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Chapter 4
Criminogenic Media
Chapter Objectives
After reading Chapter 4, students should:
1. identify the issues and concepts associated with criminogenic media
2. understand violent media as a cause of social aggression
3. recognize the nature of copycat crime
4. appreciate the relationship between terrorism and the media
Chapter Outline
I. Criminogenic Media: refers to media content that is hypothesized as a direct cause of
crime
a. A continually debated issue is the causal position of the media
i. Do the media cause changes in subjects or do predisposed individuals
selectively seek out and attend to media content that supports their already
preordained behaviors?
b. As early as 1908, worries appeared that the media (then newspapers and books)
were creating an atmosphere of tolerance for criminality and causing juvenile
delinquency, and ever since public opinion polls have consistently reported the
public’s belief in the causal role of the media in crime and violence in society
c. The media violence frame continues to find substantial public support
d. Three major criminogenic media issues
i. Violent Media and Aggression
ii. Copycat Crime
iii. Media-Oriented Terrorism
e. Violent Media and Aggression
i. Two competing hypotheses
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iii. acceptable social situations and targets for
aggression
b. Children, in particular, learn aggression the same way they
learn other cognitive and social skills—by watching
parents, siblings, peers, teachers, and others
i. The more violence children see, the more accepting
they become of aggressive behavior, and the more
likely they are to act aggressively
ii. Some researchers argue that exposure to violent content and violent
behavior is linked—but not causally
1. Some media consumers seek out violent content and act violently
because of their predisposition to aggression
2. If this position is correct, eliminating portrayals of violence in the
media will not reduce the level of violence in society because the
number of individuals predisposed to violence will remain the
same
3. Advocates of this model argue that the evidence of a link between
violent content and social aggression has not been shown
iii. Why can’t the media’s effect on aggression be definitely measured?
1. It is difficult to separate the effects of media on society or
individuals from all the other forces that contribute to violent
behavior
4. Another undeniable finding is that the cathartic-effect hypothesis
has been discredited: people do not become less violent due to
media violence
a. When viewing is combined with frustration or arousal,
viewers are more rather than less likely to behave
aggressively
b. Current research is exploring the magnitude, mechanism,
and significance of a stimulating effect
c. It is not yet clear whether media portrayals of violence:
i. increase the proportion of persons who behave
aggressively
ii. encourage already-aggressive persons to use
aggression more often
iii. encourage aggression-prone persons to use greater
levels of aggression
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iv. desensitize people to aggression
v. some combination of these outcomes
d. There is certainly a correlation between exposure to violent
media and social aggression, but the strength,
configuration, and most importantly, the causal nature of
the relationship is simply not understood
iv. Adding to the long term concern over violent media content, new media
have invigorated the debate and its urgency
f. What is the Effect of Video Games on Aggression?
i. The above question is often forwarded as a simple research question when
presented to the public but turns out to be a complex research issue
1. Effects of any particular game on any specific player are not
monolithic. Video games:
a. vary considerably in content
b. game players vary regarding why they play and what they
bring to a game
2. The primary reasons video gamers play video games are:
a. “achievement and competition” (to win the game)
b. “mastering the game” (advance through game levels,
improve their skill in a game’s mechanics)
c. “social connections” (form relationships and teams with
other players)
d. “escapism and relaxation” (immersion in virtual worlds and
role-playing)
i. The reasons for playing a video game are not
mutually exclusive and game players often
simultaneously play for some combination of all
four reasons
ii. In that they can fulfill multiple functions for a game
player from individual psychological goals to broad
social ones, the immense popularity of video games
can be understood
iii. Playing video games can be highly satisfying in
both the real and virtual world
ii. Social concern comes from:
1. Their unique intensive interactive and, for some, addictive nature
2. Their linkage to worrisome social behaviors
3. Their sometimes graphic portraits of violence
iii. In response, an ever growing set of research efforts to determine the
effects of video games has appeared that report both negative and positive
effects
1. Evidence of positive effects from playing prosocial video games
include increases in:
a. helping behaviors
b. cooperation
c. problem solving
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d. sharing
e. empathy by game players
2. However, social concern about possible negative effects from
playing video games, especially violent and misogynistic games,
far outweighs beliefs in positive effects
a. The theoretical mechanisms by which violent video games
might lead to social aggression have been hypothesized to
include:
i. social learning (where game players imitate
observed aggression)
ii. excitation transfer (where the physiological arousal
from game playing lingers and transfers to future
encounters which then become aggressive in nature)
iii. cognitive neoassociation (where the activation of
aggression associated memories and thoughts in
players increase aggression)
iv. general aggression model (where exposure to video
game violence promotes aggressive beliefs and
attitudes, the recalling of behavioral scripts and
expectations, and the development of a personality
biased toward aggression)
1. At this time which of these mechanisms
might operate and in what strength and
circumstances has not been resolved
iv. Currently, two sets of research compete over defining the effect of violent
