Dexter - Showtime’s hit drama - may have been very entertaining for people, otherwise why would it have been so popular with eight seasons comprising ninety six episodes, but unfortunately not for the poor Conner. At the age of ten, his body was found dumped in a park. His own seventeen years old brother, Andrew Conley was convicted in his murder case, who told police interrogators: "I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's called 'Dexter,' and it's on Showtime. And I feel like him because he's a serial killer of bad people ... but I just feel like him." He had already told his girlfriend that he wanted to be like the Tv murderer.
Some people may assert that on screen violence has nothing to do with the incidence of violence in real life, but the bitter truth is that it is somehow interlinked with the crime happening in our society. What happened with poor Conner is not unique, but there are ample incidences to be put forth as evidence to prove that it really inspires people to commit crimes.
Scream - a cult horror movie of 90s - which follows the story of a slasher, who terrorises a sleepy American town, wearing a black tunic and mask, inspired the twenty four years old lonely truck driver Thierry Jaradin, who murdered fifteen years old schoolgirl Alisson Cambier in November 2001. American Psycho which is also one of my favourite movies, inspired fourteen years old Michael Hernandez, who lured his school friend into a bathroom, and then stabbed him for more than forty times - a brutal murder that got him sentenced to lifetime imprisonment. Fight Club - another popular movie - led to the explosion of home made bombs across New York City on Memorial Day weekend in 2009. The perpetrator was found to be Kyle Shaw, a seventeen years old boy, who was a member of a local boxing club. The teen later admitted that he was trying to launch his ‘Project Mayhem’ and thus he wanted to replicate the assaults on corporate America by a character in the movie Fight Club, which was released in 1999.
The Indian movies have also not left any stone unturned in their effort to portray violence on silver screen, which in turn inspired various criminal incidents in our society. In a movie titled Bunty and Babli, Abhishek Bachhan and Rani Mukarji pulled off con after con. They looted rich people dressed as local guides, religious priests etc. even fake selling of Taj Mahal at one point, and this inspired among others, Jagjeet and a woman, who were involved in over two dozen cases of attempt to murder, theft, robbery among others.
What causes people to be so much impacted by on screen violence is not much simpe, because there are various psychological and emotional reasons which may change in space and time, but some of them have got universal nature, and they may be helping on screen violence to inspire criminals to commit crimes in real life.
First possible reason behind people being inspired by on screen violence can be the glorification of violence on screen. If the character who is doing violence is the antagonist, then it doesn’t have that much impact, but the situation becomes grave when the protagonist plays the violent role, or the actor who is playing the role is a well established and very popular cinema star. Who can forget the abduction of SnapDeal employee Deepti Sarna! She was kidnapped and the culprit admitted that he was inspired by the character of Shah Rukh Khan in the movie Darr, which was released in 1993, and he played the role of a young psycho who is madly in love with a girl, but he has no courage to talk to her. He stalks her, turns her life into hell, and even tries to abduct her. So the impact is great when the antagonist character was played by one of the charismatic actors of Indian cinema, and the same also goes for Andrew who wanted to replicate the protagonist of Dexter . When a protagonist does violence, the audience can absorb it and tolerate it easily, and here comes another reason behind the impact of on screen violence on society, which is the justification of violence.
Justification of violence on screen, may have two possible repercussions. The first one is that on one hand, it urges some people to commit violence, and on the other hand it prepares common people to tolerate the violence if it looks glorious, and resembles a protagonist’s acts of violence in a particular movie. What that happened in the brutal rape and murder case of a veterinary doctor from Hydrabad, named Priyanka Reddy. Hyderabad police shot dead the four persons accused in the crime, and for no surprise, people were praising and justifying the move of the cops, and the reason may be the frustration from the system and procedure of justice in our society, but the on screen violence by protagonists were also a possible reason behind that justification. I came across a post on Instagram written in the format which is in vogue on social media. It read: “Kids arrest. Adults interrogate. Legends deliver justice”. The picture was portraying the character of Ranveer Singh in Simmba, where he does the same with person accused in rape and murder case, while playing the role of a cop.
Another possible reason behind the people being inspired by movies to commit crime is that the movies are usually written by those writers who are doyens of creativity. They present the story and the actions within, which lead to the climax and its denouement, with unprecedented creativity. A normal person who could have never thought of planning such a trap, may now get an idea and a creative way, and may do similar to what happened in the movie. I am not saying it hypothetically, because Special 26, starring Akshay Kumar in lead role, inspired the armed robbers posing as CBI officials, struck the Hyderabad branch of Muthoot Finance, and left with 40kg of gold. "First one of them dressed as a traffic cop went inside and said officers from the CBI have arrived. Then another one posing as a CBI official said they were there for a search after receiving information that people were converting black money into gold post demonetisation," Cyberabad CP Sandeep Shandilya said. The modus operandi was very similar to the plot of Special 26, where a group posing as CBI officials raids a jewellery store in Mumbai. A gang of cheats was busted in Delhi, who duped people by selling them the plots owned by DDA. It was inspired by the role of Kishan Khurana played by Boman Irani in the popular satire comedy movie, Khosla Ka Ghosla released in 2013.
The reason behind children being inspired by on screen violence is something different. They might be more vulnerable than adults, as they are often unable to comprehend and understand the complexity and of many plots, and so may interpret the violence they watch, and its consequences in a different way to an adult watching the same material.
Despite the links between on screen violence and the violence being committed in our society, one can never say that all crimes or a particular crime was committed only because the perpetrator had watched a violent movie and then he did that violence, but as Anderson from Iowa State University stressed, “media violence is only one of many risk factors for later aggressive and violent behavior. Furthermore, extremely violent behavior never occurs when there is only one risk factor present. Thus, a healthy, well-adjusted person with few risk factors is not going to become a school-shooter just because they start playing a lot of violent video games or watching a lot of violent movies.”
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