Three children were murdered in Israel during the past few weeks. Criminologist Chief Superintendent (Ret.) Dr. Danny Gamishi says that intense media coverage of the first murder may have influenced other parents in similar difficult situations to copy the "solution."
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Media outlets in Israel have been reporting every step of the investigation since the revelation of suspicions of murder levied against the grandfather of Rose Pizem, the first child murdered out of the three. As the next murders took place, many questioned whether intense media coverage could have encouraged such acts.
Dr. Gamishi believes that the media has played a significant role by giving ideas to people who are on the verge of committing a horrific crime. “Electronic and written communication has an impact on a potential murderer becoming a real murderer,” says Gamishi. “It’s a kind of fashion, people are seeing things on the news and, unfortunately, they might do the same thing that they saw on TV or read in the newspapers.”
Dr. Gamishi agrees that it is hard to prevent these crimes, but he believes it is not impossible. The prevention will come, he says, from within the community. “Mobilize the community, mobilize the resources within the community so instead of having 30 thousand police officers, we can have six million people who are always looking out for suspicious events and behaviors, people who will be sensitive to the situation.”