Copycat Effects Research Articles

Who lives, who dies, who decides: Differences between mass public shooters who survive, are killed, and commit suicide

AbstractThis study provides an in‐depth analysis of American mass public shooting conclusions between 1966 and 2017. Specifically, this work examines differences in factors contributing to the perpetrator's likelihood of surviving, being killed, and committing suicide. Ten hypotheses, rooted in previous homicide, suicide, homicide‐suicide, and mass public shooting literature consider different psychological, situational, and background factors shaping the outcome of mass public shootings. Significant findings indicate factors influencing perpetrators' suicide include suicidal ideation, higher victim counts, and suicide copycat effects. Factors influencing perpetrators being killed similarly include higher victim counts, the arrival of law enforcement, lethal/non‐lethal resistance, and government targets. This investigation provides practical implications for practitioners and policymakers, especially law enforcement and mental health practitioners, seeking to develop intervention and prevention strategies for addressing suicidal ideation and its most lethal outcome: mass public shootings.

Using the Responsible Suicide Reporting Model to increase adherence to global media reporting guidelines

Numerous guidelines on responsible reporting of suicide are available to journalists globally, offering advice on best practice regarding approaches and suitability of content. Whilst their advice is compelling and legitimate, their use is uneven at best. With a suicide death every 40 seconds worldwide, it is imperative journalists understand and recognise the best ethical practices in order to report suicide responsibly. To address these shortcomings, the authors present a model for responsible suicide reporting (RSR) that is grounded in news-work and embeds media reporting guidelines within journalistic storytelling practices. The RSR model consists of a typology of suicide narratives and ‘othering’, ethical rules and a standard of moderation. Methodologically, these typologies emerged from analysis of 159 suicide news stories published in 2018–19, with particular focus on adherence and non-adherence to global media reporting guidelines. We posit through the process of producing stories using the RSR model, journalists should interact more effectively with critical risk factors for example, stigmatisation, copycat effects, harmful speculation, highlighted by media reporting guidelines.

Evolution and study of a copycat effect in intimate partner homicides: A lesson from Spanish femicides.

ObjectivesThis paper focuses on the issue of intimate partner violence and, specifically, on the distribution of femicides over time and the existence of copycat effects. This is the subject of an ongoing debate often triggered by the social alarm following multiple intimate partner homicides (IPHs) occurring in a short span of time. The aim of this research is to study the evolution of IPHs and provide a far-reaching answer by rigorously analyzing and searching for patterns in data on femicides.MethodsThe study analyzes an official dataset, provided by the system VioGén of the Secretaría de Estado de Seguridad (Spanish State Secretariat for Security), including all the femicides occurred in Spain in 2007-2017. A statistical methodology to identify temporal interdependencies in count time series is proposed and applied to the dataset. The same methodology can be applied to other contexts.ResultsThere has been a decreasing trend in the number of femicides per year. No interdependencies among the temporal distribution of femicides are observed. Therefore, according to data, the existence of copycat effect in femicides cannot be claimed.ConclusionsAround 2011 there was a clear change in the average number of femicides which has not picked up. Results allow for an informed answer to the debate on copycat effect in Spanish femicides. The planning of femicides prevention activities should not be a reaction to a perceived increase in their occurrence. As a copycat effect is not detected in the studied time period, there is no evidence supporting the need to censor media reports on femicides.

