Every year, new shows and spin-offs are added to the growing television crime drama genre. Due to their increasing prevalence, it is crucial to research any potential effects they may have on society and the way individuals perceive violence and malfeasance. The question that now emerges is whether these performances have an impact on how people view the criminal justice system. One’s impression of criminality in today’s culture can have a significant impact on how safe people feel and how they perceive the judicial process. How crime and criminals are depicted in media is such a critical challenge that holds the potential to shift insight. The media coverage, which encompasses true crime and non-fictional incidents, and fictitious cop shows and movies are among the most widely watched programmes. Given the number of people who follow these episodes and their ability to shape how folks assume, it is vital to comprehend how they impact both the minds of spectators and as well as offenders. Crime dramas mostly present an erroneous picture of how the judicial system functions putting public perceptions of how the system handles offenders and giving a blurry vision of settling crimes in jeopardy. Everyone wants to feel safe, but the media’s portrayal portrays how that system operates can change how people view crime and criminals. These impressions may include dread, bewilderment, rage, or even consolation if a particular programme consistently depicts cases being resolved and the “bad guy” being nabbed. Crime series in particular were picked because they each have a unique focus, such as missing person cases, forensic science, remarkable tragedies, and behavioral analysis. It can be concerning that people would believe what they see on television about the criminal justice system. People seem to think that crime dramas are genuine when they present themselves in a style that resembles realism. Watching crime dramas, regardless of whether they’re imaginary or not, can lead to a variety of interpretations, opinions, and sentiments. But does this really help to raise awareness, or is it merely worsening the situation? Are the criminals being influenced by what they are seeing on the screen?
Also Read: DNA evidence helped connecting the accused to the Eliza Fletcher kidnapping and homicide case
Needless to say, a bunch of crimes occurred where the criminal mimicked the style of a criminal presented in movies or TV Shows. Here we will discuss some heinous criminals who attempted their crime pattern from nine famous shows.
1. An 18-year-old from New York City attempted his own uprising after watching David Fincher’s 1999 homage to the ills of the corporate World. In 2009, Kyle Shaw, then 17 years old, detonated a device outside an Upper East Side Starbucks. The bomb was constructed of firecrackers, a plastic container, and an electrical sellotape. According to the police, Shaw intended to implement his own version of “Project Mayhem” and imitate the scheme conceived by Brad Pitt’s character “Tyler Durden” in “Fight Club.” The adolescent’s love of the Chuck Palahniuk novel and film was well acknowledged; a former classmate recalled that the kid expressed a desire to see the film in our English class when he was in the eleventh grade. He recommended they watch this movie as an example when they were debating philosophy in class. Shaw admitted to attempting to start a fire and to possessing a firearm in a criminal manner. He was given a three-and-a-half-year prison term and a five-year probationary period.
2. James Holmes, a gunman from Colorado, committed crime by imitating “Joker” from “The Dark Knight Rises.” When the 24-year-old was apprehended by police, he declared, “I am the Joker.” Several scenes from Frank Miller’s 1986 Batman comic book series, “The Dark Knight Rises,” have similarities to the slaughter that took place inside the Century 16 theatre. In that comic book series, the Joker uses “smile gas” to kill the cheering crowd. Holmes used smoke grenades in the theatre to start his rampage. The character Arnold Crimp, a deranged individual who recently lost his job, is also seen in the series pulling a revolver in an adult movie theatre and killing three people. Holmes also had his residence booby-trapped, which was the preferred method of the joker.
Also Read: Flesh and Bones – A Short Story
3. In the 2010 film “The Town,” Ben Affleck made bank robbery look simple. He needed only a nun’s robe, a large bag, and a few semi-automatic weapons. When an Illinois couple attempted to carry off a heist inspired by the film in 2011, assaulting a suburban Chicago bank while wearing nuns’ attire and eerie latex masks, they discovered that the recipe didn’t exactly work in the real world. No ammunition was fired, and no one was hurt despite the suspects pointing firearms at the bank staff. They reportedly fled with a Nike duffel bag containing $120,000. Robbery charges were brought against Navahcia Edwards, who had worked at the bank branch before. On the day of the crime, her longtime partner purportedly covered the bank.
