The Murder Matrix: Influences of Movie Violence on Teens and the Mentally Ill

While researching stories of violence with some connection to movies, I came upon an article on ABCnews.go.com by Eric Choy and Susie L. Morris about some male youths who were plotting an extreme act of violence, but were caught before they could act on their plans. According to the article, the plan was to “kill three of their peers, then embark on a random shooting spree…when the teens were apprehended…they were in possession of guns, swords, and 2,000 rounds of ammunition, police said” (Choy, Morris). As they never had a chance to act out their plans, people may question if they were serious. Personally, teenagers in possession of guns and 2,000 rounds of ammo sounds deadly serious and I am very thankful they were caught.



Author Greg O'Bierne
Photo from Wikimedia Commons



I found this article interesting because it mentions the movie “The Matrix” as an obsession of one of the boys and a possible factor in their violent plans. In other articles, such as this one on Trutv.com by Katherine Ramsland, and this Boston.com article by Mark Schone, the Matrix is said to be one of the most often cited movies in defenses by people who commit violent crimes. The list of “Matrix” defendants includes:

• Josh Cooke, a 19-year-old who murder his adoptive parents.

• D.C. Sniper Lee Boyd Malvo.

• Tonda Lynn Ansley, a 36-year-old bartender who shot her landlady three times.

• Vadim Mieseges, a 27-year-old who killed and dismembered his landlady.

The common thread of these crimes is that they all declared a sense of ‘unreality’ such as in the Matrix where the world was just an evil illusion created by a computer. Combine this suggestion that the world is nothing but a dream with pre-existing mental illness, and you have a deadly cocktail where people are evil illusions in which there is no harm, or perhaps even justice served, in killing them. Had the movie not had the chance to make such a suggestion to already fragile minds, would they have murdered? We will probably never know the answer to this, but again as in past post, it is a possibly worth serious consideration.

The article by Choy and Morris also makes another interesting point: mental illness does not necessarily have to play a factor, especially with teenagers. In the case of the boys who were caught before they could commit any deadly crimes -  

“Dr. Thomas Van Hoose, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas' Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas [states] exposure to violence in the media often desensitizes viewers to the effects of real violence. ‘Couple [it] with the immaturity of teenagers, their self-centeredness, and their often unrealistic views of death and you can get a deadly combination of motives and actions that can lead to tragedy’” (Choy, Morris).

I really liked that quote because as soon as I saw it, as I felt it was a very accurate portrayal of why teenagers are particularly susceptible to suggestions of violence. It was a list of weaknesses of the teenage condition.

I hope you will take the time to read each of the articles cited in this post, especially if you have young children and teenagers. They combine to create a sobering picture of factors that can work in conjunction with media violence for bad outcomes.

Can playing violent video games increase the chances that someone will commit violence?

While there is no concrete evidence to support this theory, there is certainly enough circumstantial evidence to make it a hard theory to write off. Take the example of Daniel Petric, for instance. Petric spent as much as 18 hours playing the Halo videogame series, according to an article on cleancutmedia.com as well as articles from several other news websites. When his parents protested the amount of time he was dedicating to the violent video game and took his newly purchased Halo 3 game away, the teenager responded by shooting both parents a few weeks later, killing his mother and seriously wounding his father.

So how much effect could playing violent video games have had on Petric's actions?

In normal, everyday life without modern media, the likelihood of extreme violence being witnessed by any one person is significantly less. Personally, I have never even witnessed one person hitting another with intent to harm in real life, much less any significant violence. All the physical violence I have ever been exposed to has been through some form of media. And for someone such as myself who goes out of her way to avoid most violent media, I certainly feel like I have seen a plethora of violent acts too numerous to count in movies, on television, in video games, and on the internet. So what of the child or adult who goes out of the way to watch violent action films, bloody slasher movies, or like Petric, play violent video games?



Composite picture by SharkD. Original photos by
David Vignoni and Mysid.
Picture from Wikimedia Commons

 In this fascinating article from the Canadian Media Awareness Network website by Jonathan L. Freedman, both long-term and short-term research regarding the effects of media violence from the past several decades are compiled and summarized. While the article is careful to note the arguments against the theories of media effects on violence and known issues and limitations with the studies that were addressed, the overall conclusion of the studies noted seems to be that there is a viable relationship between media violence and aggressive behavior.

In relation to Petric's story of violence, this article indicates that his interactions with the Halo games could have had any of several different effects. For example:

 

• He could have been desensitized by the constant exposure to violence into feeling that violence is 'not real.' 
• Could have caused him to have less sympathy for victims of violence.
• Could have made him believe or feel that violence is a normal, everyday part of life.  
• Could have increased his level of aggression.

While we may never know for sure how significant a role these possibilities played in this act of violence, I believe every parent should regard these connections as serious possibilities and regulate how much violence their children are exposed to.

Video: Judge from Petric trial speaking on the effects of video games on the brain.

Video  posted on Youtube by The Chronicle - Telegram, a newspaper in Elyria, Ohio

Possible Link Between Two Murders and a Popular Television Show



Author Everaldo Coelho
Picture from Wikimedia Commons 



Everyone has heard the accusations time and time again that violent media is suspected of playing a role in recent acts of violence, particularly among teenagers and children. One may wonder how something as seemingly harmless and fun as watching television could possibly be a player in such horrors? According the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, while television violence is not the sole factor affecting violent behavior, they still feel it plays a large role. Please see Children and TV violence for more information.

While the world may never know with any certainly how true these associations are, there are strong indicators to be found in recent murder investigations.

Seventeen-year-old Anthony Conley’s case gives credence to the view that media violence can be a strong, negative influence. In late 2009, Conley turned himself in to police for the murder of his ten-year-old brother Conner. The method of murder was strangulation. An article about the killing on the ABC news website written by Emily Friedman states -

“Negangard said that when Conley was asked to explain his behavior by investigators the teen said he identified with Dexter Morgan, the main character in Showtime's "Dexter," which chronicles the life of an undercover Miami blood spatter expert who doubles as a serial killer.”

The article later goes on to talk about how Conley likened his need to kill to a craving for a hamburger – a very chilling analogy that speaks volumes of the boy’s state of mind.

Also mentioned in the article about Conley is a Canadian man, Mark Twitchell (you can read this story by Josh Gaynor on the ABC news website here), also accused of imitating the show “Dexter” when he murdered John Brian Altinger, a complete stranger he met on an internet dating site while posing as a woman.

These incidents and their connections to a popular television show raise the uneasy question: As violence on television becomes more acceptable and widespread by mass media as well as the general viewing public, are we setting ourselves up for many more incidents such as these in the future? Unfortunately, this is not an easy question to answer, and while many firmly believe that the answer is yes, there are those that firmly deny that violence in media plays any significant role in most, if any, violence. In a blog entry by Rhonda Callow, the theory that children who commit murder or other acts of violence are mentally ill and at worst, violent games and television just triggered what was already there. This point is argued against in an article published on sciencedaily.com, citing research done by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. The study found that factors other than mental illness were often better indicators of future violence.

The theory of media violence and exposure is a convoluted and hard to follow one at best, but I feel strongly that evidence points towards exposure to violence being a key factor in many violent acts. Not to say it plays a role in every single act of violence, of course, as people have been violent throughout history. However, there are so many strong links between certain recent acts of violence and media exposure that one should put some serious thought into whether the incidents in questions would have ever happened if not for the media violence exposure. In future posts, I shall examine several of these incidents as well as general arguments for and against this theory.