Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia, and Violence Random School Shootings, 1982-2001

Since 1982, there have been 28 cases of random school shootings in American high schools and middle schools. The authors find (a) that the shootings were not a national problem but a series of local problems that occurred in “red states” or counties (places that voted Republican in the 2000 election...

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Published inThe American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills) Vol. 46; no. 10; pp. 1439 - 1458
Main Authors Kimmel, Michael S., Mahler, Matthew
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Thousand Oaks SAGE Publications 01.06.2003
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Academic achievement
Adolescence
Adolescents
African Americans
Boys
Bullying
Child development
Childhood
Children & youth
Computer & video games
Counties
Criminal investigations
Criminal statistics
Families & family life
Fear & phobias
Firearms
Fires
Gays & lesbians
Gender
Homophobia
Human behaviour
Internet
Males
Masculinity
Middle schools
Mothers
Parents & parenting
Resilience
School violence
Schools
Secondary schools
Shootings
Social construction
Social research
Students
Surgeons General
Teenagers
Verbal aggression
Violence
Weather
United States > US
school shootings
adolescence
masculinity
homophobia
violence
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Summary:Since 1982, there have been 28 cases of random school shootings in American high schools and middle schools. The authors find (a) that the shootings were not a national problem but a series of local problems that occurred in “red states” or counties (places that voted Republican in the 2000 election); (b) that most of the boys who opened fire were mercilessly and routinely teased and bullied and that their violence was retaliatory against the threats to manhood; (c) that White boys in particular might be more likely than African American boys to randomly open fire; and (d) that the specific content of the teasing and bullying is homophobia. A link between adolescent masculinity, homophobia, and violence is proposed. Finally, the authors offer a few possible explanations as to how most boys who are teased and bullied achieve the psychological resilience that enables them to weather adolescence without recourse to random school violence.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0002-7642
1552-3381
DOI:10.1177/0002764203046010010