Introduction: James Holmes One of the most infamous mass shootings that has recently taken place occurred in a town by the name of Aurora, Colorado. James Holmes, openly fired in this small-town theatre, causing a vast amount of innocent people to lose their life or sustain severe injuries. At the time, no one could conclude why this man committed such a horrific act on innocent civilians, but after an in-depth research doctors declared this man to be schizophrenic. Although his mental illness does not justify the crime James had committed, it provides insight onto why he targeted these civilians. Schizophrenia can cause a multitude of symptoms, but a primary one is social disorders. Background: James Holmes James Eagan Holmes was born on December 13, 1987 in San Diego, California. Throughout much of his youth he …show more content…
The authority figures within his life began to notice that he was beginning to separate from the other kids at school, but because his symptoms were so slight, that his family did take further measures to diagnose it. He still lived a somewhat normal lifestyle, just experienced slight social hindrances. Eventually, he graduated from a high school in California, and later furthered his education to the University of California where he intriguingly earned a degree in neuroscience. After the finished his undergraduate degree, he applied to University of Colorado to complete graduate school. This is explanatory onto how he arrived in Denver, Colorado which is the city that was located only a few miles away from where the mass shooting took place. While on campus, he began to see a psychiatrist regularly, where she diagnosed James as a schizophrenic. He discontinued these constant visits after withdrawing from this university shortly after admittance. One month after his withdrawal, a mass shooting took place at a local movie theatre,
Media. The main means of mass communication regarded collectively. It comes in the form of t.v., radio, newspapers, magazines etc. The media has a way of portraying a story in a way that they want it to be seen by audiences. In other words, the media only tells us only what they want us to hear; which, may or may not be the truth or include the entire story. The media is always looking for the next best story and the competition to be the first one on the scene can be intense. A documentary by 9.14 Productions tells the story of a man and his art collection; The Barnes Foundation.
Serpico (1973) is a movie that reveals the true story of Frank Serpico who was the only honest cop in the New York police sector at his time. The film shows the realistic view of the corruption that was evidenced in the New York police and highlights the character of Frank as being honest and courageous. Although he started as an inexperienced cop, he later worked as an undercover officer and was determined to bust all the criminal activities especially the drug dealers and pushers. Unlike the other cops, Serpico refused to take any bribes from the wrongdoers. More so, he felt that the other officers were doing wrong by accepting bribes and wanted to expose the situation. The other officers were so corrupt that they collected more money through bribes than the salary they earned, a situation that did not please Serpico. His strong stand concerning corruption made his friends turn against him, placing his life in danger. The anti-corruption efforts of Serpico jeopardized his life at the hands of his colleagues. He was later transferred to the Narcotics Squad where he was shot by a drug dealer after his partners betrayed him by failing to support him. The cop was then rushed to hospital. The shooting made Frank deaf since it affected the brain, rendering
About four paragraphs into Medred’s article entitled, “A death in Oregon sparks another look ‘Into the Wild’”, the word “schizophrenia” is brought up for the first time. Keep in mind, this isn’t the first time that Medred has accused Chris McCandless of being a schizophrenic – see also his article, “The beatification of Chris McCandless: From thieving poacher to saint”. In addition to every time Medred claims that McCandless is a schizophrenic, he occasionally brings up the fact that he may have had narcissistic personality disorder, or that perhaps he was
James Eagan Holmes was described as a quiet, standoffish, 24-year-old graduate student from San Diego who had earned a bachelor's degree in neuroscience in 2010 from the University of California, Riverside. Holmes then enrolled at the University of Colorado in June of 2011, taking graduate courses in neuroscience at the university's campus in Denver. He later dropped out of a doctoral program at the University's medical school, where he had been doing research.
Holmes and Holmes developed this typology based on various characteristics of the crime scenes and the victims themselves of 110 interviews of selected offenders and serial murders (Canter & Wentink, 2004). David Canter and Natalia Wentink conducted an empirical test of this typology and developed several criticisms to their work. Their empirical test concluded that the features described for each category tend to co-occur within each other. For example, the characteristics of a lust killer include a controlled crime scene, evidence of torture, the body being moved, a specific type of victim, no weapon left at the crime scene, and rape; all of these features are also included for the thrill killer. This makes it difficult to categorize these
On the morning of October 1, 2015, emergency responders went to Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon to a horrific scene. A 26-year-old man, whom will remain nameless due to the senseless act of violence he committed, opened fire at Umpqua Community College killing nine people and wounding another seven. The casualties of this heinous crimes were not all college aged students, “Those killed are Lucero Alcaraz, 19; Treven Taylor Anspach, 20; Rebecka Ann Carnes, 18; Quinn Glen Cooper, 18; Kim Saltmarsh Dietz, 59; Lucas Eibel, 18; Jason Dale Johnson, 34; Lawrence Levine, 67; and Sarena Dawn Moore, 44” (CNN). Police say he had three weapons on him at the school shooting two of which were handguns and the third being a “long gun”. The shooter was in the Army for one month before being, “discharged for failing to meet the minimum administrative standards” (CNN). The shooter easily obtained access to Umpqua because he was enrolled in a few courses. The shooter suffered from mental health issues and had sought treatment but not before committing such a heinous act of violence.
