Psychopathy and Criminal Justice System | Case Study

Running head: PSYCHOPATHY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
PSYCHOPATHY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors Note

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Introduction
From a general standpoint, young people are considered to be under the age of 18.
Therefore, any young person under the age of 18 years could be regarded as a minor or juvenile.
Nowadays, due to the fluctuations in the annual record, the proportion of juvenile offenses
committed in Canada cannot be stated. Consequently, it can only be said that the criminality of
young people today has increased dramatically every year in comparison to the previous
generation. This paper mainly focuses on the case study on criminal Eric Harris, who was
responsible for shooting in Columbine High School with some other boys and in which way he
relates to psychopathy.
Discussion
It is important to clarify the meaning of crime while talking about young people.
Depending upon the situation, the expression of crime has been defined by numerous scholars
differently. Though all of them have the same idea. The criteria that one can use to describe a
crime is the following. According to Morse (2008) crime is described as being mistaken, serious
enough or publicly too harmful. Walsh (2013) defined crime as a criminal offense for which
some governmental authorities are subject to specific punishments. In summary, any prohibiting
activity by the government is regarded as a crime. Adolescent conduct of numerous countries has
reached alarming levels of crime. Hence it is high time that crime, violence, and murders all over
the world are stopped. Crime is without a hesitation one of the social and psychological illness
which has a great negative impact in the world (Sherretts et al., 2017).
The mass shooting happened almost twenty years ago at Columbine High School in
Littleton, Colorado. This incident school shooting is considered to be one of the worst mass

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shootings in American history and is also one of the most deadly incidents of violence in
schools. Although violence at Columbine High School was not the first violent shooting in the
US, the research, motivations, and actions of the offenders and lack of security measures at
Columbine High School are promising results. The outcome of the shooting at Columbine High
School has contributed to a range of issues, from violent video games, gun ownership and sales,
youth behavior, peer relationships, and physical protection measures in school buildings.
Americans were not the only ones to have said that the Columbine High School tragic events
have been regarded as a precedent for the unbelievable brutality before them (Rico, 2015).
Europeans, Australians, and Argentines are of the view that the mass shootings also has a great
impact on their own countries. The seniors at Columbine High School, namely Eric Harris and
Dylan Klebold, who were determined that it was appropriate to have mass shootings to kill their
fellow students. On 20th April 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold arrived at school with
explosives as well as firearms to kill 13 people. Besides, more than 20 people got serious injuries
during the first midday season. After the incident, they also tried to sacrifice their own lives.
Their drastic step has changed numerous lives of the American people as well as the nation. The
actual reason behind this terrible event not disclosed due to the suicidal decisions of Eric Harris
and Dylan Klebold (Rico, 2015).
However, some people are of the view that video games made them violent. As per
Doctor Hare, the psychiatric problem of a psychopath cannot be diagnosed. The manual, namely
Diagnostic and Stabilities Manual of Mental Disorders, which is also known as DSM discusses a
vast range of disorders but psychopathy is not included in it. Psychopathy has proved very useful
to define a distinct and significant antisocial adult subgroup. Specifically, only a few adult
criminals display the emotional, cognitive and behavioral features which describe psychopathy

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(Hare, 2016). Nonetheless, individuals with those traits display a more serious, aggressive and
persistent behavioral pattern of antisocial. Besides, anti-social individuals with severe
psychopathic characteristics are shown to be anti-social compared to non-psychopathic adults,
with various psychological, cognate and causal factors. Based on these inquiries, the construction
of psychopathy is essential for the legal system, in the field of the mental health system and to
investigate the reasons of antisocial and aggressive behavior (Dhingra & Boduszek, 2013).
Research showed primarily that the history of anti-social behavior in people with psychopathic
symptoms is long and often extended to childhood. As a result, several efforts have been made to
identify developmental psychopathic precursors.
Basically, Eric had a distressed, antisocial, selfish and aggressive personality. There were
Columbine students who suffered abuse from different problematic students and reports also
showed that Eric faced these problems. He was bullied by his seniors. Any violence that Eric has
endured in school may have blown or given him a plausible justification for his charge, but Eric
Harris was much more furious about the mistreatment. He wanted to play the role of the God
who has the ultimate power of giving and taking lives from the people and in this way to fulfill
his wish the drastic step had been taken by him on 20th April 1999 (Daggett, 2015). He was such
a person who had no conscience. He got pleasure from dominating people. Finally, Eric was
aggressive and never feel guilty. However, from the checklist provided by Dr. Hare, it can be
said that Eric was a manipulative person as he convinced Dylan Klebold for taking part in the
charge. He did not have empathy. He was impulsive and irresponsible as well. He did not have
control over his behavior. Finally, as he was not ready to accept the responsibilities for his own
actions, therefore he committed suicide.

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Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be said that there are various factors that
forced Eric to decide to kill students of Columbine High School. It is also a fact that he was
bullied by the seniors of his school but this was not the only factor. He has some psychological
issues, such as aggressiveness, impulsiveness and most importantly he never feels guilty.
Moreover, he has the quality of manipulating people. However, people are of the view that
nowadays video games play a vital role in making the young generation violent.

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Reference
Daggett, C. (2015). Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold: Antiheroes for
outcasts. Participations, 12(2), 45-77.
Dhingra, K., & Boduszek, D. (2013). Psychopathy and criminal behaviour: A psychosocial
research perspective. Journal of Criminal Psychology.
Hare, R. D. (2016). Psychopathy, the PCL-R, and criminal justice: Some new findings and
current issues. Canadian Psychology/psychologie canadienne, 57(1), 21.
Morse, S. J. (2008). Psychopathy and criminal responsibility. Neuroethics, 1(3), 205-212.
Rico, A. R. (2015). Fans of Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Transformative
Works and Cultures, 20.
Sherretts, N., Boduszek, D., Debowska, A., & Willmott, D. (2017). Comparison of murderers
with recidivists and first time incarcerated offenders from US prisons on psychopathy and
identity as a criminal: An exploratory analysis. Journal of criminal justice, 51, 89-92.
Walsh, Z. (2013). Psychopathy and criminal violence: The moderating effect of ethnicity. Law
and human behavior, 37(5), 303.