The role of media in preventing student suicides: A Hong Kong experience

IntroductionIn view of the surge of student suicides in March 2016, a large-scale media involvement was engaged to minimize copycat effects and to extensively spread more preventive information. MethodsTrend differences between student suicides in overall as well as youth suicides between 2003 and 2016 were examined. Impacts of media involvement were examined as to the changes of their intensities in reporting student suicides in different manners. Local polynomial smoothing method was used to estimate the intensities throughout the study period. ResultsThe intensity of students’ suicides has been slowly increasing since 2006, which was in contrast to the decreasing trend of overall suicide intensity. After our engagement with the media, acute descriptive-reporting in student suicide news has sharply dropped and remained low since then, whereas preventive-reporting has increased sharply in March and April 2016, but dropped back to normal afterwards. The higher intensity of preventive-reporting seemed to have a protective effect on student suicide. LimitationsData of student suicides in 2016 were substantially extracted from the local news, which may not contain complete information. The analyses suggested, but could not confirm, a causal relationship between the changes of student suicide news-reporting and the incidents of suicides themselves. ConclusionsThe recent surge of student suicides in Hong Kong was statistically abnormal. Media engagement has changed local suicide news-reporting to become more preventive, which could have contributed to the drop of student suicides. It is essential to sustain the media's coverage of preventive reporting to maintain its enduring effect.

Don’t Name Them, Don’t Show Them, But Report Everything Else: A Pragmatic Proposal for Denying Mass Killers the Attention They Seek and Deterring Future Offenders

Prior research has shown that many mass shooters have explicitly admitted they want fame and have directly reached out to media organizations to get it. These fame-seeking offenders are particularly dangerous because they kill and wound significantly more victims than other active shooters, they often compete for attention by attempting to maximize victim fatalities, and they can inspire contagion and copycat effects. However, if the media changes how they cover mass shooters, they may be able to deny many offenders the attention they seek and deter some future perpetrators from attacking. We propose that media organizations should no longer publish the names or photos of mass shooters (except during ongoing searches for escaped suspects), but report everything else about these crimes in as much detail as desired. In this article, we (1) review the consequences of media coverage of mass shooters, (2) outline our proposal, (3) show that its implementation is realistic and has precedent, (4) discuss anticipated challenges, and (5) recommend future steps for consensus building and implementation.

Mass Killings in the United States from 2006 to 2013: Social Contagion or Random Clusters?

In line with previous research on suicide and social contagion, there has been widespread speculation that mass killings-which often involve suicidal offenders-are socially contagious for up to 14days. This study tested these claims by making comparisons (i) between observed chronological clusters of mass killings in the United States from 2006 to 2013 and clusters in 500 simulations containing 116,000 randomly generated dates, and then (ii) between observed mass killings receiving varying levels of public attention. No evidence of short-term contagion was found, although longer term copycat effects may exist. Further scholarly and policy implications are discussed.

Media effects on suicide methods: A case study on Hong Kong 1998-2005.

BackgroundPrevious studies have suggested that mass media’s reports of new suicide methods will increase suicides using the same method. The same pattern seems not to apply to a conventional suicide method, unless it was used by a celebrity.Objective1) to examine media effects on both new and non-new suicide methods during 1998 and 2005 in Hong Kong (HK), when a new method by burning charcoal (CB suicide) was spreading in the region. 2) to examine how CB competed with non-CB methods in terms of media coverage and “recruiting” suicidal persons in the socio-economic context.MethodsA self- and mutual- exciting process model was fitted to the data, adjusting for divorce rate, unemployment rate, and property price index. Breaking the whole period into onset, peak, and post-peak stages, the model was fitted again to examine the differences.ResultsComparable copycat effects were found on both CB and non-CB suicide news. The only cross-method media effects were found in the onset stage when non-CB suicide news showed suppressing effect on CB suicides. CB suicides reported a significant self-excitation effect. A higher divorce rate and lower property price index were associated with significantly more suicides incidences and more suicide news.ConclusionsThe emerging of CB suicide method did not substitute media coverage of non-CB suicide in HK. Media effects in this case were not limited to new suicide method or celebrity suicide. The effects were further fueled by adverse socio-economic conditions.

