Download Montreal Massacre

Psychologist would ask:
 What factors in Lepine’s personality led
him to _______________this crime?
 Did Lepine have a psychological
_______________________?
 Were there any _______________________
events in Lepine’s childhood that made
him act this way?
 Was Lepine ______________________or
___________________ at other times in his
life?
Psychological Assumptions
An individual’s personality and ______________________is shaped by
his or her prior experiences.
Understanding the significance of key ________________in Lepine’s
upbringing as will help us to understand his
____________________on the day of the massacre.
Psychological Methods
Psychologists would want to
_____________________interviews to assess
his psychological state; however, since
Lepine killed himself, psychologists
would not be able to
_____________________________him.
They would speak to his ________________
and __________________________.
They would also examine his
_______________ _____________as well as
documents relating to his prior life,
particularly his formative early years.
Psychological Explanation
 Marc Lepine’s father was a brutal man who regularly beat Marc and his mother. When Marc
was seven years old, his parents separated. Testimony at the divorce hearing revealed a long
history of physical abuse. These traumatic events scarred Marc. Having been brought up in an
abusive home, he saw violence as a viable solution to life’s problems. He was a shy and
secretive boy who was not brought up in a home where discussing one’s problems was
encouraged. When his difficulties began to overwhelm him, he resorted to violence.
 Lepine’s father openly expressed his opinion that women were inferior to men. Like his
father, Marc believed that women were inferior and he hated them. He did not have close
female relationships, and blamed women for most of his problems. The engineering class
represented a place where, in Marc’s opinion, women were invading a space that should have
been a male domain. His murderous rampage allowed him to act out his hatred. In his suicide
note, he wrote, “I have decided to send Ad Patres [Latin: "to the fathers"] the feminists who
have ruined my life. ... The feminists always have a talent for enraging me.” Lepine’s mother
speculated later that it might have been an attack indirectly aimed at her, since as a single
working mother, she embodied some of the “feminist” ideals that Marc hated.
 Marc used a gun to kill most of his victims. Marc’s fascination with guns dated from his
teenage years, when he spent summers hunting at his uncle’s farm. The guns may have given
him a feeling of power and control over his world. He applied for the Canadian Forces but was
rejected, and his proclivity for violence and fascination with guns found another outlet.
Sociologists would ask:
 Sociologists attempting to explain the massacre would look at social trends of
gender and gender violence.
 What common factors are in the lives of men who have acted with extreme
violence against women?
 What are the social norms and institutions that shaped Lepine’s view of
gender?
 How are misogyny, male violence and sexism present in social institutions?
 How are women normally treated in this context (at a technical school)?
 What social interactions in Lepine’s background affected his relationship with
women?
 Why did Lepine focus his hatred on women as the hated ‘other’?
Sociological Assumption:
The significance of the acts Lepine committed can best be
understood when looked at in context of the _____________________
______________________ and ___________________________around him and
his belonging to certain _______________________(men, mass
murderers, victims of abuse).
Sociological Methods
 Sociologists might study the statistics
around _________________violence in Canadian
society.
 They would also look at other instances of
mass murders – particularly those with
women as the victims – and draw
conclusions about the ____________________.
 They could also analyze the presence of
gender _______________________________within
the institution of the polytechnic school.
 In addition, they would study society’s
approach to _____________ ____________________–
what are the rules and systems that allowed
Lepine to legally acquire a gun and to enter
the classroom with a gun?
Sociological Explanation
 Sociologists would say that mass killers as a group share common characteristics, and
Lepine fits the typical profile of a mass killer. He was a loner with few meaningful
relationships. He came from a broken family where there was a history of violence and
abuse. Early in his development, he began to blame his frustration and failures on a hated
“other” – in Lepine’s case – women. Once he had adopted this ideology about gender, he
began to perceive everything in terms of how this target group caused his problems. The
massacre was his way of taking vengeance on this group.
 Lepine’s crime took place within a society that, despite the successes of the feminist
movement, was still patriarchal. His victims were chosen because engineering was
considered a typically male field of study, and Lepine believed that women were taking
over and pushing men out. There are still gender divides in many fields of study and work,
and Lepine was not the only one to perceive engineering as a men’s field – educational
institutions at this time did not push women to enter these fields and they were the
minority in classes and in the workplace. Lepine believed that women were trying to usurp
men’s jobs and social roles and that these “radical feminists” (i.e. women enrolled in
science courses and in other male-dominated professions) were destroying society. He
believed that certain rights and privileges should go hand in hand with being a man and he
blamed his shortcomings on women.
 There was no gun registry at the time and Lepine was able to acquire a gun legally without
an intensive screening. The social structures were not in place to prevent it.
Anthropologists would ask:
 Why do some men act __________________________toward women,
particularly to the point of murdering them?
 Why does society seem to ____________________________violence
against women?
 Are there _________________________evident when examining this
case and other mass murders?
 What cultural _______________ exist around _______________
_______________ and what kind of ‘retribution’ have men taken
against women who transgress these roles?
 Why do men in many ___________________and eras feel a need to
__________________________women?
Anthropological Assumptions
 There are factors in the nature
of human society as a while
that _____________________some
men to act violently against
women.
 The incident needs to be
examined __________________and
in context, and it can be
compared to ___________________
incidents in other
__________________and periods of
time.
What methods would an
Anthropologist use?
Anthropologists would examine
statistics of gender violence as
well as mass murders in
______________________________society
and ______________________it with
male violence in other
_______________________________and at
other points in history to see if
there are larger trends.
Anthropological Explanation
 Marc’s murderous rampage was the ultimate act of male violence in a society
that has traditionally tolerated acts of violence against women – including
domestic violence, rape, and sexual harassment. Statistics show that one in five
women has been or will be sexually abused, while one woman in four has been
or will be physically abused. In some societies, domestic abuse is still tolerated
and men who assault their wives or female relatives are treated less harshly by
the courts.
 Women often make less money than men in certain careers and have been
treated around the world and throughout history as less valued than men.
Women are exploited and objectified by the media. In addition, violence is
glamourized in the media. Marc Lepine took the message that he got at home
and in society – that women are less valued than men and violence against
them is acceptable – to its limits.
 In addition, anthropologists would look at patterns of mass murder across
cultures. Mass murderers usually target a group – generally it is an ethnic or
religious group, but in this case, Lepine targeted women. Mass murderers do
not kill because they enjoy it, they kill because want to make a statement
against the group. Lepine wanted to take out as many of his “enemies” as he
could and then die in a blaze of what he perceived as glory.