicative of the fact that, at least for youths, exposure to guns has an impact on subsequent
gun carrying or usage. In this generation the students and the children are keener on spending
their time with the video games. These video games depict actions of violence and criminal
behaviour (Metzl& MacLeish, 2015). Rocque (2012) states in his research that violent video
games like online shooting games increase the likeliness of a twisted mental construction in
adolescents, prompting them to realize what they experience in the virtual world of gaming,
by 9%. Also according to Lankford (2015), the combination of the exposure to violence and
guns is potent and it is responsible for influencing thecriminal’s decision to make use of the
guns. Malkkki (2014) has stated in his article that the exposure to gun violence in childhood
will make a negative impact on the mind and eventually influences the adult criminal’ s use
of guns in criminal activities.
 Criminal Theory – essential principles, weaknesses and strengths
The criminologists separate the theories based on sociology functionalist, symbolic
interactionism and conflict theory. The functionalist theory states that the various spheres of
activity of the individuals regulate and influence the functioning of that particular society
(Lanier, 2018). The symbolic interaction, on the other hand, states that the understanding of
the individuals depends on the subjective interpretation of the communication which is

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exchanged among such individuals. Thus, there is a potential chance of being misinterpreted,
thereby leading to conflict (Downes, Rock & McLaughlin, 2016). The conflict theory states
that the various members of the society are in a state of continuous conflict. Such a conflict
rises as a result of the competition for possessing the limited resources of the world.
Video games are played by almost all the youth of the society. The amount of
time and dedication spend in such games invariably influence the children to learn from such
games. Accordingly, the violence that is perceived in such games have a way of changing the
behavior of the little children. This situation can find its basis within the symbolic interaction
theory. One of the branches of this theory is that of social learning theory as advocated by
Albert Bandura.
The social learning theory is a part of the criminal theory, with which it can be
understood, how the children do behave and how the childhood experiences effectively
contribute to the adult behaviour. This theory basically describes and defines socialization.
The process of socialisation involves the process of learning the cultures and how the family,
the schools, the educational institutions, the religious institutions and the peer groups provide
the children with the values and the beliefs that are acceptable in the society (Towers, 2015).
This in effect teaches the appropriate and the inappropriate behaviour in the society. The
children are taught how to behave and what exactly is the correct behaviour and what is the
incorrect one. According to Kleck (2017), the social learning theory is often termed as the
differential association-reinforcement theory of criminal behaviour. The basics that this
theory offer in relation to the criminal acts is that the criminal behaviour of the people are not
only learned by the direct association of them with the criminals but also through the mode of
observing and modelling. This social learning theory involves different specific techniques,
motivations and attitudes (Lee, 2015).

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This theory had been developed by Albert Bandura In the year 1977. He had
developed this social learning theory on the basis of few principles. These principles include
attention and focus on the matter, the retention that depends on the context, reproduction that
occurs on the demand and the motivation that can either be intrinsic or extrinsic. Albert
Bandura’s intention had been to explain how children learn in social environments by
observing and then imitating the behaviour of others. However in this case, he believed that
the learning could not be fully explained through reinforcement, but there could be also
influence from the other sources as well. He noticed that the consequences of an observed
behaviour often determined whether or not children adopted the behaviour themselves
(Towers, et.al., 2015).
The principle of attention in his social learning principle implies that a person cannot
be successful in his task if there is lack of focus. Social contexts help to reinforce the
perceptions. If there is any difference in the matters, then the matter should be the focus of
their attention. The second principle of the theory involves retention which involves the fact
that a person learns the things that he internalizes. The recalling of the information that one
has in his memories, and producing that in the situation which looks similar to that of the
situation that had occurred earlier is said to be a principle of the theory. The third is the
reproduction when it is in demand. The person is expected to reciprocate to the situation and
produces his information that he had previously learned .the information can be the
behaviour, the skills as well as the knowledge (Towers, 2015). The practise however through
the mental and the physical rehearsals of ten prove to be more effective and improves the
responses. The last principle of the social learning theory involves the motivation. A person
should remain motivated in order to do anything. This motivation often originates from the
observation power and the way one observes another victim who is rewarded or punished for