“We Don’t Cover Suicide … (Except When We Do Cover Suicide)”

Unlike many other unnatural deaths, suicides are occurrences that journalists often hesitate to cover. “Our policy is not to write about suicides,” many journalists say. Except that often they do. This article, based on interviews with 50 US journalists, examines the rationales that journalists invoke as they decide whether to cover a suicide. This can be a high-risk decision because of the potential for suicide contagion and copycat effects. We conclude that in making a decision to cover a suicide, journalists go through a process of routinizing what, at the outset, they had considered an exceptional situation. This routinization provides a means to rationalize covering a death that they often say they would prefer to ignore.

Celebrity suicide on the railway network: Can one case trigger international effects?

BackgroundAfter the railway suicide of the German national goalkeeper Robert Enke in 2009, a significant increase of railway suicides was observed nationally. This study analyses whether this incident also triggered copycat effects in other European countries. Additionally, media coverage proxied by Google Trends and long-term changes taking into account general changes in suicide rates and kilometres driven by trains were examined. MethodsThe numbers of railway suicides before and after Enke´s suicide were analysed for short and long-term periods (2 weeks and 2 years post-event) across five European countries. Incidence ratios and resulting percentage changes were computed. ResultsSimilar to Germany, there were significant short and long-term effects for the combined data of the four other countries (increase of 93.9%; p=0.004 and 16.7%; p=0.003). There was no indication that long-term effects are a mere reflection of an overall increase in suicide frequencies or due to increased numbers of kilometres driven by trains. Analyses on country level revealed heterogeneous results. LimitationsDue to incomplete data, analyses regarding age and gender were not performed. Media coverage was only proxied by a Google Trends analysis. The study includes a small sample of European countries. ConclusionsEnke's suicide in 2009 was followed by increasing train suicide numbers in Europe. Although this incident may have reinforced an existing European trend of growing railway suicides, an international copycat effect and/or an increased overall awareness about this particular suicide method appears to be one likely explanation for the changes.

Between Werther and Papageno effects

Research on the impact of suicide depictions in the media is traditionally focussed on two possible outcomes: on the one hand, there is ample evidence for additional copycat effects after media coverage of suicides referred to as the Werther effect but on the other hand, suicide rates decrease after appropriate media depictions of suicides referred to as the Papageno effect. It is still uncertain what exactly qualifies studies that only limitedly support an imitative or preventive media effect, i.e. studies with ambiguous findings, as they are often disregarded. The present literature review focuses on equivocal studies (n = 25) on copycat suicides that were systematically analyzed based on theoretically derived criteria. The results of the systematic analysis of all identified studies imply that media effects on suicidality are better understood and discussed as a continuum between the two extremes that were introduced as either a damaging Werther effect or a beneficial Papageno effect. Future studies must clarify what factors contribute to a shift from ambiguous findings to harmful media effects on individual suicidality.

EPA-0502 - A systematic analysis of all studies that ambiguously prove copycat suicides after media coverage of suicide

Research on the impact of suicide reports is traditionally focussed on two possible outcomes: On the one hand, there is ample evidence for additional copycat effects after media coverage of suicides referred to as ‘Werther-Effect’, on the other hand, suicide rates decrease after appropriate media depictions of suicides referred to as ‘Papageno-Effect’. In contrast, studies that only limitedly support these imitative or preventive effects – i.e. all ambiguous findings – are hardly regarded. The present study exclusively focuses on all studies (n = 28) with equivocal findings on the connection between media coverage of suicides and factual suicides and aims to systematically analyse central characteristics of these studies. A qualitative content analysis of identified studies has been conducted whose results are systematized in Table 1. The analysis shows that a lion's share of ambiguous studies draws on aggregate data and unidirectionally hypothesises harmful media effect, which only insufficiently describes reality. Future hypotheses on the imitation of suicides should be formulated in a more differentiated (bi-directional) way and studies should include content analyses of media coverage as far as possible.Table 1 Analysis of all studies that ambiguously prove copycat suicides after media coverage of suicides. Table 1 Analysis of all studies that ambiguously prove copycat suicides after media coverage of suicides.

