The excuse that pornography or any material, explicit or not, made a person commit a crime has been used and is still used as an excuse for illegal activity. While some people would assume that only violent material is used as “inspiration” for illegal activities, “mass murder Charles Manson cited the Beatles’ White Album and the Book of Revelation” (Heins 155) as what provoked him to commit his murders. While, “assassin John Hinckley claimed to be inspired by the movie Taxi Driver” (Heins 155) when he was about to commit his assassinations. Even more recently when the movie Project X was released to theaters a handful of teens attempted to have copycat parties. The most tragic of these parties resulted in people firing guns when police arrived to break up the party and one teen died. Another teen in Texas threw a party that caused between $80,000 and $100,000 of damage to a $500,000 home by attempting to copy the entire movie. While arrest were made the issue of more copycat parties became an issue. The majority of these parties are often shut down before the begin because local law enforcement are informed from social media like Twitter and Facebook and are able to shut down these events before they even come to life. The most famous copycat party to be shut down was #ProjectKris in Calgary, Canada. The party ended up failing because last minute the teen were warned about what would happen if the party happened so they released the address for a local night club instead. While copycatting illegal activities obviously happens it is not an excuse that can hold up in court unless because the media people are copycatting does not tell the viewer directly to copy the activity.
When the copycat excuse is used in the case of pornography inspiring someone to rape the excuse is throughly criticized because people accept that a watching porn ends in masturbating not in raping someone. Yet the copycat excuse was allowed for these kids who attempted to copy the destructive party in Project X. In some events the kids even admitted to attempting to copy the party that they saw in the movie.
Should the copycat excuse be allowed in some cases and not allowed in others?
Should material like Project X that has incites so many attempted copycats be controlled?
Or at least require a person to be 18 in order to purchase it?
Should all materials that inspire people to commit violent crimes, like the Beatles’ White Album, Taxi Driver or even the Bible come with warnings? Why or Why not?
If you have never seen Project X the movie depicts a group of teens who are outcast and decide to throw a huge birthday party while one of the teen’s parents are out of town and the party is advertised on Facebook, Twitter, radio, and Craigslist. The party gets out of hand and a vengeful drug dealer shows up with a flame thrower and sets the neighborhood on fire which results in the fire department dropping water on the house the party is at and destroys the house. At the end of the movie it says what each teen is charged with and the charges are very minimal like probation and community service.
Project X Copycat Party Articles:
The copycat argument for me is a weak excuse for someones actions. Like you cite with reference to Project X and copycat parties, now these parties did happen and there were consequences for these actions. People who use the “copycat” defense is using it as an excuse for poor planning, and poor judgement. People who are caught in the act of a crime are trying to find an excuse for their behavior and excuse their actions. By saying that they committed a crime inspired from some form of media is them trying to mitigate their actions. Bundy killed people because he was a disturbed individual who deep psychological pathologies that led him to kill, not porn. As for having age restricted material I can see no real need for it other then it’s the state stepping in to do the role of parenting. Your example of Project X is already an age restricted item, it was rated R for a reason. For the Project X copycat parties I would be looking at the parents more than the movie or media. There is no reason for any material that is used to incite violence because the material itself is not violent, but the people who perform acts of violence are responsible. Those that act violently towards other people have poor impulse control and when caught for their crimes are looking for something that they can blame to ease their guilt for their actions.
ReplyDeleteAny person with the mental faculties to process, understand and plan something like a copycat party or porn-inspired sexual assault (notice I used “inspired” not “incited”) is also capable of predicting the consequences of those actions. I have to agree with Richard that, up to a certain age the burdon of engraining characteristics like empathy and responsibility lies with the parents. That being said, any 17-year-old with access to the resources necessary to pull off a party at a 500,000 house, almost undoubtedly has been educated well enough to distinguish a good idea from a reckless one. If you commit a crime and legitimately believe that a book, movie, song, whatever, made you do it, you shouldn’t be in jail but you should be receiving help from a mental help facility. That junk shows a dangerous lack of impulse control. The whole copycat concept has gotten out of control with its effect on what would otherwise be clear-cut legal issues.
ReplyDelete