Notes from criminology website

http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/learning.htm
From: Greek, Cecil. 1997a. Copy-cat crimes. In Rasmussen, R. Kent (ed.). Ready reference: Censorship. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press.

Until the 1980s there was little empirical research dealing exclusively with copycat crime.
For example, an Australian study used a 3-year timeframe to compare police data on bank and other armed robberies with local newspaper stories on robberies during the same period. Robberies were compared for two 7-day periods immediately before and after the date of any newspaper story reporting a successful robbery. There was no evidence of any copycat effect following newspaper stories or after possible word-of-mouth communication about the commission of high-value bank robberies. Research results did not support the idea that newspaper reports of successful bank robberies stimulate copycat robberies of banks or other targets.

Ray Surette has done extensive research on copycat crimes since the mid-1980s. He argues that copycat crime is a persistent social phenomenon, common enough to influence the total crime picture, but mainly by influencing crime techniques rather than the motivation to commit a crime or the development of criminal tendencies.

In some cases, alleged copycats have stated they knew nothing of the previous publicized incident.

In 1995, a group of Tampa, FL teens bragged to police they stole cars and
shoot at robbery victims because earlier in the same week a 12-year-old
repeat robber had been granted probation rather than prison. The case had been given major media attention. Since terrorism is partially driven by media attention, it is not surprising that terrorists choose to repeat methods that have produced high media ratings in the past.

(This post isn't finished, I'm planning to refine and use this research)

Type of source: Secondary academic

Benefits of source:
- Academic, so more trustworthy than some websites.
- Relates copycat crime to other sources of media - ie newspapers, makes the link that if criminals receive publicity for something, it is likely to be repeated
- Use of examples, ie of research studies/theorists

Limitations of source:
- Published in 1997, so quite out of date
- Examples aren't named, so I cannot do much further research