NCJ Number
122463
Date Published
1987
Length
2 pages
Annotation
Portrayals of violence in the media correlate with an increase in suicides and homicides in areas where publicity is most intense.
Abstract
Just after heavily publicized suicides, there is an abrupt increase in daily and monthly suicide rates; the more publicity given the suicide, the greater the increase in subsequent suicides. One explanation for this finding is the coroner's tendency to record more deaths as suicides. There is a likelihood that covert as well as overt suicides occur after highly publicized suicides; for example, in automobile accidents following a publicized suicide, drivers tend to be unusually similar to the person described in the suicide story. After a murder/suicide in which somebody kills others as well as himself, there is typically an increase in multi-car passenger deaths. Regarding homicides, there tends to be an increase in the rate after the publication of a story where the perpetrator of violence is rewarded, such as in a prize fight. Daily homicides increase significantly after heavyweight prize fights, particularly in the case of helpless victims such as children under 5 years of age. Just as publicized rewarded violence contributes to an increase in the homicide rate, so publicized punished violence, such as an execution, tends to produce a drop in homicides immediately after the event.