video games
1. One camp champions the conclusion of significant negative effects
a. Representing the negative effects side, two recent studies
exemplify this body of research and additionally
incorporated criminogenic effects
i. Fischer and her colleagues reported that
delinquency reinforcing video game players showed
more tolerance for a severe road traffic offense and
were more likely to steal laboratory equipment
1. “Video games that positively reinforce
crime and delinquency increase the
likelihood that players will model these
behaviors in real life
ii. Bushman and Gibson found that playing a violent
video game significantly increased player
aggression 24 hours after game play for males who
had ruminated about a violent game
b. Other research supports a socialization process over game
selection (game choice predicted aggression more than
aggression predicted game choice) and for longer negative
time periods
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c. The correlation between playing violent video games and
delinquency has been described as robust and extending to
serious juvenile offenders, even after controlling various
factors such as gender, race, offense history, and
personality traits
2. The other camp argues for insignificant largely neutral effects
a. These researchers conclude that other factors beyond
violent content may be responsible for elevated player
aggression
i. For example: that game competitiveness may be
more important than game violence in generating
player aggression
b. Additional research has reported insignificant associations
for specific categories of game players
i. For example: a survey of mostly Hispanic youth
found that levels of depression symptoms in game
players were stronger predictors of serious
aggression and violence than either exposure to
video game or television violence
c. Also point out that increased gaming in the United States
ran parallel with significant declines in society-wide crime
and homicide rates, a relationship that belies a strong
society-wide video game effect
d. Studies that have found positive correlations between
playing violent video games and violent and antisocial
attitudes have been described as typically not controlling
for other covariates, particularly gender, that are known to
be associated with both video gameplay and aggression.
As more demographic covariates are introduced,
the video game effects are described as progressively
weaker and the overall link between video games and
aggression becomes modest and not statistically
significant. The remaining positive association appears
only for individuals who play 4 or more hours per day
3. What should one make of this debate?
a. Based on the research to this point, it first can be concluded
that the relationship between violent game content and
aggressive player behavior is not universal (not every
player is affected in the same fashion)
b. A set of factors appear to interact with the presence of
violent content to increase or decrease the likelihood of
post play aggression
i. Game characteristics such as competition and pace
of action have been forwarded as significant
ii. Player characteristics also appear to be important
such as:
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1. Depression
2. ability to delay gratification
3. peer deviance
4. academic performance
5. parental involvement
6. school culture
c. The nature of the interaction between the player and game
is important
i. A player having a personalized self-designed game
avatar, for example, has been reported as enhancing
game play effects separate from violent content
d. The research collectively suggests a significant role for
media immersion
i. The more the games bring the player into the
game’s world and the more the gamer player lives
in that world, the greater the effect
ii. Thus, the experience of playing a violent character
in a video game, of immersing one’s self in that
role, on attitudes towards violent crimes and
criminals was related to more acceptable attitudes
toward crimes and criminals
e. The research to date and the critiques of the research
suggest an interaction between video game characteristics,
with violent content as one factor
f. In sum, while every research study has individual
methodological flaws so that no one study should be overly
weighted, a substantial set of research findings suggest that
violent video game players show increases in aggression
over those who do not and that the effect of playing violent
games is different from playing nonviolent game play
g. Research results are not consistent though and evidence of
a substantial society level effect or the mechanism through
which effects on individuals operate has not been produced
h. What is most clear at this point is that a consensus does not
exist
i. For some children under some conditions some
media is harmful
ii. For other children under the same conditions, or for
the same children under other conditions, it may be
beneficial
iii. For most children under most conditions, most
media is probably neither particularly harmful nor
particularly beneficial
i. At this time, a multi-factor approach where exposure to
violent media is one of a set of factors that facilitate or
inhibit aggression is reasonable
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i. The more risk factors an individual carries the more
likely they are to behave aggressively; the more
protective factors they have, the less likely
aggressive behavior is
ii. In this perspective, exposure to media violence is
equivalent in effect to other factors and deserves
neither special attention nor dismissal as a cause of
social aggression
4. We therefore appear to be a more aggressive society because of
our media, and in combination with other factors violent media
help create a more violent social reality
a. Although research does show a link, social aggression is
not necessarily criminal, nor is most crime violent
5. The greatest problem in applying the “violent media causes social
aggression” research to the “media causes crime” question is that
the validity of extrapolating from the aggression research to
conclusion about media and crime is highly questionable
a. Consequently, even if the media does significantly foster
aggressive behavior, it is a separate question whether media
influence extends beyond aggressiveness to cause criminal
behavior
b.
