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Crime and Crime Theories
The recent shooting person at the Fort Hood military base in Texas is a criminal act that shocked the public and colleague of the perpetrator alike (Garza, 2014). According to Ford (2014), an army specialist Ivan Lopez opened fire aimlessly at people including his colleagues at the military base and left four people dead including him. The 34 year soldier had earlier purchased the gun he used to commit the rare criminal act at a gun shop near the military base. According to the investigations done, there was no motive that was discovered for the shooting that also left sixteen other people nursing injuries of various magnitudes (Ford, 2014).
By applying the strain theory, the crime at Fort Hood can be explained by exploring the motives of the soldier. As argued by (Hagan, 2014) the soldier may have committed the crime against his colleagues out of the need to gain some recognition. The recognition that the soldier was seeking may not be clearly explained from the perspective of the public eye but a view of the soldier’s life can expose his thoughts. He had served for over ten years and had no history of crime. This explains that he might have sought for recognition through the criminal act of shooting people aimlessly; a crime he knew very well of its consequences.
Social control theory also sheds more light to this crime, especially on the side of the government’s and society’s responsibility for arms control. The social control theory argues that people commit crimes when there are no controls placed by the society against the occurrence of such incidences (Marsh, 2007). Through the arguments of the social control theory, the crime portrays the importance of gun control and regulation over the sale of the contentious tool.
References
Garza, L. (2014). U.S. Army names Fort Hood shooter, says had mental illness.
Retrieved from Reuters, <http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/03/us-usa-shooting-forthood-idUSBREA3129C20140403> April 18, 2014
Hagan, F. E. (2010). Introduction to Criminology. New York: SAGE Publications
Ford, D. (2014). 4 dead, including shooter, at Fort Hood. Retrieved From CNN,
<http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/02/us/fort-hood-shooting> April 18, 2014
Marsh, I. (2007). Theories of Crime. New York: Routledge