Final Summary/Reaction

Because of the mass shooting in Connecticut and the recent debate on gun control, in my PowerPoint I also included information about gun control vs. gun ban and my opinion on it.  I was also surprised by my research of the three mass murder cases and  that all three of the men had evident problems and yet they were not given the help they needed and they were still able to legally obtain guns. I don't know what the answer is in how to fix the problem with guns, but I don't think that banning certain weapons would help. I do feel however, that there is not enough done for the people who have mental illness and drug addictions and that enforcement of the gun laws already in place would help with the control of guns for the meantime will they figure out a better way to do it.

Further Summary/Plan/Update

Since my last post I haven't done much. Next week I plan on looking into each of the three cases, 1984 McDonald's Masacre, 1991 Luby's Cafeteria Masacre, and this summers Batman Shooting. I predict that all three of these unsubs will have some type of mental illness or something that happened in there life that triggered them to become violent and kill so many people.

Research Update

I have started researching three different cases that I would like to further investigate. I plan on doing a case study from three different decades, the 1980's, 1990's and 2000's, to see if there is a change from then till now in triggers and what causes an unsub to act out. Also in my research, I learned that a direct cause in closing down mental institutions throughout the 1960s-1970s was a spike in the violent crime rate.

My plan for this Semester

For this semester, I plan on trying to figure out what is going on in the unsub's head and what causes them to commit a murder. I will be conducting three case studies, focusing on the unsub and any sociological and psychological problems or disorders that may contribute to them acting out. When watching shows about crime their is usually a disorder or problem that caused them to commit a crime whether it is something like their spouse died or they have something psychological going on that has developed from something that happened to them as a child.

My Focus This Semester

For first marking period I mainly focused on murder/homicide, because I find it interesting.
For this marking period I will  be focusing further on the crime rate related to murder
throughout the past fifty years. I also would like to do archival research to better understand
what is going through an unsub's head.

Murdered for her bike.

This week, I'm sure you all heard of the Autumn Pasquale Murder. A boy, Justin Robinson, invited Autumn to his house to see her bike. The boy and his older brother then stole the bike and killed her. While the Police were still trying to identify the killer, Justin had a passing interest in the case. He attended a candle light vigil, liked a facebook page dedicated to Autumn and wrote on Autumn's older brother's timeline. After investigating the police identified Justin and his older brother as the killers.  I found it interesting that Justin went to the candle vigil and was so involved in the case on facebook. Facebook is what led the police to identify Justin and hi brother of the murder.  Days before Autumn disappeared Justin was talking to her on facebook asking to see her bike. I don't understand why someone would kill someone over a bike. But i do see that he was involved in the case after the murder, whether it was to try and show interest or whether he felt remorse. What do you think????

Deviant Behavior: Willingly Being Whipped

One of the deviant behaviors that I watched, that really stood out to me, was the whipping of women in Ethiopia.  These women would willingly be whipped by the stickman, in order for their cousin or brother to become a man. The women would taught the stickman and encourage him to whip them.  Which may seem unusual to us, because in our culture being whipped or hurt by a man, would usually put that man in jail and have him accused of a crime.  The scars from this whipping can be to the Ethiopian women as both a reminder of strength and is something to show pride in which is a positive sanction, or it can be a reminder of their brother’s failure and is something that brings shame which is a negative sanction.  The more scars the women have, shows the more strength and is a symbol of beauty.  This is very different from our culture and what is socially acceptable.  Here in the US if a woman has scars, she may try to hide them or fix them with plastic surgery, because it isn’t acceptable.  Having an even skin tone and perfect skin is what is socially acceptable here in the US.  So these women in Ethiopia, willingly be whipped and have these permanent scars to us maybe taboo, but in their culture it is what makes them beautiful and shows their strength. Because of ethnocentrism, watching this, to me, was worse than watching the other two deviant behaviors, because in the US those behaviors are things we may see when we walk through the mall or are at a baseball game, but being whipped, I see as a punishment, not something you do willingly and would give you strength and pride.