and the intrusion of illegal aliens into the social fabric. In addition, the economic conditions that prevail at the present time are blamed--D-Fens has lost his job in a defense plant because of layoffs. He has also been under considerable stress because of the breakup of his marriage. The traffic, the heat, and the stress he was already under have pushed him over the edge, and though the policeman who tries to arrest him sees him as a decent man, as indeed someone he himself might be had circumstances been different, the policeman has to shoot him because he will not surrender. D-Fens sees the world as changing too fast for him. He thinks all that he once held dear is either gone or no longer believed in, and he would, rather be dead.
Different theorists of criminal and aberrant behavior would ascribe different reasons to the behavior exhibited by D-Fens in this film. Two such approaches are psychoanalytic theory and social learning theory, each of which explains aggression as a developmental matter, but from very different perspectives. Freudian psychoanalytic theory refers to innate drives which come into conflict at different ages in the life cycle, and the way these conflicts are resolved in childhood determines how they are manifested in adult behavior. Social learning theory emphasizes learning and the achievement of a sense of self-efficacy in childhood. Aggression is not innate but learned in the latter view. Aggressive behavior itself generally develops in the latter view through observation of aggressive models and by direct experience. Aggressive styles of behavior are learned from the family, from observation of peer behavior, and from the observation of models in the mass media, such as television. The child learns aggression by observing it in others and then imitates that behavior in order to gain certain advantage or express certain feelings which are associated with such behavior. Social learning theory...