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the deeds that he had done. This motivates the others to do the same thing or avoid the
mistakes in their journey.
 How is the theory applied to behaviour?
Since the social learning theory is all about the approaches in which a child develops
and how they acquire the knowledge regarding a topic. This also involves the combination of
the cognitive and the behavioural approaches to learning. This theory as a result involves
different strengths and weaknesses as well. One of the strength of the social learning
behaviour involves the change in the environment, which eventually brings a change in the
behaviour of the child. There is flexibility in the explanation of the differences in the child’s
behaviour. The environmental aspect of this theory says that the children receive the
knowledge from a social context. This strengthens the notion that if there is a change in the
environment, it will positively have an impact on the child’s environment and eventually on
his behaviour. Although the theory has its focus on the learning and the gaining of
knowledge, through the influences of environment, its strengths involve its multiple modes of
learning. The individuals and the children have the opportunity to learn from different facets
and with the help of different kinds of experience. They can also learn from the act of
observation. Another strength of the Social learning theory involves the acts of aggression of
the tragedies such as the shootings and the mass murder were linked with the violent and the
gruesome television shows as well as the video games (Markey, Markey, & French, 2015).
This is a common linkage with the concepts of the theory which includes that the information
is learnt from watching the others and the violent acts in the television channels and the video
games. It also strengthens the second concept that states that threat until and unless
something triggers, an individual is quite conscious about the negatives that are being shown.
According to Ferguson (2014), a major chunk that includes 6% of the juvenile
homicide cases in the United States alone, could be attributed to online shooting games. this

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had been determined by considering the households of the United States as well as the
juvenile mass deaths. He had studies this and had analysed that the great number of deaths
have been occurring due to the online video games which involve the shootings and the use
of the guns and the bullets.
Talking of the weakness of the theory, the social learning theory has great emphasis
on how the child is getting affected with the environment change. There is lack o focus on the
child’s own development. Since the theory focusses more on how the other experiences and
the behaviours of people and the community influence the child, there is very bleak emphasis
on the child’s own accountability. This theory thus neglects the child to a great extent putting
more importance to the way the society behaves and manipulates the behaviour of a child.
Another notable weakness of the theory is the ignorance of standard milestones. Unlike
stage models of child development, social learning theory doesn't hinge upon a
distinct progression of learning and growth that is chronological or age dependent.
The view of this theory as neglecting to consider the child's development, across
all of the domains, is a potential weakness. Although not every child matures at an
identical rate, some of the standard milestones and markers may still occur
regardless of the environmental setting. It also does not have the ability to explain
why the children watch the violent television shows and get attracted to the acts of
violence showed on the television. How the people are originally drawn to the
television and the games, is unknown. There is no explanation as why does the
violent acts in the television attract the people more than the other shows which are
non-violent in nature. It also is unable to explain why the children play the video
games yet all do not get influenced by the learnings and the information. As many
people are exposed to all sorts of violence, yet the problem of mass shooting and
the gun violence is not prevalent in all the parts of the globe (Markey, Markey, &

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French, 2015). According to Lankford (2015) the Social Learning Theory, states that the
criminal behaviour is learned through a process of socialization and is similar to any other
process which involves learning through the behaviour of other people. The behaviour and
the activities of the people in the society helps to teach the people the behaviour that involves
the criminal perspectives. The people tend to gain a criminal bent of mind by socializing with
the people who have a similar mentality and they can influence the common people’s
behaviour and manipulate their intentions. It si similar to any other process and socialization
can make this easier.
Wallace (2015) argues that while there are great influences on the children, the
teachers, the schoolmates and the media people , studies have shown that the family and the
close friends have greater impact upon the child learning as well as his socialisation. The
greater influence over the children comes from the family since they tend to spend more time
with the family members. The activities and their behaviour are more responsible to have an
impact over the children’s mind than the media performances. The children spend greater
time with their family, and close friends, that at school with the teachers and the school
mates. Thus they tend to learn things from them in a more impactful manner than the teachers
and the students at the school.
Lankford (2015) applied social learning theory to the phenomenon of stalking and
found that attitudes and perceptions about a behaviour can be more impactful than actually
witnessing the behaviour. In this case, stalking behaviour might not be directly learned in
childhood, but the attitudes and beliefs that would make stalking permissible are learned. If a
person gains the behaviour from the other one, it is most likely due to the phenomenon of
stalking the attitudes of those people and not for witnessing them. There is a tendency among
the people to imitate the attitude and the behaviour in their childhood. Stalking is something

