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James Holmes 's Theory Of Social Control Essay

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James Eagan Holmes was born December 13, 1987. Holmes is now identified as a mass murder after murdering 12 people and wounding 70 in a shooting that took place at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. Heterotypic continuity best described James Holmes behavior throughout his life. His underlying developmental process impairment stayed the same, but the way he acted them out drastically changed leading to the mass shooting. This impairment being James’ antisocial behavior. I would look at James Holmes through Sampson and Laub’s age-graded theory of social control. The three components of this theory are that structural context is intervened by informal family and school social controls, there is a continuity in antisocial behavior from childhood through adulthood, and that informal social bonds to family and employment during adulthood explain changes in criminality over the life span (Laub and Sampson 1993: 7). Although his environment was a positive one, he was also born inheriting many of his family’s traits. Some traits he received from his father were quietness, being an analytical and an academic overachiever and eventually social awkwardness. He inherited his impassiveness from his mother. Another trait passed down was mental illness which also is seen in close relatives of Holmes. During the time of the shooting, Holmes was using two psychiatric drugs. It is stated in the book that “Drugs distort individual’s thoughts, which enhances irrational

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