The Lone Wolf Offender: A Report on James Holmes' Criminal Behavior

This report examines James Holmes, the perpetrator of the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting, and his classification as a lone wolf offender. The analysis explores how Holmes fits the lone wolf profile, emphasizing his solitary nature and lack of connections, which made him difficult to track. The report discusses the challenges law enforcement faces when dealing with lone wolf offenders, who often leave no discernible trail. It delves into Holmes' psychological state, including his self-perception as the "Joker" and his delusional beliefs. The report highlights the key learning points from the case, such as the importance of early intervention and the need for a deeper understanding of the psychology of lone wolf offenders. The conclusion emphasizes the need for further analysis of such individuals to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

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James Holmes: Lone Wolf
(Student’s Details: )

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James Holmes is famous for his July shooting spree which resulted in death of twelve
people in Aurora, Colo (Law, 2012). He has been termed as a lone wolf offender by the FBI
because he undertook this criminal act on his own, without help from anyone else. Being a lone
wolf makes an individual even more difficult for the law enforcement to catch due to such
individuals working alone and having no connections to be tracked down (MSNBC, 2012). This
discussion explores the manner in which Holmes fits the lone wolf offender profile. In doing so,
the key takeaways of the case will also be discussed.
The start of 20th century witnessed the use of term lone wolf to denote those perpetrators
who were involved in heinous criminal activities and the ones who did not use assistance of other
criminals in undertaking their acts. This term has now become a common one and has been used
to denote jihadists and other psychopaths like James Holmes. The term lone wolf takes inference
from the observations of common wolfs. Even though wolves are social animals, it is noted that
often the losing adult male, in fight for being the leader of pack, leaves the pack and is referred
to as lone wolf. Even though the lone wolf does not hold the efficiency of the pack, but the
uncharacteristic behaviour of such male makes it more dangerous than the pack. A pack can be
tracked, but the lone wolf works alone and is dangerously unpredictable. The lone wolf has a
strong sense of self-preservation that allows them to survive in their own (Caschetta, 2016).
The problem in cases of lone wolf is their lack of reliance on others. The law
enforcement agencies often use the “channels” and “links” used by the criminals to track them
down. The association of such criminals chalk out the path to them. However, when a person
works alone, they leave no breadcrumbs to track (Hamm & Spaaij, 2017). Furthermore, no
connection means lack of discussions with others. Thus, there is no chance of a mole or

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informant for a possible threat. Lone wolf is an unpredictable and solitary attacker making them
very dangerous. Lone wolf is isolated and socially awkward. They often show the lack of
adjusting in functional adult life and depict presence of mental illness. Lone wolf is not scared to
die and often take part in suicide missions. They are of extremist ideology and blame others for
their personal frustrations (Capellan, 2015).
There have been many individuals who have been labelled as lone wolf, and one of them
is James Holmes (Law, 2012). As per media reports, Holmes’ psychology revealed that he was
quite disturbed at an individual level. Holmes considered himself as being the “Joker” making
reference to the Batman series villain and the movie series that was being played where he
started his assault with rifle. He methodologically stalked the isles, led smoke bombs and shot
those trying to flee the scene of crime. Even though Holmes did not have any history of
psychotic behaviour or being violent, yet his mother believed that Holmes was the one who had
done wrong. This is somewhat because of the alienated and socially inapt nature of Holmes. As
per psychologists, Holmes was living in his own alternate reality, and he was delusional about
threats. This is the reason why despite having no apparent reason, he targeted and killed random
people. In his brain, what he was doing was necessary and presumably was because of his own
perceptions and assurances that he was right (Gann et al, 2012).
Holmes was noticed saying he was on a mission to do what he did, resulting in twelve
deaths and 70 injured people. A key characteristic that matches Holmes being a lone wolf
offender stems from the fact that he was legally sane. It was just his isolated nature and own
realties that made him so dangerous. Thus, despite being rational, he was sick (O'Neill &
Cabrera, 2015). The lack of association with others, to guide him on difference between wrong
and right was one of the contributing factors to the psychological situation of Holmes.

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This case presents numerous points of learning. The first and foremost is timely
interventions on the possible cases. As stated earlier, Holmes mother knew that her son had done
the killings. This clearly means that she noticed the distant or violent traits of Holmes. Even
though nothing was there to show so, the confidence with which the mother accepted crimes of
her child, instead of defending him, raises some red flags. This means that such instance could
have been saved, if Holmes’ mother had sought help earlier. However, this does not mean that
every introvert or socially distant person will be the next Holmes. This is what makes it tough to
identify such lone wolf. They are unpredictable and show no such characteristics of being violent
as was clearly evident in case of Holmes. Another noteworthy point in this matter is the lack of
clarity of what went in Holmes’ mind. Even though the psychologists said that Holmes was
living in an alternate reality, psychopathy of Holmes showed nothing like that. He was not a
terrorist and there was no evidence for criminal insanity (Reid, 2018). This makes it difficult to
track such cases, as was stated at the start of this discussion. And the main takeaway of this case
lies in this very fact that there is a need to further analyse the psyche of such lone wolf to avoid
such cases.
Thus, to bring this discussion to its conclusion, it is evident that James Holmes is indeed
a lone wolf because he was unpredictable and he had no history of violence. Further, the crime
he undertook did not have any reasoning. This does not justify his actions in any way. But it does
beg the question on whether there is a way through which the psychology of such individuals can
be tracked? And this is the key learning of this case because the rising number of such instances
does put the general public in danger.

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References
Capellan, J. A. (2015). Lone Wolf Terrorist or Deranged Shooter? A Study of Ideological Active
Shooter Events in the United States, 1970–2014. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 38(6),
395–413. doi:10.1080/1057610x.2015.1008341
Caschetta, A.J. (2016 August). Flaws in the ‘Lone Wolf’ Analysis. New English Review.
https://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/184480/sec_id/184480
Gann, C., Mosk, M., Ross, B., Thomas, P., Esposito, R., & Chuchmach M. (2012, July 20).
Aurora Suspect James Holmes May Be Delusional, Psychologists Say. ABC News.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/james-holmes-alleged-colorado-batman-shooter-
delusional-psychologists/story?id=16821836
Hamm, M.S., & Spaaij, R. (2017). The Age of Lone Wolf Terrorism. Columbia University Press.
Law, R. (2012, September 05). Lone wolf terrorism: Understanding the motives behind mass
shootings. The Hill. https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/247633-
lone-wolf-terrorism-understanding-the-motives-behind-mass-shootings
MSNBC. (2012, December 27). MSNBC’s most viewed in 2012: Profile of a ‘lone-wolf’ mass-
shooter. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/msnbcs-most-viewed-2012-profile-lo
O'Neill, A., & Cabrera, A. (2015, June 10). A look inside the 'broken' mind of James Holmes.
CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/05/us/james-holmes-theater-shooting-trial/
index.html

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Reid, W.H. (2018). A Dark Night in Aurora: Inside James Holmes and the Colorado Mass
Shootings. Simon and Schuster.