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Crime and Victimization

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Crime and Victimization
Crime and Victimization
Denise M Shaffer
Strayer

In our scenario, Dr. O’Donnell touched on the psychodynamic theory of crime. This theory suggests that a person commits a crime because of an unbalanced or antisocial personality. These offenders may have also been bulled or abused as children which may have led to their instability. An example of this theory is the case of Adam Lanza. On December 14, 2012, Mr. Lanza entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct and opened fire on the school. He shot and killed twenty children and six adults before turning the gun on himself. According to investigative reports, Mr. Lanza was shy as a young pre-teen and then developed into a mentally unstable adult who was a virtual recluse and had an obsession with mass murder and war. Although Mr. Lanza was taken out of public school at 16 and homeschooled by his mother, there was nothing to suspect he would later commit such a horrible act. There was no indication of a motive and because Mr. Lanza took his own life we will never know why. There are some indications he had an obsession with mass murder and collected numerous paper clippings and stories of these crimes especially the Columbine High School shooting, however, there were no indications of abuse. This leads us to believe that a mental or personality disorder may have been at play. Unfortunately, crime is everywhere around us. In my own metropolitan area there was recently a horrible event. On January 26 Darion Aguilar arrived at Columbia Mall in Columbia, Md. He hung around the mall for a short while before assembling a shotgun in a back room then opening fire at a retail store killing two people then himself. Howard County Police department were called and investigated the incident. They found that Mr. Aguilar had no criminal record and legally purchased the gun he used about a month before the incident. Because this was an event that took place



References: Information retrieved from: www.cnn.com/2013/11/25/justice www.wjla.com/articles/2014/01 www.washingtonpost.com/politics/SandyHook

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