Understanding Mass Murderers

This paper explains the reasons behind the mass murderer Seung-Hui Cho’s crime. It provides a brief overview of the events that surround the crime committed by Cho. In addition, the essay will try to identify the numerous psychological, sociological and biological theories and concepts that could help explain the murderer’s intentions.

Running head: UNDERSTANDING MASS MURDERERS
UNDERSTANDING MASS MURDERERS
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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UNDERSTANDING MASS MURDERERS
Introduction
The paper aims to explain the reasons behind the mass murderer Seung-Hui Cho’s crime.
The paper will first provide a background of the mass murderer including his education, mental
health, past criminal record and so on. Then, the paper will provide a brief overview of the
events that surround the crime committed by Cho. In addition, the essay will try to identify the
numerous psychological, sociological and biological theories and concepts that could help
explain the murderer’s intentions. Further, the essay will try to find out whether any changes
were made in the laws and policies, police processes and school security after the incident.
Discussion
Seung-Hui Cho was born on January 18, 1984 in South Korea and immigrated to the
United States with his parents at the age of eight (Kleinfield, 2019). Cho first attended the Poplar
Tree Elementary School in Virginia’s Fairfax County. He was a bright student as testified by
Kim, one of his friends during his fifth grade, particularly in English and Mathematics. He was
known as a shy child with good skills in basketball. When he was a child, Cho used to be bullied
by other wealthy children of his church. He was in the eighth grade when the 1999 Columbine
High School massacre took place. The event was fascinating for Cho, as one of his classmates
recount about him. The classmate said that Cho had written abuses for the students of his class.
Apart from that, Cho had even hinted violent mentality when he submitted an assignment about
his desire to “repeat Columbine”. After this, Cho’s parents sent him to a psychiatrist. Cho spent
his senior years in Ormond Stone Middle School and Westfield High School in Centerville and
Chantilly respectively. He was diagnosed with ‘selective mutism’ at the eighth grade (Kleinfield,
2019). He was bullied throughout his high school years for being an introvert and having an

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‘odd’ speaking pattern. In 2003, he graduated from Westfield High School and got admission in
Virginia Tech University. His behaviors stood out as strange, aloof, and egotistic. He was
removed from class on several occasions for his behavior. Some of his professors had even
advised him to take counseling. Although Cho had no criminal history as such, he had once
confessed of stalking two girls in 2005 but the girls had not filed any complaint.
The Virginia Tech Shooting, one of the deadliest mass shootings in America’s history,
took place on 16 April 2007 (Cnn.com, 2019). The shooting occurred at Norris Hall and West
Ambler Johnston Hall at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg in
Virginia. At around 7 a.m. the police were informed of shootings taking place at the West Amber
Johnston Hall and around 9.45 a.m., another round of shootings occur at the Norris Hall that
results in the killing of 32 people.
Although some reasons are visible for the mass shootings committed by Cho, having an
understanding of different psychological and sociological theories could help comprehend the
reasons better. According to Dr. Adam Lankford, the social strain theory could greatly explain
the mass shootings that seem to occur most frequently in the US. Robert Merton proposed the
Strain theory during the 1930s (Capellan, 2019). The sociologist argued that the way a society is
structured, might influence or encourage deviant behavior. As per Merton, some people aspire to
become successful in life or achieve something but the society does not allow them to be or do so
because of their social or financial status. The structure of the society favoring rich and the so-
called high-class people causes the deprived ones to take a deviant course. Similar could have
happened to Seung-Hui Cho. As evident from his early days in America, Cho was addressed to
bullying and harassment. He was a bright student but he could not capitalize because the
American society was structured only to give importance to normal, bright students. Reports that

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surfaced later blamed the Virginia Tech management and all those associated in some way to
Cho for neglecting the signs. This shows the validity of the strain theory in understanding the
mass murders.
Maahs, Weidner and Smith (2016), state that there has been no concrete evidence that
could find biological reasons for mass murders or murderers. The authors state that although the
society might these people to be ‘insane’ or ‘mad’, they could not recognize them before the
murder. The reason is that people could find no biological differences between the murderer and
the common people. The same could be said in case of Cho, who was popular amongst girls, a
good basketball player and brilliant in English and Mathematics. Cho had no biological
difference that could allow people to know that he could be a potential mass murderer.
In defining the mass murders from both sociological and biological perspective, no strong
evidence could be found regarding the influence of society or science in shaping the minds of the
killers. In this respect, psychological theories are most effective in explaining the attitude ad
thinking of the killers. The psychodynamic theory provides a good explanation for Cho’s actions.
Sigmund Freud’s psychodynamic theory suggests that violent behavior in humans is a product of
the “unconscious” elements functioning within their minds (Children.gov.on.ca, 2019). Cho’s
unconscious elements were visible when he was observed inclining towards violent things like
being fascinated by the 1999 Columbine shootings and so on.
The Virginia Tech shootings took place over a decade ago and many changes have been
visible since then. One most visible change has been regarding the gun laws. Laws regarding the
purchase of guns were changed in less than a year after the shootings took place. The then
President George W. Bush signed the NICS Improvement Amendment Act thus tightening the

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mental health reporting prior to purchasing or selling guns (Usatoday.com, 2019). Changes
within campus security were also visible with emergency notifications throughout campuses and
threat assessment teams being present all the time.
Conclusion
To end, it could be stated that the mass murderers are influenced by several factors not
just social. The essay provided an elaborate discussion on the mass murderer Seung-Hui Cho
who was responsible for the murder of 32 people in the Virginia Tech shooting of 2007. The
essay also highlighted the changes that took place post the shooting.

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References:
Capellan, J. (2019). Looking upstream: A sociological investigation of mass public shootings.
In Assessing and Averting the Prevalence of Mass Violence (pp. 99-128). IGI Global.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-5670-1.ch005
Children.gov.on.ca. (2019). Chapter 2: Psychological Theories. Retrieved from
http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/professionals/oyap/roots/volume5/
chapter02_psychological_theories.aspx
Cnn.com. (2019). Virginia Tech Shootings Fast Facts. Retrieved from
https://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/31/us/virginia-tech-shootings-fast-facts/index.html
Kleinfield, N. (2019). Before Deadly Rage, a Life Consumed by a Troubling Silence. Retrieved
from https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/us/22vatech.html
Maahs, J. R., Weidner, R. R., & Smith, R. (2016). Prescribing some criminological theory: an
examination of the illicit use of prescription stimulants among college
students. International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, 60(2),
146-164.
Usatoday.com. (2019). 10 years after Va. Tech shooting: How gun laws have changed. Retrieved
from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/04/14/va-tech-shooting-gun-
laws-debate/100458024/