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The Influence Of Technology, Media, & Popular
Culture On Criminal Behavior: Copycat Crime &
Cybercrime
“Life is like a video game.
Everybody’s got to die
sometime.”
-- 18 year-old Devin Moore
Technology-Related Risk Factors
for Criminal Behavior
 Criminologists can no longer ignore the ways
in which media and computer technology
shape criminal behavior. With the
unprecedented exposure to and influence of media
and popular culture it is increasingly important to
examine the unique role that technology-related
factors play in motivating and shaping criminal
behavior.
 Technology breeds false familiarity, blurs
fantasy and reality, and provides a virtual
realm that mediates conscience. This has
important implications for the study of criminal
behavior.
Technological advances have
impacted criminal behavior in
three ways:
1) Mass Communication Technology has
transformed media and popular culture into a
powerful influence on offender behavior.
2) Computer Technology has created new avenues
and different opportunities for criminal behavior.
3) Investigative Technology has altered methods
used by offenders and the types of crimes they
engage in.
Technology-Related
Subtypes
 Copycat Crime
 Cybercrime
• Copycat crime and cybercrime are likely to become a significant part of
the crime landscape in the 21st century.
•Copycat crime and cybercrime are subtypes that can cut across all of
the major crime categories while maintaining distinct features.
•In some respects, copycat and cybercrime represent more the process
by which criminal behavior occurs rather than a type of crime.
•Both copycat and cybercrime can be violent, sex, economic, public
order, or political crimes. Copycat and cyber crime are unique in that
technology shapes their nature and presentation.
The Criminogenic Effects of Mass
Media Technology
 Electronic media presents greater concerns
than print media because there is a larger at-risk
pool of individuals who can be criminally influenced
(Surette, 1990)
 We live in a “Historically unprecedented context
of hyperaestheticized mass-culture” (Black,
1991,p. 136).
 Technologies have become more culturally
dominant as an information source. This
increases the probability that people (particularly
adolescents) will use this information as a tool to
understand themselves and others (Lloyd, 2002).

MEDIA INFLUENCE

Virtually all families with children have a TV with at least one VCR or
DVD player, and most (approx 75%) subscribe to cable or satellite TV.

7 in 10 families with children own a computer and have a video-game
system.

In their bedrooms, the majority of American children have a TV (30% of
children age 0-3), 33-39% age 2-17 have a video-game player, 30%
have a VCR, and 6-11% have Internet access.

Children spend more time consuming entertainment media than
engaging in any other activity besides sleeping and school (avg. 4 hrs
per day in front of a TV or computer screen).

25% of 6th graders watch more than 40 hours of TV per week.

On any given Saturday morning at 10 a.m., 60% of American 6-11 yearolds are watching TV.
Surette on Copycat Crime
See Surette, R. (1998). Media, crime, and criminal
justice: Images and realities. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
 To be a copycat, a crime “must have been
inspired by an earlier, publicized crime …
there must be a pair of crimes linked by
the media” (Surette, 1998, p. 137).
 Copycat phenomenon affects crime in two
ways:
 1) As a trigger – creating crime that wouldn’t otherwise
occur turning law abiding citizens into criminals.
 As a shaper – giving ideas to already active criminals,
molding rather than triggering crime.
Copycat Crime Revisited
 It’s time to revisit and revive Surette and others’
work on copycat crime to develop an integrated
theoretical framework for empirical research
examining the influence of the copycat effect on criminal behavior.
 Copycat crime is often thought of in terms of crimes that mimic news
representation of actual events. However, fiction may be more
powerful than reality in terms of its power to
inspire copycat crimes (Black, 1990; Fister, 2005).
DEFINITION OF COPYCAT CRIME:
A crime inspired by another crime that has been publicized in the news media or
fictionally or artistically represented whereby the offender incorporates aspects of
the original offense into a new crime.
Anecdotal Evidence of Copycat Crime

NATURAL BORN KILLERS (1994) - linked to a dozen murders in the U.S,
Canada, and Europe and to school shooter cases including Columbine. Three
copycats involved male/female pairs who went on murder sprees including the
1995 robbery/murder spree of 18 year-old Benjamin Darras and Sarah
Edmondson that led to a civil suit against NBK director Oliver Stone that went to
the U.S. Supreme court before it was dismissed in 2001; Four murders
committed by 19 year-old Florence Rey and 22 year-old boyfriend Audry Maupin
dubbed “France’s Natural Born Killers"; and 1998 case involving Veronique
Herbert and Sebastien Paindavoine who murdered a 16 year-old boy in a sex
set-up right out of the film.

THE MATRIX (1999, 2003) - Associated with a half a dozen murders. In several
of the offenders’ trials (including D.C. Sniper shooter John Malvo), the Matrix
was woven into the defendant’s insanity defense. In at least two cases (Lynne
Ansley in Ohio in 2002 and Vadim Mieseges San Francisco in 2003) the “matrix
defense” resulted in a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity.

GRAND THEFT AUTO VICE CITY (2002) –18 year-old Devin Moore allegedly
played the game for hours before stealing a car and gunning down two police
officers and a 911 dispatcher in 2003. When captured he said “Life is like a video
game. Everybody’s got to die some time.” At trial, it was revealed that he was a
compulsive violent video game player who suffered from childhood abuserelated Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Moore’s attorney’s argued the “GTA
defense” -- that he lost touch with reality and was acting out the virtual violence
in GTA. Despite his attorney’s efforts, the GTA defense was unsuccessful and
Moore was sentenced to death in 2005.
Cultural Artifacts Associated with
Copycat Crime – Examples
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Heathers (film)
Taxi Driver (film)
Catcher in the Rye (novel)
The Secret Agent (novel)
Ice T’s Cop Killer (music/lyrics)
Dungeons & Dragons (role playing
game)
Slayer (heavy metal band)
Beavis & Butthead (cartoon)
Jack Ass (TV show/film)
The Basketball Diaries (novel/film)
Sopranos (TV show)
Scream (film)
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…
Doom/Doom II (computer game)
Grand Theft Auto (computer
game)
Thelma & Louise (film)
Mapplethorpe (photographer)
Gone in 60 Seconds (film)
Money Train (film)
Burning Bed (TV movie)
Marilyn Manson (musician)
Starsky & Hutch (TV show)
Menace II Society (film)
TV news and print news media
Child’s Play 3 (film)
Battle Royale (film)
Summary

Technology, media, and popular culture shape offender motivation, modus
operandi, and play a role in neutralizing guilt and providing justification for
offenders’ actions.

It is important to consider technology as a potential risk factor for criminal
behavior for some individuals.

Technological influences on criminal behavior exist along a continuum.

Copycat crime and cybercrime as two distinct subtypes of criminal behavior
that involve technological influence.

Technology will play an increasingly salient role in influencing offender
motivation and modus operandi in a segment of offenses and it is important
that criminological theory and research examine technology as a risk factor
for criminal behavior..