NCJ Number
172112
Journal
Journal of Law and Society Volume: 24 Issue: 2 Dated: (June 1997) Pages: 177-198
Date Published
1997
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This article explores responses to murders which have become known as "lone gunman" or "spree" killings.
Abstract
The particular focus of this article is the legal, political, criminological, and media reactions to events in Dunblane, Scotland in March 1996 when 16 children and their teacher were murdered, and 17 others injured by a 43-year-old lone gunman. The article argues that the experience of the "lone gunman" or "spree killer" is, both in generic construction and practice, a gendered and distinctly masculinized phenomenon. The first part of the article examines the content of press discourse constructions of the "spree killing," in particular, representations of the gunman in the aftermath of the Dunblane massacre. The article further discusses what has been seen and unseen within a range of crimino-legal constructions of the men/crime relationship. The second part of the article explores the genealogy of this silencing of the sexed specificity of the Dunblane massacre. Notes, references