Social Reaction Theory: Richard Harris And The Columbine Massacre

The Psychological theory says that behavior is a result of deep-seeded issues that are capable of surfacing at any time. Harris suffered with anger management problems. Even though this issue surfaced many times and doctors had prescribed him antidepressant medication, this anger issue clearly surfaced to an extreme level during the planning and execution of the Columbine massacre. These medications play a significant psychological role in Harris’ mind with unknown side effects of the time of suicidal thoughts and increased violence. The doctors prescribed a disaster for a child struggling with anger problems by increasing his violent behaviors and decreasing self-worth. Despite the psychological toll the medications had on Harris, he also …show more content…
These adult figures recognized that he was absorbing the “outsider” lifestyle by changing his wardrobe to match the Trench Coat Mafia. Although how children dress does not automatically make them a troublemaker or a rebel in a society, it clearly showed their ideas about the “jock style” of the rest of the high school. Not a fan. According to the Social Reaction Theory, when kids are labeled they tend to do one of two things; they either accept the label or rebel against it. In Harris’ case, he fully embraced the labels set upon him, including troublemaker and outsider. From a medical view, Harris was also labeled depressed and angry. Harris became his own self-fulfilling prophesy, and lived up to every label until the day he died in the Columbine …show more content…
The social structure theory revolves around a person’s economic standings and attributes crime to kids growing up in poverty and poor community conditions, racial inequality, and exposure to violence. The Harris family, although probably not the wealthiest family in their community, was capable of buying a house and moving from place to place with the military. They were by no means “stuck” in their environment with little hope of leaving as the Social Structure Theory would propose as a poverty condition. Along with the Social Structure Theory, the Biological Theory seems equally unfitting to this situation. This theory traces criminal behavior back to genetics and nature over nurture, but neither of Harris’ parents were criminals or school shooters which makes this theory hard to pin on Harris and his actions or anger. The Life-Course Theory says that people develop through experiences. Of these experiences, Harris only reached three out of the eight life events including formative years, initial peer exposure, and entering adolescence. The next event would have been graduation. Harris did experience arguable the three most important events for his brain development, but it is hard to use this theory to explain the school shooting when he did not experience the full