4. Teenagers fell head over heels for Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in the initial installment of the “Twilight” saga. It was also held accountable for making one Iowan teen crazy. A vice principal at their school conducted an investigation when a guy classmate bit a 13-year-old girl, and discovered that the kid had attacked 10 other students in a single month. When the child’s father was approached, he claimed that his son’s fondness of the “Twilight” movie was what motivated him to bite his friends. The youngster was transferred to juvenile prisons.
Also Read: Sir Sydney Smith and Three Bones
5. At least one legitimate murder contains references to the popular Showtime series ‘Dextertext’, which was about a serial murderer. Conner Conley, a 10-year-old lad, was strangled by 17-year-old Andrew Conley in 2009 using only his fists. Prosecutor Aaron Negangard stated that he has confessed on multiple occasions he had dreamt about killing people. He admitted to us that he was going through books on serial killers and watched Dexter. In fact, Conley said that one hour into the police’s initial questioning of him, “I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, but it’s on Showtime and is called “Dexter.” Despite the fact that he is a serial killer of undesirable individuals, I can’t help but feel like him.” Even a life sentence in prison didn’t stop Conley’s fascination with “Dexter.” Conley’s obsession with “Dexter” persisted despite receiving a life term in prison. In a jail tape, Conley talks about the most recent events in the show’s plot asking the visiting friend things like, “Whoa, and did Dexter kill Trinity?” and “So Dexter was arrested? Dang. That’s great.”
6. The original “Scream” movie from 1996 served as inspiration for at least one major murder. The movie turned the horror genre on its head with goofy, frequently funny killing sequences. Thierry Jaradin, a 24-year-old Belgian truck driver, stabbed his 15-year-old neighbor Alisson Cambier 30 times in 2001 while sporting the “Scream” killers’ infamous black robe and ghoulish mask. The Guardian claims that he assaulted her because she declined his love proposals.
7. The brutal murder of former President Ronald Regan is likely the most well-known atrocity to have been motivated by Martin Scorsese’s film ‘Taxi Driver’. A wannabe composer named John Hinckley Jr. has an obsessive fixation with Jodie Foster, who played a character named Iris in this film. Foster plays a 12-year-old prostitute in the 1976 movie, which Travis Bickle attempts to save. Later on in the movie, Bickle tries to kill a senator who is running for president. On March 30, 1981, as Reagan was leaving a Washington, D.C. Hilton, Hinckley aimed six bullets at him in what he subsequently claimed was an effort to get Foster’s recognition. Reagan was wounded by one bullet, and James Brady, his press secretary, was shot in the head by a second round. The shooting, according to Hinckley, was the best love gesture in the history of the universe. “Everybody, but everybody, knows about John and Jodie,” he claimed. He was ultimately declared not guilty due to insanity.
8. The sci-fi blockbuster “The Matrix” implies that our reality is really an illusion created by a computer. Since the original movie was released in 1999, there have been a number of violent crime cases where defense lawyers have invoked “The Matrix defense” on behalf of their clients. The lawyers started to claim that the guilty person thought they were in a separate dimension as shown in the movie. The most well-publicized case involved Lee Boyd Malvo, who had been indicted on murder charges for sniper assaults in the Washington, D.C., region in 2002. Malvo was rumored to be fixated on the psyche control and hazy reality world that “The Matrix” depicted. Malvo’s obsession persisted while he was imprisoned. On the wall of his cell, he scrawled, “Free yourself of The Matrix.” Moreover, Vadim Mieseges, a San Francisco resident, dismembered his landlady and successfully utilized “The Matrix defense.” He admitted to acting after becoming “sucked into The Matrix” by the cops. He claimed a not guilty by grounds of lunacy plea, which the judge approved.
9. Mickey and Mallory Knox, the major characters in the 1994 film “Natural Born Killers,” were inspired by a real-life serial killer couple, Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate who killed a number of people in the span of1957-1958. However, The movie characters were then charged with being the motivation behind a series of horrendous crimes, such as the Columbine high school massacre in 1999. A defense attorney for the Columbine victims and their families made a bid to file a lawsuit against the Woody Harrelson film’s production house, as well as the studios behind “The Basketball Diaries,” “Doom,” and “Mortal Kombat,” He alleged that they motivated the murderer Dylan Klebold to commit mass murder. In 2001, the appeal was denied.
