The book I read and reviewed was Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings by Katherine Newman. She is a respected professor at Harvard Universities Kennedy School of Government and Dean of Social Science at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study so she has the appropriate credentials to investigate the social roots of school shootings. However, Newman has very little knowledge about school violence causing some sociologists to fault her for failing to have the expertise to draw upon the more conventional sources in criminology. I don’t necessarily think this a problem because Newman is still able to argue that the bonds of tight-knit communities actually contribute to the problem, and explains how parents, teachers, and teenagers can
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education system still remains a soft target for violence with guns so easily becoming in the wrong persons hands. President Obama explains that, "It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun." Gun control advocates believe that stronger laws can prevent the needless loss of life such as the school shootings discussed in Rampage as well as the most current school shootings at an Oregon Community College that just recently happened in 2015 and a Washington School in 2014. The author’s overall purpose for the book is to put her years of training to good use and educate communities on what her research revealed about the organizational structure of schools, as well as taking a look at the dark side of small towns. For example, Newman tells how shooters choose schools as the site for a rampage because they are the heart and soul of public life in small towns. As the director of a new doctoral program in government, sociology, and social policy, Newman wanted to also use this opportunity to find news to demonstrate the programs commitment to scholarship in the public interest …show more content…
When reading Rampage, you get nothing less than a well researched, well written book that demonstrates the ways a community can come together to prevent plots and school shootings from occurring. As a social scientist, Newman explains how communication between students and administrators can potentially help avoid school shootings from occurring with the help of being able to ask the following questions: Why are shooters almost always white male? Why do most school shootings occur in rural areas? I personally enjoyed the way Newman presented an in-depth analysis of school mass shootings at Westside, Arkansas and Heath, Kentucky. She created an illustrative model of what she calls school rampage shootings as well as, consults data collected from several other similar tragedies. The range of topics discussed in Rampage were indeed adequate, and relevant making the book an overall, fascinating read. The style of the book is what I would consider to be a casual style of writing, as they told the stories of the tragedy that struck the two towns from a personal position. Newman did not use grammar or sentence structure that overwhelmed the reader and used a very organized, story-telling layout allowing the reader to follow along effortlessly and to stay
education system still remains a soft target for violence with guns so easily becoming in the wrong persons hands. President Obama explains that, "It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun." Gun control advocates believe that stronger laws can prevent the needless loss of life such as the school shootings discussed in Rampage as well as the most current school shootings at an Oregon Community College that just recently happened in 2015 and a Washington School in 2014. The author’s overall purpose for the book is to put her years of training to good use and educate communities on what her research revealed about the organizational structure of schools, as well as taking a look at the dark side of small towns. For example, Newman tells how shooters choose schools as the site for a rampage because they are the heart and soul of public life in small towns. As the director of a new doctoral program in government, sociology, and social policy, Newman wanted to also use this opportunity to find news to demonstrate the programs commitment to scholarship in the public interest …show more content…
When reading Rampage, you get nothing less than a well researched, well written book that demonstrates the ways a community can come together to prevent plots and school shootings from occurring. As a social scientist, Newman explains how communication between students and administrators can potentially help avoid school shootings from occurring with the help of being able to ask the following questions: Why are shooters almost always white male? Why do most school shootings occur in rural areas? I personally enjoyed the way Newman presented an in-depth analysis of school mass shootings at Westside, Arkansas and Heath, Kentucky. She created an illustrative model of what she calls school rampage shootings as well as, consults data collected from several other similar tragedies. The range of topics discussed in Rampage were indeed adequate, and relevant making the book an overall, fascinating read. The style of the book is what I would consider to be a casual style of writing, as they told the stories of the tragedy that struck the two towns from a personal position. Newman did not use grammar or sentence structure that overwhelmed the reader and used a very organized, story-telling layout allowing the reader to follow along effortlessly and to stay