Response Paper #1 – Evan Ramsey Article
School shootings in our country has been happening much too often. One time is still one time too many. Going into a school and taking innocent lives of children or teachers is unacceptable. Something must be done to prevent school shootings from ever happening again. School should be a safe place to go, a place to learn, not a place to be afraid of. Evan Ramsey changed that when he went to his school in 1997, shot and killed 15-year-old Josh Palacios and Principal Ron Edwards.
When Evan Ramsey was interviewed, he told 60 Minutes Correspondent Carol Marin that “My main objective of going into the high school was to check out – to commit suicide,” Evan said “I really want to die.” What Evan did was brutal and unacceptable. The lingering questions are “why?”
According to our text, Evan’s behavior is best explained by two theories. The Psychoanalytic Theory and by the Social Control Theory. Evan lived in a life of torture. His father went to jail at the age of seven and his mother was an alcoholic, so Evan lived in a series of foster homes. In one of the foster homes Evan suffered from sexual abuse and humiliation. So Evan had some deep seated problems that were never addressed medically, so he likely developed an antisocial personality (Bohm, p. 71). Although, Evan initially went to the school to kill himself he killed two other people instead. Evan did apologize in court by saying “I’m sorry,” but I don’t believe that he was or that he initially wanted to kill himself. I don’t believe he had any remorse whatsoever for killing a fellow student and The Principal.
Under the social control theory, people are expected to commit crime, that is, unless they are properly socialized (Bohm, p. 81). Travis Hirschi argued that delinquency should be expected if a juvenile is not properly socialized. Proper socialization involves the establishment of a strong moral bond between the juvenile and society. Thus, delinquent behavior is...