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MEDIA EFFECTS ON CRIME AND CRIME STYLE
Abstract
Evidence about the relationship between exposure to media violence and criminal activity remains mixed. While some scholars argue that exposure to violent media contents “triggers” crime and aggression, others contend that media may influence crime, but only as a source of information about techniques and styles (copycat), not as a motivation for crime. This debate has critical implications for criminal justice academics as calls for policy are regularly made on the bases of research in this area. This article contributes to this literature by presenting detailed, not self-reported, empirical evidence of how media coverage of violent crimes affects crimes perpetrated by drug traffickers at the USMexico border, and their crime style. With an empirical model that addresses possible bidirectionalities between criminal violence and media coverage, we tracked 31,676 homicides, its stylistic characteristics, and its coverage by the press. Our results show that when media covers criminal violence it influences the probability that other criminals use similar styles of crimes, but it does not change overall rates of criminal activity. This is evidence against the”trigger” hypothesis, and in favor of “copycat” effects.
Keywords: Violent crime, media violence, meta-analysis, aggression, US-Mexico border, traffickers.