Behind things like the recent massacre at a Texas school, there are often people who feel they have been treated unfairly at some point in their lives.
Knowing the psychological profile of a person capable of committing a crime as heinous as that which took place on May 23 in the state of Texas, USA, is essential to understanding the reasons why a young person of just 18 year can get up on a normal day, like any other, pick up the weapons he has acquired with total impunity and go to a school and take the lives of 21 people, including students and teachers, and injure another 15.
Important is the detail that, according to the local authorities, before leaving his home, the test subject has an argument with his grandmother, which ends with a shot in the head. He leaves the woman seriously injured and does not ask for help for her at any time. Thus begins the day of Carlos Ramos who, after this incident, decides to take to the streets, take his truck and drive until he reaches the educational center. At that moment, Carlos gets out of the vehicle, jumps over the fence of the school center and starts shooting indiscriminately.
Is it possible that the subject had not consciously decided what to do prior to the incident at his home? Is it possible that the choice of place was due to a coincidence that can only be explained because the vehicle stopped right in front of the school? And the most important question: could it have been prevented?
It is difficult to understand that a young man who has adapted to society, with no known criminal record, at least so far, has been involved in this tragic event that apparently has no explanation. As far as is known, he had no relationship with the center or with any of the students and faculty other than belonging to the same community.
Without getting into topics that could only harm everyone involved, it seems hard to believe that family members, friends, or close people didn’t notice a red flag indicating that something was wrong. A complicated childhood with a lack of brotherly love, emotional distance from people in their immediate environment, lack of empathy, early violence with other children or even with small animals, low levels of assertiveness, difficulties in socializing and interacting with others are some of them. the traits that can define a psychopathic profile consistent with a murderer.
However, this is just a brief example of the signs that can occur without the person showing any mental pathology. What seems common in these cases is that the person who commits such atrocity has the feeling or perception that he has been treated unfairly by a person or a group of people at some point.
But none of this can explain what has happened, nor the increase in mass murders in schools and other public places that have taken place in the US in recent years. It can be argued that an important reason is easy access to weapons in a country where the number of firearms far exceeds that of the citizens and where it is only necessary to be of age to be able to acquire any type of weapon with peace of mind and without any psychological requirement.
It is true that these events do not usually occur with the same frequency and ferocity in other parts of the world. Therefore, it seems logical to think that in this sense an adjustment of the laws is needed and greater control of the risks associated with gun ownership from such a young age.
On the other hand, the quick access to information may be a reason that while it cannot explain the origin of the original idea of killing other people, it may explain why a person with such a thought finds a way to kill other people. wear it and feel comforted by being able to share what you feel with other people of similar ideology. It therefore seems likely that this increase in homicidal raids has been amplified by the possibility of imitation and by greater exposure to these examples in various forums.
Young people have instant access to information shared on social networks, data and content from virtually everything is shared in real time, and violence becomes a normalized way of dealing with a problem when the profiles on social networks of these subjects visit and interact increase when situations like this are published and commented on. Morbidity is encouraged, the curiosity to be part of something that is outside the norms of society. And the images, videos, and comments are going viral, going around the world in minutes. All this stimulates and motivates these people who are desperately trying to excel, who need the attention of others.
We can and must find an explanation for these attacks, trying to identify cognitive and behavioral patterns that allow us to prevent them from happening too often and too cruelly. However, it is not easy to find guidelines for action that are effective in all cases, because every person is different. In any case, a specific event can act as a trigger for behavior that has never happened before.
This article was published in The conversation
Source: La Verdad
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