c. Looking at prior video game articles, consistent evidence of
a strong direct causal video game role in the generation of
criminality is limited but video games, like the media in
general, do not escape as benign or influence free. Gaming
appears to interact with other prior risk factors to heighten
pre-disposed criminogenic effects and impulses. Video
games appear capable of playing the role of catalytic
rudders in the formation of crime, not directly causing it
but in the right social and individual chemistry shaping its
appearance. Other social and individual factors play a
greater role in whether crime occurs or not, but once
criminogenic forces are in play, exposure to crime saturated
video games can provide powerful models to follow
g. Media and Criminal Behavior
i. There are inherent difficulties in researching and examining possible
relationships between the media and criminal behavior
1. Experiments are even more difficult to conduct in this area than in
the area of social aggression, so that most of the available evidence
consists of anecdotal reports rather than empirical studies
2. The ways in which media may be affecting crime are numerous
a. Examples:
i. The media could be increasing the number of
criminals by turning previously law-abiding persons
into criminals
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ii. Media portrayals may be helping already active
criminals successfully commit more crimes by
teaching them better crime techniques
iii. Media may be:
1. Increasing the seriousness or harmfulness of
the crimes that are committed by making
criminals more selective or violent
2. Fostering theft and other property crimes by
cultivating desires for unaffordable things
3. Making crime seem more exciting,
satisfying, and socially acceptable
b. Research is also difficult because an aggregate, society-
wide media criminogenic effect is likely to be small and
intermixed with many other crime-generating factors
c. The pool of at-risk individuals who are likely to be
criminally influenced by the media is probably small
ii. Karen Hennigan and her colleagues examined aggregate crimes rates in
the United States prior to and following the introduction of television in
the 1950s
1. Lower classes and modest life-styles were rarely portrayed in a
positive light on T.V. → Younger and poorer persons may have
compared their life-styles and possessions with those portrayed as
more wealthy → Some may have turned to crime as a way of
obtaining coveted goods
2. Hennigan and her colleagues speculate that television still
contributes to an increase in property crime rates
3. Recent reviews have concluded that any link between exposure to
violent media and general levels of violent criminal behavior is
weak at best and moderated by consumer predisposition and age,
media content and social factors
a. A significant relationship between swings in media content
and general criminality in society has not been shown and
if it exists is more likely to influence property crime than
violent crime
h. Copycat Crime
i. Waves of fads and fashions have established the fact that people lift
behavior models from the media, and this connection has been
extrapolated to include the mimicking of media-portrayed criminal acts
ii. Public interest in the relation of mass media to copycat crime emerged
with the entertainment media of the nineteenth century
1. Growing concern that media messages could influence people to
commit crime sparked investigations and censorship drives against
the media in the early 1920s
iii. In 1929 the Payne Foundation underwrote the first large-scale studies of
the social impact of media
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1. Combined with public concerns about the influence of the cinema,
these research efforts prodded the film industry to create an
internal review panel, the Hays Commission, to oversee the
content of films and quell the increasing calls for government
intervention
a. The film industry adopted a self-imposed code that forbade
crimes shown in film:
i. to teach methods of crime
ii. to inspire potential criminals with a desire for
imitation
iii. to make criminals seem heroic and justified
iv. Despite the long ago conclusion that media can be criminogenic, there is
no lack of information available today on how to commit crimes
1. A large body of material detailing how to commit specific crimes
is readily available:
a. in films
b. on television
c. from the Internet
d. in printed form
v. Why is the research so limited when the questionable content is so
available and the concerns span generations?
