How Crime become Contagious through Mass Media

By Omar Javaid

It’s quite disturbing to note that there is an alarming rise in the incidents of rape and molestation of minor girls. It’s hard to imagine how anyone can even think of committing such a heinous crime. Despite the worrisome rise; the news of culprits getting punished by the court of law is seldom heard, may be because criminals either are not prosecuted, or even if they are, their prosecution is not covered by the media like their crimes. Could this unbalanced coverage have somehow contributed in this recent surge in various unfortunate incidents in society, let alone rape?

Malcolm Gladwell in his best seller book 'The Tipping Point' shares findings of a research conducted by David Phillips (a University of California Sociologist) in a case study at the end of his book titled 'Suicide, Smoking, and the search for the unsticky Cigarette'. This research explored any connection between (a) news coverage of a suicide incident and (b) the rise of suicide rates in a city or town during the next few days where the news was broadcasted. The findings are sobering which suggested that there is indeed a significant link between the two! The news did increase the suicide rates…

Pakistani media reported a sometime back that 5 year old minor was raped and left outside a hospital in Lahore. If we draw parallel in between the said research and various crimes occurring in a society, then it would be wrong to assume that such a coverage will give “…other people, particularly those vulnerable to suggestion because of immaturity or mental illness [or political support in Pakistani context perhaps], permission [in a 'follow the crowd' sense] to engage in a deviant act as well... [such] stories are a kind of natural advertisement for a particular response to your problems", suggests Gladwell while referring to David Phillips on page 223 of his book. Could this be causing or might cause a rise in rape of minors or teenage girls, suicide among young students, or other crimes in the country?

If we agree with Gladwell (or Phillips, for that matter), then the implications are quite disturbing. Pakistani media outlets race each other and take pride in being the first one to highlight every crime in the country. This might be encouraging more perverted minds to commit any heinous crime after watching the coverage of such crimes, including the re-enactments.

We live in a country where poverty, unemployment and illiteracy are rampant though majority of the population have access to the temptations marketed by the mass media as television are installed at various public places. Frustrated population being tempted by mass media 24/7 can't really help reduce such unfortunate incidents; rather the opposite is more likely to be true.

A hadith of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w also instruct Muslims to suppress the news of a crime, whereas the penal code recommended by Islam requires punishing in public so that everyone learns a lesson. Main stream media is perhaps doing quite the opposite to gain viewership; crime is glorified and highlighted exclusively whereas the news of prosecutions are mentioned only briefly, if they may arise. More crime and less prosecution by the courts could be an excuse; however the ability of media to suppress or highlight any news doesn’t require an appraisal.

A justification is also often given by various journalists and anchors that it’s the job of media to highlight the crime so that sufficient pressure is generated on law enforcement act quickly. The Shahzeb Murder case is an example. But the flip side of the story can't also be ignored i.e. how many more would have encouraged to see the fate of murders of Shahzeb in the entire episode. On the contrary if the murders would have been hanged in public and shown live on prime time television then obviously the impact would have been quite the opposite.

The mainstream media in Pakistan therefore needs to show some maturity and social responsibility. How this would be done isn't a rocket science, specifically in the context of this article. The more important question is: does the will to do so really exist?

About the author: about.me/omarjavaid