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Could shooting suspect inspire copycats?Ev idence inconclusive,but similar crimes can come tightly groupedWashington PostWithin hours of the first gunshots, a nobody had become somebody. James Holmes, the man accused of kiiling 12 people in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, had a name, a face and a back story.The news media's focus on him also inspired some familiar criticism. Was the attention to the details of an alleged mass killer's life not just wrong but also potentially lethal? Could the media’s gaze inspire the next nobody to commit a similar act in a sick attempt to become somebody, too?How often must we see the alleged murderer's name in print and his face shown in photographs from happier times? asked noted criminologist James Alan Fox in a blog posting. It is perfectly reasonable to shed light on the tragic event without a media spotlight on the alleged assailant. It is shameless, if not dangerous, to trans-fonn an obscure individual into an infamous somebody who may be revered and admired by a few folks on the fringe.In other words, does the intense media focus encourage copycat criminals who may long for similar attention? Or perhaps embolden others who now see that such diabolical acts are possible?Ihe answer to that question is murky. Certainly, human behavior is imitative; we leam from each other. But the exact mechanisms that cause people to copy the*IkKatie Medley kisses her newborn son Hugo Jackson Medley at the hospital in Aurora, Colo, on Tuesday. When she gave birth to the healthy baby boy, her husband, Caleb, wounded in Colorado’s theater shooting, lay in a medically-induced coma one floor below her.anti-social behavior of other people, including the role played by reading or hearing about a crime, aren't well understood or studied.Certainly, there are tantalizing clues. Marilyn Monroe's suicide in 1962 allegedly triggered a spike in suicide among young women. Shootings by disgruntled workers at U.S. Postal Service facilities during the 1980s became so relatively common the phrase going postal” entered the language. The snipers who terrorized the Washington area in 2002 may have touched off imitators in Ohio, Florida, Britain and Spain shortly thereafter.And the spate of school shootings in the latter half of the 1990s, culminating in the horror atASSOCIATED PRESSColumbine High School, had multiple similarities. The shooters in those cases were all white teens from reasonably prosperous suburbs or small towns who believed they had been snubbed or ostracized by peers. It's plausible each school killer identified with and was motivated by his predecessors.Some people do get ideas that they hadn’t had before and are willing to try them out,” said Howard Zonana, a Yale professor of psychiatry and law. We're all susceptible to influences, to a degree. It could be that .someone is disgruntled enough and sees that he can go out in a big blast of fame.”Fox said the media should limit the amount of informationreported about criminal suspects, as is the practice in other countries, where victims and suspects' names are shielded until after a trial. He draws the line at stories that delve deep into a suspect's background, in which friends and neighbors describe the accused person's hob bies, habits and personality.It doesn’t help us understand what happened, Fox said in an interview. It doesn’t help us predict which individuals will do the same thing.” But he admits it’s hard to prove reporting about a crime leads to more of the same.What’s more, it's unclear why some crimes may lead to copycat-ting while others do not. The shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords last year, after all, didn't propel a wave of similar attacks on politicians.Nor is it certain why a wave or cluster of crimes suddenly stops. School shootings have waxed and waned for more than 100 years; shootings in postal facilities are all but unknown these days.Journalists may also take issue with Fox's assertion reportin; about alleged criminals has no socially beneficial effect. Such reporting has helped mental health professionals identify the factors that mass killers seem to have in common, such as personal failures or disappointment, social isolation or untreated mental issues.Extensive reporting about Seung Hui Cho, who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007 before killing himself, helped expose flaws in Virginia's mental health system, leading to reforms. Similarly, reporting about Columbine killers Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris likely gave school counselors, therapists, parents and teachers a heightened awareness of troubled teens.John LarimerVisitation Friday for Crystal Lake victimBy Paul Biascopbiasco® daily heraid. cornFuneral arraignments have been set for 27-year-old John I^arimer, the Crystal Lake man who died of a gunshot wound last week whileshielding his girlfriend from a gunman inside a Denver-area movie theater.A public visitation will be held Friday from 3 to 9 p.m. at Davenport Family Funeral Home, 419 E. Terra Cotta Ave. l^rimer's family plans a private funeral and Burial for family and close friends.Larimer, a Navy intelligence officer at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colo., is survived by his parents, Scott Murray and Kathleen Mary Larimer, and his four siblings: Nora Wilwert, Anne Price, Beth Croft and Noel Larimer. The 2003 graduate of Crystal Lake South High School was active on the school's speech team, in theater, in band and on the academic team, according to his obituary. After high school, he went on to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with a dual degree in political science and history and was involved with the History Honors Society.While seated in the middle of the crowded theater with his girlfriend, who was in Denver for a short visit, Larimer covered her body and took a bullet for here, saving her life.John immediately and instinctively covered me and brought me to the ground in order to protect me from any danger, Julia Vojtsek said in a prepared statement. Moments later, Jolin knowingly shielded me from a spray of gunshots.In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the John T. Jjmmer Memorial Fund through Citibank at 225 W. Virginia Ave. in Crystal Lake.
Newspaper Details
Chicago Daily Herald
Chicago, Illinois, US
Wed, Jul 25, 2012
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Blake B.
AL, USA 02 Feb 2022
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