Desensitize Violence: Copycat Killers

Desensitize Violence: Copycat Killers The Natural Born Killers movie has spawned multiple copycat killers around the globe. Though it can not be 100 percent proven that the movie itself is to blame, these people whom were copycats to the movie in their own killing sprees claimed that they were living out the same fantasy as Mickey and Mallory. This movie is "linked to more real-world violence than any other movie" (Boyle, 2001, p. 311, para. 2). In particular, this movie has "been linked to three cases - one in the US and two in France - involving male-female couples" (Boyle, 2001, p. 312, para. 3). One of these cases involved two teenagers who were dating. They shot and killed a man and wounded a woman, both of their victims were strangers to the teenagers. Once they were arrested, they told police they repeatedly watched Natural Born Killers for days before their shooting spree and consumed a large amount of hallucinogenic drugs. The …show more content…
So therefore, they acted out and made decisions in the same manner. There is an ethical theory that can possibly explain how these copycats arrived at this conclusion that they did, despite how it sparked an ethical dilemma. The Agent-Centered Theories explain why people do what they do based on status. These theories, "unlike consequentialist and non-consequentialist theories, are more concerned with the overall ethical status of individuals, or agents, and are less concerned to identify the morality of particular actions" (Bonde & Firenze, 2013). So, these copycats wanted to be viewed by others as being at the same status as Mickey and Mallory. They did not care that what they were doing was harming others and would lead to their ultimate demise. The status they could reach by performing these unethical actions far out weighed the morality of their