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The Nature-Nurture Problem in Violence

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International Handbook of Violence Research

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Abstract

In recent years we have witnessed, through the media, several American middle-class, white school children from apparently good families open gunfire on their teachers, classmates, and parents, killing and seriously wounding them in astounding numbers (see Males, 1999). In at least two different cases, the young killers did not fit the stereotypical mold of underprivileged, neglected and unsupervised individuals. In the Columbine High School shooting (April 1999) in which twelve students and one teacher were killed, the White teenage assailants, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, were from middle-class suburban homes. In Springfield, Oregon (May 1998), 15 year old Kipland Kinkel’s parents were school teachers described as model parents, trying to do everything in their power to steer their young son away from his obsession with firearms. What may have begun as rebellious adolescent behavior turned into a shooting spree in which Kip shot nine of his classmates and killed his own parents.

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  1. Laura Baker
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Wilhelm Heitmeyer John Hagan

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Baker, L. (2003). The Nature-Nurture Problem in Violence. In: Heitmeyer, W., Hagan, J. (eds) International Handbook of Violence Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48039-3_30

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48039-3_30

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