One followed by many?—Long-term effects of a celebrity suicide on the number of suicidal acts on the German railway net

BackgroundFollowing the railway suicide of Robert Enke, a famous German football goal keeper, short-term copycat effects have been found. Main aims of the present study were to analyze long-term effects of this incidence and to compare them with overall national suicide data, as well as to investigate possible “anniversary effects”. MethodsFor long-term effects, the number of railway suicidal acts in the two years before and after Robert Enke's suicide (10th November 2009) were compared. For anniversary effects, the corresponding 2-week-periods in 2009, 2010 and 2011 were analyzed. Incidence ratios with 95% confidence intervals were computed. ResultsCompared to the two years before Enke's suicide the incidence ratio of the number of railway suicidal acts in the 2-year-period following this event increased by 18.8% (95% confidence interval (CI)=11.0–27.1%; p<0.001). The median number of suicidal acts per day increased from 2 to 3 (p<0.001). This effect remains significant after excluding short-term 2-week effects of Enke's suicide. An anniversary effect was not present. The increase of fatal railway suicides between 2007 and 2010 (25%) was significantly different from that for the total number of suicides in Germany (6.6%) (p<0.0001). LimitationsDue to missing data, analyses regarding gender were limited and regarding age not feasible. ConclusionsLong-term effects of Enke's suicide on railway suicidal acts in Germany in the sense of copycat behavior are probable as this increase cannot be explained by corresponding changes of the total number of suicides in Germany.

Darstellung von Suizidalität in deutschsprachigen Jugendmedien in Oesterreich und ihr Einfluss auf die Suizidprävalenz

We analyzed the quality of suicide reporting in youth magazines and assessed potential copycat effects following media reports on suicide. We obtained suicide-related articles from five Austrian and German youth magazines published between 1996 and 2008. Reported sex, suicide (attempt) methods, suicide motives, the portrayal of suicide in a positive or negative light, accusations of blame and consistency with media recommendations for the reporting of suicide were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The suicide frequency among adolescents in Austria was compared 2 weeks before and after the publication of reports on suicide and suicide attempts. 59 articles were identified, most of which had been published in the magazine Bravo. There was an overrepresentation of suicide among girls and an underrepresentation of attempted suicide. The frequency of specific suicide and suicide attempt methods was consistent with epidemiological distributions of suicide methods. Fall from height was most frequently described for girls and hanging for boys. Regarding motives for suicide, factors like psychiatric diseases were underrepresented. Girls who died by suicide were often positively described in articles, but boys were more often negatively described. Parents were frequently blamed as being guilty of their child's suicidal behaviour, in particular when reporting on suicide attempts. Photos, suicide notes and details concerning method were frequently described. There was no indication of a Werther effect following reporting. The identified discrepancies between epidemiologic data regarding suicidal behaviour in adolescents and media reporting in youth media constitutes an important basis for suicide prevention in the community.

The foxconn suicides and their media prominence: is the werther effect applicable in china?

BackgroundMedia reporting of suicide and its relationship with actual suicide has rarely been investigated in Mainland China. The "Foxconn suicides" is a description referring to a string of suicides/attempts during 2010, all of which were related to a giant electrical manufacturing company, Foxconn. This study aimed to examine the clustering and copycat effects of the Foxconn suicides, and to investigate temporal patterns in how they were reported by the media in Mainland China, Hong Kong (HK), and Taiwan (TW).MethodsRelevant articles were collected from representative newspapers published in three big cities in Mainland China (Beijing (BJ), Shenzhen (SZ), and Guangzhou (GZ)), HK, and TW, together with searching intensity data on the topic conducted using the Baidu search engine in Mainland China. The temporal clustering effects of the Foxconn suicides and their media prominence were assessed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The media reports of the Foxconn suicides' temporal patterns were explored using a nonparametric curve estimation method (that is, the local linear method). The potential mutual interactions between the Foxconn suicides and their media prominence were also examined, using logistic and Poisson regression methods.ResultsThe results support a temporal clustering effect for the Foxconn suicides. The BJ-based newspapers' reporting and the occurrence of a Foxconn suicide/attempt are each found to be associated with an elevated chance of a further Foxconn suicide 3 days later. The occurrence of a Foxconn suicide also immediately influenced the intensity of both Baidu searching and newspaper reporting. Regional diversity in suicide reporting tempo-patterns within Mainland China, and similarities between HK and TW, are also demonstrated.ConclusionsThe Foxconn suicides were temporally clustered. Their occurrences were influenced by the reporting of BJ-based newspapers, and contagion within the company itself. Further suicide research and prevention work in China should consider its special media environment.

