Medicalization and American High School Shootings
Presentation Abstract
Modern discussions regarding the aftermath of American high school massacres are typically oversimplified, as they largely depict school shooting perpetrators as victims of bullying and mental illness. Although academic work concerning the characterized shared traits among adolescent perpetrators exists, studies often exclusively concentrate on the psychological assessments of school shooters. In accordance with the medicalization of deviance paradigm, the medicalization of American high school massacres is researched, as to whether social perception reinforces a constructed cultural narrative that medically protects the criminally deviant behavior of high school shooting perpetrators. Recruited through their enrollment in sociology courses at a southern predominately white university, 57 undergraduates completed an online survey, which examined the general public’s labeling of white criminality. The hypothesis adopted for this study posits that the interaction between gender and race obscures the social perception of American high school shootings and their contributory bases. Findings confirm that male respondents are much more likely than female participants to promote mental illness as a rationale for the occurrence of high school shootings and reject race-related causes. Nonwhite respondents are much more likely than white participants to promote race as a credible rationale for the occurrence of high school shootings. The findings have implications for academics as they research the underlying social factors in American high school massacres with a revitalized sociological discourse of deviance. Keywords: school shootings, medicalization, social perception.
Medicalization and American High School Shootings
Modern discussions regarding the aftermath of American high school massacres are typically oversimplified, as they largely depict school shooting perpetrators as victims of bullying and mental illness. Although academic work concerning the characterized shared traits among adolescent perpetrators exists, studies often exclusively concentrate on the psychological assessments of school shooters. In accordance with the medicalization of deviance paradigm, the medicalization of American high school massacres is researched, as to whether social perception reinforces a constructed cultural narrative that medically protects the criminally deviant behavior of high school shooting perpetrators. Recruited through their enrollment in sociology courses at a southern predominately white university, 57 undergraduates completed an online survey, which examined the general public’s labeling of white criminality. The hypothesis adopted for this study posits that the interaction between gender and race obscures the social perception of American high school shootings and their contributory bases. Findings confirm that male respondents are much more likely than female participants to promote mental illness as a rationale for the occurrence of high school shootings and reject race-related causes. Nonwhite respondents are much more likely than white participants to promote race as a credible rationale for the occurrence of high school shootings. The findings have implications for academics as they research the underlying social factors in American high school massacres with a revitalized sociological discourse of deviance. Keywords: school shootings, medicalization, social perception.