The United States will not soon forget the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut that came just two weeks before Christmas last year. This tragic event resulted in the death of twenty students and eight adults. Although the event shocked the nation, rampage shootings are nothing new. Over the years, many families have lost loved ones to these horrific events. As a result, these mass shootings such as the one that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary caught public attention leading to a push to find the cause of these events. Out of this research a variety of possible causes came to light consisting of arguments stating that high school bullying, availability of guns, mental illness, violent movies and video games are the cause of mass shootings. However, these researchers and debaters tend to ignore the role of massive media coverage in the increase of copycat shootings in the United States.
As the world recovers from recent school shootings, people wondered why these events have occurred. They are focused on drug use, violent society, video games, bullying, and mental issues to try and explain an unexplainable event. The idea that a person would shoot others for little or no reason gave little relief to the survivors.
Although no one can be entirely sure what motivates teens to commit mass shootings, there are theories that must be examined to develop solutions. One theory states that there are ten factors that contribute to the likelihood of a teen committing murder. These factors include an unstable home life, being bullied at school, obsession with violent entertainment, being suicidal, involvement with drugs or alcohol, involvement with gangs or cults, and mental illness. Usually at least four of these qualities are present in homicidal teens (Khadaroo). While many of these causes stem from home lif...
They suggested that not only mental illness but other factors such as social relationships, firearm access during emotional moments etc also lead to gun violence. However, they failed to cite this with strong facts, numbers etc. Reports suggest that up to 60% of executioners of mass shootings in the United States since 1970 displayed symptoms including acute paranoia, delusions, and depression before committing their crimes[4,5]. In another article “Rates of Household Firearm Ownership and Homicide Across US Regions and States, 1988–1997”[6], the authors emphasized on the “association between rates of household firearm ownership and homicide across the United States, by age group”. In this analysis, they failed to take gender, mental health and other factors into consideration which helps more to analyze that which type of people (mentally ill) and/ or which gender are doing these cruel
Over the past years media has been overwhelmed with news about mass shootings happening around America and if mental illness is the primary cause of the violent act. On February 2014, Jonathan M. Metzl and Kenneth T. MacLeish published their article “Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of American Firearms” in the American Journal of Public Health that addresses the issue that mental illness has very little to do mass shootings which is commonly used on the aftermath of the shooting
It was packed with batman fans, some were in costumes. This was the opening of the movie in the theaters. Holmes entered the movie theater, then left out the rear exit and re-entered with his weapons. He tossed a canister before shooting theater up. Movie-goers panicked as Holmes shot at random while walking up the theater stairs. One victim stated, " it was a scene straight out of a horror movie." He also stated that Holmes, " was just literally shooting everyone, like it was hunting season." Holmes decided to go to a movie theater with innocent civilians and shoot it up. He didn't have to do this. He could've chose to live his life to the fullest and enjoy it. He wanted to take the lives of others and this decision ruined his life. He was just twenty-four when he did this he had a full life to look forward to. Now he will spend the rest of his life in prison. I chose this article, because this man clearly had a problem that needed to be pointed out. This shows how much our thoughts can affect our decisions. My theory is the positivist: psychological theory, which are mental problems, psychological determination, or criminal personality. This is a problem of mental health, because he thought he was a character who didn't actually exist. He felt like he was the joker, this is why he did this crime. He didn't have a motive, because of the joker. The joker is a psychotic character in batman comics. He has no reasons for committing crimes. He do it, because it is fun to him. He just wants to see the world burn. Holmes related to this character. He felt the same way as the joker. This is why he felt he was the joker reincarnated. This is why he did the crimes , because he felt he wasn't him anymore. He was only the joker, so he did what the joker would do. He caused anarchy, pain, and suffering at a place where people and families were trying to enjoy
The Tucson shooting occurred when a 22-year-old college drop out named Jared Loughner decided to go on a killing spree on January 8, 2011. His main goal was to kill a representative named Gabrielle Giffords at her meet and greet event in Tucson, Arizona. Loughner managed to shoot her in the head at a close range, but did not kill her. However, Giffords’ condition was “critical.” Although he did not reach his goal, “Jared injured thirteen people and killed six others which included a Chief Judge and Christina Green, a nine-year old girl”(“Arizona Shooting”). Many wonder why this shooting occurred and how it could have been prevented. Some people argue that Jared’s dangerous behavior was a sign of mental illness that was not attended to. In that case, spotting characteristics like Jared’s can be obvious if early signs of insanity are noticed and correct action is taken.
Fifty years ago, a person breaking the law would either be called crazy or a criminal. Today, the mental health community has much more specific diagnoses. However, the explanation of certain behaviors may be difficult because there is much overlap among mental conditions. In Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, the protagonist, Patrick Bateman, is apparently simply a psychopath. However, Bateman can be diagnosed with other mental illnesses such as Asperger’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, narcissism, and antisocial personality disorder. In both the book and film adaptation, Bateman’s actions can be understood more accurately when analyzed in light of modern psychology.
Contrary to the movie industry’s portrayal of psychopaths, rarely do psychopaths come out in the open and kill their victims with chainsaws or wear disturbing masks. Nor do they act menacing or evil out in public. Rather, most psychopaths attempt to blend into society. A psychopath can be defined as one who uses superficial charm and manipulation to achieve his or her goals, even if it involves committing crimes. They can act quickly and feel neither remorse for committing the crime nor empathy for their unsuspecting victim. As much as they attempt to blend in, psychopaths are unable to fully function in society because they lack some qualities of a “normal” person. In the medical field, psychopathy is not recognized as a disorder. In fact, Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary defines psychopathy as an “obsolete term” (Venes and Taber 1372). In an effort to define psychopathy, multiple psychiatrists attempted to describe i...