Kip Kinkel: Examination of a Teen Killer

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Kip Kinkel: Examination of a Teen Killer This essay discusses the reason why a fourteen year old male would want to kill. There are many Psychological, Sociological, and Anthropological reasons as to why he would. With Kip Kinkel’s shocking behaviour and actions, psychologists are trying to look at the facts and figure out what was going on in Kinkel’s head at the time of the shooting and previously. Kinkel had a history of psychological problems. He had anger management issues at home, school and elsewhere because of his relationship between him and his father. He had learning problems at school, according to Dr. Jeffery Hicks, he suffered from dyslexia. He heard voices and was “fascinated with tourting small animals”. At one point he was prescribed Prozac but this was not proper medicine for him because it was not strong enough and they took him off it thinking that he was getting better but he clearly did not. He had issues and sadly they were not identified in time to prevent the tragedy that later occurred. Kip Kinkel was troubled in many ways socially, sociologists are trying to pinpoint why he hung out with the “bad crowd” and the influences it had on Kinkel. Kinkel struggled academically and was not social with the students at his school. Even though he had friends, he felt isolated. The Social Learning Theory by Albert Bandura states that because of the crowd he hung out with, he was influenced to be bad. He learnt that school shootings are normal and exciting. His friends would watch old school shooting videos and they would examine them. He was also influenced by his friends to throw rocks off the highway. Kip Kinkel shared some characteristics from other mass murders. Most mass murders feel disconnected from their family. Kinkel didn’t feel like he was accepted in his family because even though his mother loved him, he didn’t get that same

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