Help needed for sociology class (all may participate)?

Question

It has happened again—a high school student brought a gun to school and killed a dozen classmates as well as two teachers. It’s the fourth time in the past couple of months that such a tragedy has occurred in this country. People shake their heads and wonder how such things can happen—what’s wrong with those kids? Given what you learned from C. W. Mills’ account of the sociological imagination, what sorts of questions would a sociologist ask to gain an understanding of the phenomenon of school killings? Describe the kinds of questions that, according to C.W. Mills, sociologists must ask if they are to complete this type of intellectual journeys.

Answer 1

I don't know who mills is, but here's what i've got:

-People's actions are determined by their habits, views, etc.

-People's habits, views, etc. are made, unmade, and remade

by a combination of concious thought and the environment.

This cycle continues throughout a person's life until death. If the environment encourages a behavior or thought pattern, whether through positive or negative feedback, that behavior will become part of that person. In the case of these tragic events, the environment, in my opinion the family life, of these individuals was detrimental to their behaviors, habits, thought patterns, etc.

Answer 2

I think you would have to approach this question from not only  a sociological standpoint but a psychological one, as well, since the people who commit crimes like that are quite often seriously mentally disturbed.  (Many times they have a history of documented mental illness, psychiatric care, or trouble at home, at school, etc.)  Many seem to have been released to soon from psychiatric treatment or hospitals, or taken off anti-psychotic meds, or were troubled and people knew but did nothing to intervene.  Why does this happen? Well if you look at this from a sociological approach,  I think the failure could be many things:  the health care system (lack of affordable care for all, including affordable mental health care, and HMO's that make getting care a multi-step bureaocratic process), the laws (some psychiatric releases are mandated even though a psychiatrist may not want to release the person, by law in some cases, they have to), and there also seems to be a lack of community support and intervention.  We live in a society that protects the rights of the individual (particularly when it comes to freedom) and we place more value, it seems, on that than the protection of the group (society) as a whole.  If you're interested, read "Evil:  Inside Human Violence and Cruelty" by Roy Baumeister.  He does a fascinating job discussing sociological phenomena mixed with psychological phenomena to explain why tragedies like this occur.  There are so many ways you could attempt to look at this problem...so many issues that probably play a part.  You've chosen a very interesting topic!  Good luck!

Edit:  Questions you could ask if you were using your sociological imagination:  Are individual rights and freedoms being valued more than the protection and well being of society as a whole?  Is the health care system to blame for any part of this (inadequate treatment, HMO's?)  Are our laws (political institutions) creating situations where people who are a danger to society being allowed to roam free?  Are there adequate support systems in place for people released from psychiatric hospitals (rehabilitation)?  Is our society truly aware (educated) on the warning signs of a seriously disturbed individual?  Are we doing enough to intervene when we do recognize there's a problem?

Answer 3

I think a lot of these incidents influence others because the media drawing attention to it.

Answer 4

C. Wright Mills argued that the sociological imagination was the to be found at the intersection between biography and history.  Thus, you begin by asking structural questions: what does the U.S. society look like (i.e., kinship rules; political system)?  How did it become this (i.e., what is its history)?  What is its relationship to the rest of the world?  Then, you ask questions about the shooter's life?  And, how does he fit in to the general social structure?

Answer 5

I don't know the author but common sense would tell you that as children are raised by babysitters and grow up unloved, they become killers!