About mass murders. There has been much discussion about whether to make public the name, picture and writing of the perpetrator(s).
Media folks tend to say the public has a right to any information about the killers in the hope that such publicizing will aid in the discovery and motives of the killers.
Others appear to say that such publicity may stimulate a copy-cat event. Information about such events appear to indicate that the killer(s) want notoriety and recognition for having done the murders. Sort of a swan song as it were.
There has been research on the question of whether to publicize the name, picture or writings of the killers.
In the September 5-11, 2015 issue, of New Scientist an article titled “What to do when murder goes viral” describes the research. An insert quote from the article reads:
“The occurrence of a mass killing makes another more likely to happen within the next 13 days.”
The results of the research appears to show that making public the names and faces of the killers and publicizing the event makes another mass killing more likely.
In similar fashion to the research that showed publicizing a suicide appeared to stimulate a suicide of a person thinking of doing it some 30 years or more ago.
So, the research then appears to suggest that publicizing the names, faces and motives of mass murderers is not a good idea!
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