Citation

Stack S. Soc. Psychiatry Psychiatr. Epidemiol. 1989; 24(4): 202-208.

Affiliation

Department of Sociology, Auburn University, Alabama.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2502862

Abstract

Previous work on publicized violence on television newcasts has been largely restricted to suicidal behavior. Many of the cases of publicized suicide, however, involve not only a suicide but a murder; they could also trigger homicides. In addition, from Menninger's perspective, suicide involves both a wish to die and a wish to kill. Hence, publicized mass murders may trigger imitiative suicides as well as imitative homicides. Focusing on mass murder-suicides, and mass murders that made two or three network news (ABC, CBS & NBC), the present study explores their impact on lethal aggression. It uses monthly data from 1968-1980. Controls are introduced for seasonal and economic predictors of aggression. Publicized mass murder/suicides are significantly associated with increases in the suicide rate. The homicide rate, in contrast, is not affected by publicized mass-murder/suicides. Publicized mass murders, in general, were unrelated to lethal aggression. One special type, publicized gangland mass murders, were, however, associated with increases in suicide.

Language: en