The article titled “Suicide by mass murder: Masculinity, aggrieved entitlement, and rampage school shootings” by Rachel Kalish and Michael Kimmel is found in the Health Sociology Review journal. Kalish and Kimmel state that school shootings typically culminate in suicide and are almost universally committed by males. Kalish and Kimmel examine three recent American cases of rampage school shootings that involve suicide to exemplify how the culture of masculinity creates a sense of aggrieved entitlement that is conducive to violence. Aggrieved entitlement is defined by Kalish and Kimmel as a gendered emotion that centers around the loss of manhood and the moral entitlement to gain it back and seek revenge. The topic of the research is masculinity and its relation to rampage school shootings. The research question Kalish and Kimmel pose is, “How does the culture of masculinity in the U.S. create a sense of entitlement that is conducive to violence?” A case study would successfully answer this research question because the researchers investigate specific examples to show the social factors present in a particular population. The type of data needed for this research are reports of acts, behaviors, events and hidden social patterns to describe the school shootings and how the social factor of a threatened masculinity contributes to violence. The data collection method involves discourse analysis because the researchers examine news magazines and major daily newspapers to reveal the ways in which the perpetrators are shaped by systems of social and cultural power. The data analysis method utilized by Kalish and Kimmel is thematic analysis. Thematic analysis focuses on the themes to find relationships between bullying and violence and tie them to the wider social pattern of a threatened masculinity and rampage school shootings. This qualitative method of research is helpful for my own research on this topic and successfully depicts the social and cultural pressures that males face. The most interesting part of this research is the pattern that depicts how most of the school shootings perpetrated by males had stories of being constantly bullied, beaten up, and labelled homosexual.

 Kalish, R. & Kimmel, M. (2010). Suicide by mass murder: masculinity, aggrieved   entitlement,      and rampage school shootings. Health Sociology Review, 19 (4), 451-464.