1. The reason research is limited is because what seems a simple
matter— determining when a media-induced copycat crime has
occurred—is complicated by the intrinsic nature of copycat crime
a. For a crime to be a copycat crime, it must have been
inspired by an earlier, media-publicized or generator crime
–there must be a pair of crimes linked through the media
b. The perpetrator of a copycat crime must have been exposed
to the media content of the original crime and must have
incorporated major elements of that crime into his or her
crime, such as:
i. the choice of victim
ii. the motivation
iii. the technique
2. In broad terms, copycat crime results from the interaction of
factors from three sources:
a. media content
b. persons at risk to be copycats
c. the immediate and wider social and cultural setting in
which the media content is consumed
3. Too few copycat crimes or criminals have been identified to allow
for generalization or for scientifically adequate research
a. The slowly growing file of compiled anecdotal reports does
indicate that criminal events that are rare in real life are
sometimes committed soon after similar events are depicted
in the media
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b. In addition to anecdotal reports, surveys of offenders have
indicated that a substantial proportion —approximately 25
percent—of offenders have attempted a copycat crime in
their careers
vi. By what mechanism do the media generate copycat effects?
1. Imitation
a. First offered by Gabriel Tarde in the late nineteenth century
i. Coined the term “suggesto-imitative assaults”:
sensational violent crime appears to prompt similar
incidents
b. Came to be criticized as too simplistic a process to fully
explain copycat crime
i. The primary flaw in imitation theory is that it
generally implies that the copycat behavior must
physically resemble the portrayed behavior and
therefore falls short in explaining any generalized
effects or innovative applications
ii. Critics also noted the tendency to downplay other
social factors
2. Priming: the portrayals of certain behaviors by the media activate a
cluster of associated ideas and concepts within the potential
copycat offender that increase the likelihood that he or she will
behave similarly but not necessarily identically
a. After viewing violent media, individuals will be primed to:
i. have more hostile thoughts
ii. see aggression as justified
iii. behave more aggressively
b. Can be understood as providing a set of ideas and beliefs
that construct a particular social reality—the perception
that the nature of the world is such that a particular type of
crime is appropriate, justified, and likely to be successful
3. Scripts: pre-established behavioral directions that individuals that
individuals hold in their memory and scroll up to direct their
behavior as needed
a. Serve as a guide for behavior by laying out the sequence of
events that one believes are likely to happen and the
behaviors that one believes are appropriate in particular
situations
b. Can be acquired by observing criminogenic media during
fantasy role-playing, a part of normal child development
i. The role-playing child for example acquires the
persona of the social role and subsequently acts like
he or she thinks a doctor, athlete, or criminal would
in various real-world settings beyond the ones
specifically modeled
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ii. The more salient the observed criminality, the more
the child ruminates upon, fantasizes about, and
rehearses it
c. Cues, such as the presence of a gun, first observed in the
media and later encountered in the real world would
activate the acquired criminal scripts
i. Example: A study by Allen Mazur: bomb threats
directed at nuclear energy facilities increased
significantly following increases in news coverage
of nuclear power issues
1. This study indicates that the media may
initiate crimes even when they don’t provide
precise models to copy
vii. There are multiple cognitive paths between the media and criminality that
copycat criminals can take (See Box 4.3)
1. Social cognition theory provides two paths
a. Systematic central path: requires a copycat offender to
evaluate information and is likely related to instrumental
planned copycat crimes such as a bank robbery
b. Heuristic peripheral path: quickly traveled without much
information evaluation and likely leads to emotional
spontaneous copycat crime such as an impulsive assault or
hate crime
2. A third path: narrative persuasion from entertainment media
content
a. Used to describe this type of media interaction:
i. “transportation”
ii. “engagement”
iii. “absorption”
b. Speculated to be the most common copycat crime path
c. A consumer who is initially unlikely to copy a particular
crime would be persuaded to do so by observing a model
who is portrayed as also initially unwilling to commit an
offense but who undergoes a transformation in the narrative
in which the crime comes to be seen in a positive manner
viii. The copycat crime model is conceptually divided into three blocks
1. The top portion of the model: from exposure to a media generator
crime to acquisition of crime knowledge
a. Felt to be a common experience for most media consumers
in that many persons are expected to learn criminally
instructive information from repeated media exposure
2. In block two: following crime knowledge acquisition, the model
diverges into three possible pathways determined by the
consumer’s underlying goal for interacting with the media
a. From least traveled to most traveled, the paths diverge
depending upon whether the consumer is interacting with