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that they learn at a later stage. The attitude and the behaviour of the other people is what
influence them more according to the social learning theory.
Burgess and Akers’ (1966) theorized that there are seven propositions about how the
criminal behaviour is learned and works. They believed that learning of the criminal
behaviour is similar to any kind of learning process , but they also recognized that the
learning is accomplished through operant conditioning and the presence of effective
reinforcement. According to Sutherland’s theory (1947), the theory does not merely state that
being associated with criminals leads to crime or that being associated with law-abiding
persons leads to conforming behaviour. It is the nature, characteristics, and balance of the
differential association that affect an individual’s likelihood of violating the law. More
specifically, if a person is exposed to pro-criminal definitions which turns out to be their first
priority, and these definitions increase in frequency and intensity and these definitions get
prolonged and persistent for a considerable amount of time, then the individual is more likely
to demonstrate involvement in criminal and deviant acts. (Sutherland, 19447). It also has
been argued by Lankford (2015) that the behaviours which are both experienced and
witnessed are important but it doesnot only depend on this. The attitudes and the perceptions
of the individuals is also something that is involved and should be taken into consideration
which influences the criminal actions. The theory of applied social learning have been
developed with the concept of phenomenal stalking, which have been found to be the
attitudes and the perception of the behavioural aspect. This can be more important for
actually witnessing the behaviour of that individual or the group. In the particular case, the
actual behaviour of the person might be impacting and not to be learned directly in the
childhood only. However, the attitude of the person and the beliefs might be in the set of the
beginning of the childhood only. This might also be due to the impact of the forceful

15CRIMINOLOGY AND THEORY
childhood, which might also harm the individuals behaviour and the prime aspect of the
behaviour also.
Conclusions
The two policies that have been chosen are the policy of Male-Targeted and Sexual
Assault Prevention Program and the policy of Massachusetts Child Trauma Project (MCTP).
The policy of Male-Targeted and Sexual Assault Prevention Program have proved to be
effective and that of Massachusetts Child Trauma Project (MCTP) proved to be ineffective
against reducing the criminological behaviour.
The policy of Male-Targeted and Sexual Assault Prevention Program had proved to
be effecting as a solution to prevent the crimes in United States. The policy was aimed at
reducing the crimes of sexual assaults. The program aimed at targeting the perpetrators
directly , which included the males of the age group of 18 years or older. This policy
basically was implemented in the different college campuses which had several reports of the
sexual harassments and assaults. The program also left an impact on the other populations
apart from the college, in the community and even to the offenders in the prison. The policy
included the components that were expected to build empathetic relationships for the victims,
and to eradicate the myths that the people had of rape. The program had been proved to be
effective since the analysis outcomes say that the participants who had participated in the
policy programs were reported to have decreased intention of engaging them in sexually
aggressive acts. The policy compared to the control groups had been proved to be more
effective since the male participants were keener to put in efforts to the prevention of these
sexual assault sin the future. They had a positive response to the prevention of these kinds of
activities than the males of the other control groups.

16CRIMINOLOGY AND THEORY
The policy of Massachusetts Child Trauma Project (MCTP) is the policy which was
proved to be ineffective. The policy had aimed to improve the well-being and the
permanency outcomes of or the children who had a state of complex trauma. The primary
goals of the program had been the improvement of the identification of the children’s
traumatic behaviour, along with the enhancement of the service provider’s capacity. It also
aimed at increasing the understanding of the caregivers and increasing the linkages and the
relationship of the children’s referral to the evidence based treatments. The policy proved
ineffective because there were no such solid and strong findings that could deal; with the
effects on the placements out of home and about achieving the permanency through the
guardianship. The program failed to provide an evidence that could suggest that the program
could have intended effects on the children.
Thus from the above analysis it can be concluded that the research on the mass
shootings and mass killing is hindered by the lobbying efforts of the pro-gun organisations,
and there is less funding for these kind of researches. However this should not stop the
institutions to make efforts and reduce their attempts at finding the reason for these mass
shooting. They should instead work to eradicate the great issue of mass shooting and gun
violence. The researchers and the academicians should be reaching out to these population
groups with the help of different focus groups, or surveys. These methods can also use the
online communication, trying to gain their perspective on their identities, violence,
masculinity as well as the society. The theories of socialisation and the criminology should be
implemented in such a manner that the children as=re not effected by the video game
violence. There should be more effective policies to reduce the criminal behavioural mind-set
and the children should be treated in a positive manner in their households, so that the
observations and the experiences do not affect them negatively.

17CRIMINOLOGY AND THEORY

18CRIMINOLOGY AND THEORY
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