Recurrent issues in efforts to prevent homicidal youth violence in schools: Expert opinions

Developmental research on social influences on adolescents can guide practices aimed to prevent homicidal youth violence. School shootings have repeatedly raised questions about the contributory role of bullying and entertainment violence, how news media publicity might produce copycat crimes, and whether stiffer criminal sanctions might have a deterrent effect. This article presents the thoughts and recommendations of a group of experts on these topics summarizing the current knowledge base. In brief, bullying reduction programs may be a useful early prevention effort. Television and video games with violent themes can encourage aggressive behavior, but these media can be used to teach more prosocial behavior as well. The potential copycat effects of highly publicized crimes might be diminished with more restrained reporting, although more research is needed. Finally, there is substantial evidence that increased criminal sanctions for youthful offenders have not had a deterrent effect.

Copycat effects after media reports on suicide: A population-based ecologic study

This study aimed to investigate whether the risk of increased suicide occurrence after reports on suicide is associated with the social characteristics of the reported suicides and whether this varies with similarity between the reported suicides and suicides in the population. We collected reports on all 179 individual suicides named in the 13 largest Austrian nationwide newspapers from 1996 to 2006. Information on social status and sociodemographic characteristics of the reported suicides, on certainty of labelling the death as a suicide, and on the suicide methods applied were extracted from the articles. We conducted logistic regression analyses, with the increase of post-report suicides within 28 days after the reports as dependent variable. In model 1, the increase of suicides that matched the reported individual suicide with regard to age group, sex and suicide method was used as outcome variable. In model 2, the increase of suicides that were different from the reported suicide with regard to these characteristics was the outcome. In model 3, the post-report increase of total suicides was the dependent variable. Celebrity status of the reported suicide, age of the reported suicide between 30 and 64 years, and definitive labelling as a suicide were associated with an increased risk of a post-report increase of similar suicides; criminality (i.e. the individual was reported as suspected or convicted of crime) of the reported suicide was associated with a lower risk of a post-report increase. In dissimilar suicides, none of the variables was associated with a post-report increase of suicides. Celebrity status of the reported suicide was the only predictor of a post-report increase of total suicides. The findings support the hypothesis that social variables of reported suicides impact the risk of post-report copycat behaviour. Evidence of copycat effects seemed to be strongest in suicides that were similar to the respective model with regard to age group, sex, and suicide method.

The Media and Suicide

The authors aim to inform readers of the theory that when newspapers, film, and television describe suicidal deaths, additional suicides may result by virtue of contagion or copy-cat effects; to review data that support and refute this theory; to present some promising and recommended ways to prevent copy-cat suicide; and to cite news-media examples of both particularly bad and good reporting. A review of the literature on media-related suicide was conducted, which included reviewing materials published in scientific journals and data published by the U.S. Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, and materials from private, not-for-profit agencies. Data support an increased number of suicides resulting from media accounts of suicide that romanticize or dramatize the description of suicidal deaths. Specific guidelines for the media that may be able to decrease these additional deaths have been devised. Psychiatrists should be familiar with the harm that may result from improper reporting of suicide in the media since they may be called upon by reporters or family members following the suicide of one of their patients or following the suicide of a newsworthy person. Following the media guidelines available may prevent such contagion effects from occurring.