Introduction
The chosen criminal crime case of delinquency for this paper is the past Columbine High School massacre of 1999. This particular case will be explained using the Travis Hirschi’s social bond theory. On 20 th April, 1999, there were killings in Columbine High School located in Littleton, Colorado (Hong, Cho, Allen-Meares & Espelage, 2011). The killers were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The two entered the school armed heavily with an arsenal of weapons and on a mission to kill. They had confidence in their ill activities. The victims of this horrific incident were both the teachers and students. On reaching the school compound, the two started massive shooting at anybody they found in their way. It is important to report that in the aftermath of their rampant shooting, 12 students and 1 teacher were found lying on the ground fatally wounded. Moreover, the massive shooting also left many others badly injured. The huge negative impact that this particular incident had on the school made it one of the deadliest high school shooting massacres ever witnessed in the history of the United States of America. Although incidences of youth violence have been on the rise in the United States of America, it is rare to witness them in schools. Therefore, when it happens, the attention of the whole world is normally attracted to it. It is vital to note that there was widespread fear, which raged throughout the country following the Columbine massacre incidence. Virtually everyone in the country including students, teachers, parents, the law enforcement agents and community members looked for answers regarding what had really transpired and gone wrong. Many started pondering on what could have been done in advance to avoid the incident. Proposals were developed to advice on what law enforcement agencies should do to curb such an incident in the future. Moreover, a lot of scholars have enlisted various criminology theories in explaining this particular incident. The conceptual framework applied to explain the Columbine high school shooting massacre is Travis Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory.
Analysis
The conceptual framework that best explains the Columbine high school massacre incident is Travis Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory. There strong reasons as to why this particular theory best explains the Columbine high school shooting massacre case of 1999. It is vital to note that the study of delinquency among the youths has been an emerging area. It started to develop with the declaration that human behavior is highly determined by the social surrounding in which people live, as Chicago School theorists stated (Pittaro, 2007). Despite the presence of ecological perspectives on delinquency even today, they are basically environmental theories that lack the ability to sufficiently explain the conduct and actions shown by the present United States notorious shooters in schools. It is important to acknowledge the fact that the issue of school shootings is more complex than a lot of the other incidences of youth violence (Hong, Cho, Allen-Meares & Espelage, 2011). Therefore, school shooters seem to be a portion of the juvenile offenders that show quite unique behavioral features. Considering this particular fact, it would be a mistake to analyze all school violence incidences as one issue of youth violence. There must a theory that addresses the unique population of school shooters, who show characters that can easily be missed if this caution is not taken.
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Truly, a typical school shooter does not suit the standard profile given to the quintessential American juvenile offender. There is the temptation of thinking that the just like the other juvenile offenders, school shooters are African American males who hail from a poor, socially disorganized and interpersonal violence-stricken families (Pittaro, 2007). Apparently, a lot of the inner city violence arises from the murderous gangs in the street, the illicit drug abuse and other vices that mar the American urban neighborhoods. Many people have been led to hold the misconception that perpetrators of school shooting crimes are also from this league of criminals.
Importantly, the majority of the available criminology theories within literature pay much attention to the socio-economic status and geographic location or family background while explaining crime and delinquency. These are the factors commonly held as quite influential in determining the delinquency even in the schools (Hong, Cho, Allen-Meares & Espelage, 2011). This specific approach is fallacious and leads to incorrect explanation of the school shootings within the United States of America. What must be recognized is the fact that the quintessential shooter in American schools, according to the many findings of scholarly and empirical studies, is actually young, Caucasian male who hails from a middle class community or family and has got education from an affluent suburban high school (Pittaro, 2007). Moreover, a typical high school shooter in the United States is a person who even has quite little or no history of aggressiveness or violent and ruthless behavior prior to the real shooting act. This perspective is what should be should be acknowledged and considered if the correct and accurate explanation for the high school shootings is to be established. It is quite different from the commonly held position on high school shootings explanation in criminology. Specifically, the collective behaviors as well as actions of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold represent the identified character and demeanor of many school shooters researched.
The chosen theory gives a reliable and valid psychosocial explanation of school violence, especially shooting. It explains actions of the typical school shooter (Pittaro, 2007). The social control theories are basically focused on the understanding of reasons for people’s obedience to laws. The social control theories establish why people adhere to the set rules within the society. Contrastingly, a lot of the other criminology theories simply approach this issue by getting concerned with the reasons that make people break the laws of the society (Hong, Cho, Allen-Meares & Espelage, 2011). According to a lot of the social control theorists, the delinquent behaviors are a result of the weakening of the bond of an individual to the social institutions like schools. Once a person’s bond to the social institution is weakened, he or she becomes vulnerable to temptations of delinquency.
Travis Hirschi’s social bond theory is the widely accepted among all the social control conceptual frameworks. This specific theory is based on the assumption that delinquency arises when the social bonds to the institutions like the school are completely broken. The argument of this particular theory is that juveniles are incapable of causing harm to an institution if there they feel a strong bond of affection and attachment to it (Pittaro, 2007). According to this theory, there are fur specific elements of social bond that is a factor in determining delinquency. These elements include attachment, belief, commitment and involvement. Hirschi observed that attachment is the most important of all the elements since it indicates sensitivity and empathy of a person to a particular institution (Hong, Cho, Allen-Meares & Espelage, 2011). Other commitments like commitment and belief follow attachment. They cannot exist without attachment.
The Columbine school shooting massacre case can be explained using this particular theory. It can be held that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold lost their bond to the high school. The two lost their attachment to this school hence did not have any empathy and compassion to it. They were willing to kill almost everybody in the school. They had lost their belief in the school laws and had no commitment to the rules, which governed this institution. This broken bond is what led them to become susceptible to the temptation of delinquency.
Discussion of the strengths and weaknesses
Strengths
The strengths of the social bond theory include the fact that it breaks from the fallacious approach taken by most other criminology theories. While all the other criminology theories approach the issue of delinquency by asking why people break the law, social bond theory is concerned with the reasons that make individuals to adhere to the rules of society and institutions. These reasons are attachment, belief, involvement and commitment. Therefore, this particular theory is highly reliable and credible. Moreover, the social bond theory addresses issues of conduct and actions common among all the American school shooters that have been studied. It is, thus, a theory that specifically addresses the population of juvenile criminals, which is involved in school shootings making it highly relevant in explaining the Columbine high school shooting incident.
Weaknesses
This theory has a number of notable weaknesses. The major weakness of this theory is that it disregards important factors, which in fact lead to the weakening or breakage of the social bond between the offender and others. This theory disregards factors such as the use and abuse of illicit drugs as a cause of school shooting crime. It also rejects poverty as another determinant of school shooting and other forms of delinquency. However, in real life, a lot of juveniles disassociate themselves from others because of the influence of drug abuse. The other theory that can fill this gap is positivism.
Conclusion
Delinquency involving school shootings by juveniles is an issue that can best be explained by the social bond theory. The perpetrators of the Columbine high school shooting massacre exhibited actions and behavior that is common to all researched typical school shooters. The major factors that led to this juvenile crime in the year 1999 were basically loss of attachment, belief, commitment and involvement with the school.
References
Hong, J. S., Cho, H., Allen-Meares, P., & Espelage, D. L. (2011). The social ecology of the Columbine High School shootings. Children and youth services review , 33 (6), 861-868.
Pittaro, M. L. (2007). School violence and social control theory: An evaluation of the Columbine massacre. International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences , 2 (1), 1-12.
