In life we generally tend to copy things. From deciding what electronic gadget to use, what to wear, what kind of car to drive, we are all in one way or another influenced by the media (social and commercial). Depending on the weight the media gives to a certain issue, its just normal to find ourselves pick a few aspects and tend to imitate them especially if they attract much attention (Hammond, n.d.). This can be disadvantageous if we start copycatting crimes and other vices due to the much attention given to criminals in print or web. For some people they see this negative attention as rewarding picking much especially from the movies filmed (Amaral, 2013). Crime and horror movies are created with the main aim of entertaining the audiences,
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This phenomenon is anticipated to remain and not go away anytime soon (Desilet, 2014). Sadly, its quite common for an individual to see a certain act in a crime film and goes ahead to emulate the act scene in real life. When filmmakers are creating a movie, it’s never in their interest to inspire their viewers to commit atrocious acts. But over the past few years, there has been a debate if the filmmakers have a moral responsibility to their viewers. This is a topic still subject to much debate (WhatCulture, 2013).
According to psychologist Richard Amarahal, there are several reasons as to why people copycat crimes. He developed two theories explaining why people engage in copycat crimes. The first theory is based on sensation and glorification of crimes by the media. The second theory is based on the individual mental and criminal background.
Based on sensation and glorification of crimes by the media, he argues his theory based on a famous Canadian psychologist, Albert Bandura, seeking to know if people could learn aggression especially in cases where they see aggressive actions being rewarded. Based on this Bandura’s study, he concludes that based on the attention the media gives to certain crimes; most people take it as a reward and will wish or tend to copy the …show more content…
This movie was released in 1971 and it aroused heated controversy from the beginning. It had extreme violence scenes, which went against existing conventions governing on extreme filmmaking. Despite prediction of copycat violence and birth of a ‘Clockwork cult’ among the teenagers by various British leaders, the film was released. The director of the movie had to personally ensure that the movie was no longer in circulation worldwide. Almost every teenager’ violence that took place in United Kingdom in that year was largely linked to the movie (Criminal Justice Degrees Guide, n.d.). The most common documented case was of a sixteen – year old Richard Palmer who was tried with murder of a tramp in Bletchley England. A psychiatrist looking into the case was quick to identify that Richard’s actions were inspired by a similar scene on the A Clockwork Orange movie (Providentia,
This phenomenon is anticipated to remain and not go away anytime soon (Desilet, 2014). Sadly, its quite common for an individual to see a certain act in a crime film and goes ahead to emulate the act scene in real life. When filmmakers are creating a movie, it’s never in their interest to inspire their viewers to commit atrocious acts. But over the past few years, there has been a debate if the filmmakers have a moral responsibility to their viewers. This is a topic still subject to much debate (WhatCulture, 2013).
According to psychologist Richard Amarahal, there are several reasons as to why people copycat crimes. He developed two theories explaining why people engage in copycat crimes. The first theory is based on sensation and glorification of crimes by the media. The second theory is based on the individual mental and criminal background.
Based on sensation and glorification of crimes by the media, he argues his theory based on a famous Canadian psychologist, Albert Bandura, seeking to know if people could learn aggression especially in cases where they see aggressive actions being rewarded. Based on this Bandura’s study, he concludes that based on the attention the media gives to certain crimes; most people take it as a reward and will wish or tend to copy the …show more content…
This movie was released in 1971 and it aroused heated controversy from the beginning. It had extreme violence scenes, which went against existing conventions governing on extreme filmmaking. Despite prediction of copycat violence and birth of a ‘Clockwork cult’ among the teenagers by various British leaders, the film was released. The director of the movie had to personally ensure that the movie was no longer in circulation worldwide. Almost every teenager’ violence that took place in United Kingdom in that year was largely linked to the movie (Criminal Justice Degrees Guide, n.d.). The most common documented case was of a sixteen – year old Richard Palmer who was tried with murder of a tramp in Bletchley England. A psychiatrist looking into the case was quick to identify that Richard’s actions were inspired by a similar scene on the A Clockwork Orange movie (Providentia,