l solidarity, the members are likely to conform to shared norms and values, but in a society with weak bonds among the members, people are more likely to deviate” (Robertson, 1987, 197). In other words, the more people are integrated into their community, the less likely they are to deviate from its norms and follow its general rules of behavior and conduct.
Nothing could so swiftly and appropriately describe the situation of a recent pair of mass murderers at Columbine High School in Colorado, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. They were social outcasts at school (revenge was given as a motive because they had been made fun of by other students), and they were social outcasts because of their manner of dress and their Hitler-loving ideology. In a high school society that lavishes attention and perks on jocks, cheerleaders and high achievers, Harris and Klebold did not fit into the values or norms of that community. Further, they decided to make their own values and norms because of feeling the established ones were unjust, “They apparently hatched their deadly plan shortly after four popular athletes and another student from Columbine High School were arrested for felony burglary but later were let go with merely a slap on their wrist. This preferential treatment outraged the gunmen and, unlike their choice of music, movies or love for black trench coats, might have led to the massacre” (Hit List, 1999, 6).
There is a profile for a mass murderer, something less difficult for psychologists to do than serial murderers whose profile is often much more complex. The typical mass murderer is “male, white, conservative and come from relatively stable, lower-middle-class backgrounds” (Hit List, 1999, 1). There are also different kinds of individual mass murderers. The disgruntled worker mass murderer (comparable to Harris and Klebold as disgruntled students) is a common social phenomenon of recent times. Perhaps the Uni...