Copycat Crime

Definition: Misbehavior inspired or triggered by news reports of criminal activity

Significance: Society’s need to discourage copycat crime has often been cited as a justification for censorship

One of the more frequently stated reasons why speech should be censored is the impact that certain ideas might have on weak-minded or immature individuals. In particular, the discussion or depiction of criminal behavior within the various media has frequently been alleged to lead to copycat crimes. Examples include the Tylenol tampering incidents of 1982, the assassination attempt depicted in the 1976 film Taxi Driver, and the availability of information, on the Internet and in book form, on how to make bombs. It has been alleged, for example, that information from the Internet was used to construct the bomb that destroyed the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995.

The idea that media descriptions and depictions have a strong impact on behavior has been referred to in the media effects literature as the “hypodermic needle” model. Like a drug injection, the ingestion of violent or antisocial conduct impacts the psyche and may lead to repeating the behavior. Typically, however, those favoring censorship of criminal depictions do not believe they are impacted in such a way, but, nevertheless believe that some are. Children, imbeciles, the emotionally vulnerable, the undersocialized, and publicity seekers have been cited as in need of protection from portrayals of crime. Since it is impossible to predict how many might react by repeating the crimes, censorship helps to protect society from the possibility of copycat behavior.

Empirical Evidence

Until the 1980’s there was little empirical research dealing exclusively with copycat crime. Empirical studies of media influence do not support the anecdotal evidence. For example, an Australian study used a three-year time frame to compare police data on bank and other armed robberies with local newspaper stories on robberies during the same period. Robberies were compared for two seven-day periods immediately before and after the date of any newspaper story reporting a successful robbery. There was no evidence of any copycat effect following newspaper stories or after possible word-of-mouth communication about the commission of high-value bank robberies. Research results did not support the idea that newspaper reports of successful bank robberies stimulate copycat robberies of banks or other targets.

Ray Surette has done extensive research on copycat crimes since the mid-1980’s. He argues that copycat crime is a persistent social phenomenon, common enough to influence the total crime picture, but mainly by influencing crime techniques rather than the motivation to commit a crime or the development of criminal tendencies. A copycat criminal is likely to be a career criminal involved in property offenses rather than a first-time violent offender. The specific relationship between media coverage and the commission of copycat crime is currently unknown, and the social-context factors influencing copycat crimes have not been identified. Certainly, it cannot be proven that a media depiction might stimulate an otherwise ordinary person to commit a crime. Although research has established the media’s influence on some deviant behaviors, it has not established a direct causal connection between media stimuli and specific deviant behaviors apart from other variables appearing in combination. Simply because a media depiction is followed by the reoccurrence of a similar event does not indicate a connection. In some cases, alleged copycats have stated they knew nothing of the previous publicized incident.

Surette also noted that copycat crimes revealed identifiable similarities among incidents. The copycat criminals seemed to fall into at least four groupings with some overlap. “Mode” copiers were those who already intended to commit a crime and who received a method from the media event. For example, a potential car thief copies the techniques seen on a television police drama for breaking into and hot-wiring a car. “Group” copiers were those who copied acts in groups. In 1995 a group of Tampa, Florida, teens bragged to police they stole cars and shot at robbery victims because earlier in the same week a twelve-year-old repeat robber had been granted probation rather than prison. The case had been given major media attention. The other two categories were mentally ill or mentally deficient copiers, and terrorists. Since terrorism is partially driven by media attention, it is not surprising that terrorists choose to repeat methods that have produced high media ratings in the past. This has led concerned media executives to consider carefully how much attention they focus on terrorist acts.

In spite of the fact that the evidence for copycat behavior is inconclusive, pressure groups continue to advocate voluntary and mandatory controls on media depictions of crime and violence. Hearings were held in the U.S. Congress several times in the early 1990’s addressing these issues.

Bibliography

Justice and the Media (Springfield, Ill.: Charles C Thomas, 1984) and The Media and Criminal Justice Policy (Springfield, Ill.: Charles C Thomas, 1990); and Media, Crime, and Criminal Justice (Pacific Grove, Calif.: Brooks/Cole, 1992), edited by Ray Surette, offer considerable discussion of copycat crimes and censorship. See also “Newspaper Reports of Bank Robberies and the Copycat Phenomenon” in Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology 25, no. 1 (March, 1992), by Ronald V. Clarke and Gerry McGrath. On attempts to censor the popular culture forms perceived to be dangerous in the 1950’s, see James Gilbert’s A Cycle of Outrage (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), which draws parallels to later campaigns, such as attempts to censor crime stories.