Hedging words

Our analyses of cases of school violence since 1995 support the hypothesis that social rejection was involved in most cases of lethal school violence. Twelve of the cases involved an ongoing pattern of teasing, bullying, or ostracism, and at least six of the perpetrators had experienced a recent romantic rejection. In only two of the incidents did we find no clear evidence of rejection; Seth Trichey, who wounded four students in Ft. Gibson, OK, was an honor student that other students liked, his victims were randomly chosen, and he seemed unable to explain his actions. Even so, he did not appear remorseful (unlike, for example, the shooters in Fayetteville, TN, and Conyers, GA), which suggests either that he thought that the victims deserved their fate or that he was psychologically incapable of empathy. Victor Cordova, who killed a female student in Deming, NM, also had no history of rejection, but he had been deeply depressed for some time. These findings are consistent with those obtained by the U.S. Secret Service and reported in their Safe School Initiative. In their analysis of school shootings that have occurred in recent years, they found evidence for bullying, ostracism, and social rejection in over two-thirds of the cases [Vossekuil et al., 2000].
Several of the perpetrators explicitly explained their actions as a response to being mistreated by other students. For example, the perpetrator of the Pearl, Mississippi shooting said that he killed because ‘‘people like me are mistreated every day…. No one ever really cared about me’’ [Chua-eoan, 1997]. Similarly, one of the Jonesboro, Arkansas shooters had vowed to kill all of the girls who had broken up with him [Blake et al., 1998], and the Columbine killers’ rage appeared to come from their rejection and mistreatment by other people. Of course, a murderer’s stated reason for his behavior may reflect nothing more than a self-serving justification. However, independent evidence from other students and teachers corroborates the presence of rejection in most of the cases. It is also noteworthy that, to our knowledge, few of the perpetrators attributed their violent behavior to other equally plausible causes, such as disinterested parents, a broken home, child abuse, academic failure, or psychological problems.
Few individuals navigate their way through adolescence without being teased, bullied, or rejected in some manner, but the vast majority do not exact retribution on their classmates. Rejection may be frustrating, angering, even maddening [Buckley, unpublished data; Twenge et al., 2001], but it is rarely sufficient to provoke premeditated violence even if the victim feels like killing people. Thus, rejection alone, while a possible contributor, does not necessarily cause violence by itself. The information we collected regarding the three other risk factors offers hints regarding other contributors to school violence. In particular, most of the perpetrators displayed at least one of the other three risk factors (psychological problems, interest in guns or explosives, or fascination with death). Thus, we speculate that rejection, combined with one or more of these other factors puts an individual at higher risk to perpetrate aggression against peers.
First, a variety of psychological problems may be associated with an increased tendency for aggressive behavior. For example, certain personality disorders are characterized by aggressiveness, paranoia, low impulse control, lack of empathy for other people, and even sadistic behaviors, all of which may lower one’s threshold for violence [Millon, 1981]. Thus, some instances of school violence may reflect extreme manifestations of an ongoing pattern of antisocial and aggressive behavior. Many of the shooters had been in trouble previously for aggression against their peers, and two had allegedly abused animals. In addition, people who are depressed and perhaps suicidal may behave in desperate ways, feeling that they having nothing to lose by acting aggressively [Marano, 1998]. The Safe School Initiative report indicated that perpetrators in over three-fourths of the school shootings had either threatened or attempted suicide at some time in the recent past [Vossekuil et al., 2000].
Second, individuals who not only have access to guns but who are fascinated by firearms and explosives may be more likely to act on their aggressive impulses because they are comfortable dealing with instruments of destruction than those who are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with guns and explosives, who do not have the means to perpetrate violence with firearms and bombs. Experience with guns is by no means necessary, however; the perpetrator of the West Paducah, Kentucky shooting had apparently not fired a gun before his rampage.
Third, people who are fascinated by themes of death, and whose identity is linked to Gothic, Satanic, and other ‘‘dark’’ lifestyles may find the idea of carnage less revolting than most other people do. It remains unclear whether death-rock music and other aspects of popular culture that glorify death cause otherwise peaceful adolescents to be violent or whether individuals who are already inclined toward aggression are simply more interested in death-related music and activities.
Previous theory and research has not adequately addressed the question of why rejection sometimes leads to anger and an impulse to aggress. Thomas [1995] suggested that the painful feelings of shame that often result from rejection may provoke anger and aggression, much in the same way in which physical pain (such as slamming one’s own hand in a door) can make people angry. Other writers have suggested that aggression may result from a desire to show that one is not a person to be trifled with [Nisbett, 1993] or to maintain self-esteem and buttress one’s positive self-concept after an ego-threatening event [Baumeister et al., 1996]. Without discounting other explanations, we believe that the primary motive in most of the school shootings seems to have been retribution, either for an ongoing pattern of ostracism and teasing or for an acute rejection such as a romantic breakup. In fact, many of the cases were characterized by both an ongoing pattern of rejection and a specific rejection experience, suggesting that the recent rejection may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. At the same time, however, the evidence suggests that at least some of the perpetrators were seeking respect as well. After killing three and injuring five in West Paducah, KY, Michael Carneal was quoted as saying ‘‘People respect me now,’’ and the Columbine killers fantasized that they would be famous and that movie directors would fight over making a movie of their story [Gibbs and Roche, 1999].
Of course, like all case studies, this one is open to the criticism that the mode of data collection is necessarily selective and uncontrolled. In particular, the evidence that we obtained about the episodes from press reports may reflect reporters’ implicit theories about the link between rejection and aggression; we may have found evidence of such a relationship because writers in the mass media selectively reported evidence consistent with their implicit theories. We cannot discount this possibility but find it noteworthy than only a few of our sources drew an explicit connection between the rejection that the perpetrators had experienced and their subsequent violent behavior. In most cases, information regarding the perpetrator’s relationships with other students was mentioned only in the context of describing the kind of person he or she was. Only after the Columbine shootings in April of 1999 did many writers begin to explore the role than ostracism or rejection may have played.
Furthermore, like all case studies, ours necessarily lacks an appropriate control group. Although we can document that most of the perpetrators of these school shootings had been subjected to teasing, bullying, or other types of rejection, we do not know for certain whether they experienced an exceptionally high level of mistreatment compared to other children and adolescents. Given that roughly 75% of elementary and middle school students are occasionally bullied at school [Kass, 1999], the perpetrators of the school shootings were by no means unique. Even so, from reading descriptions of their peer relationships, our sense is that most of the shooters had experienced an unusually high amount of bullying or ostracism that was particularly relentless, humiliating, and cruel. Furthermore, when an individual has psychological difficulties, an affinity for guns and explosives, or a fascination with death and gore, such peer mistreatment may evoke a catastrophic reaction.