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The Copycat Effect is a book by Loren Coleman that describes the increased probability of violence and/or murders based on the media’s reporting on a violent incident.

Loren Coleman thinks — and this is paraphrasing a bit — that heightened media exposure of a violent crime (like say, the Virginia Tech massacre), ultimately leads others who are on the brink of violent behavior to actually go and commit violent acts. Hence, the term, “the copycat effect”.

This is what Loren Coleman says about school shootings and their relation with the copycat effect:

• Most contemporary school shootings tend to occur primarily during two periods of the school year – at the beginning (late Aug through October) and near the the end of the academic year (March-April)…
• Copycats follow a regular temporal pattern that repeats – these could be after a primary media event in a day, a week, two weeks, a month, a year, ten years – vulnerable humans have internal media clocks…
• Copycats imitate the previous violent attacks, oftentimes down to specific details as that mirror the previous specifics of the shooter, the victims, and the methods
• “Celebrity” events have a far-reaching impact and modeling effect – so, of course, Columbine serves as a dark cloud over many school shootings.

The book has been on my Amazon.com wishlist for a very long time now, but I have never been able to sit down and read it although the idea behind the book fascinates me.

Today however, just 2 days afters Monday’s deadly shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, my interest in this book has come back again. Let me tell you why…

This is why:

• This morning in New Jersey at North Brunswick High School, a student threatened to shoot another student. The school was immediately put on lockdown while police and search dogs scoured the school for a substantial threat.
• A bomb threat was called in to Provo High this morning in Utah forcing the entire school to go on lockdown.
• Seven buildings at the University of Minnesota (in Minneapolis) were evacuated today after a bomb threat was called in there.
• A bit more vague, but still something: Wheat Ridge High School in Colorado was put on lockdown today after a note was found on school property threating several students at the school.
• Even in a small, 362-person university such as Eastern Kentucky University, bomb threats are being sent in and taken seriously
• A 16-year-old is being accused of threatening to bomb Rochester High School.
• Yet another bomb threat at the University of Maine
• Yep, even Virginia Tech has some
• Bomb threat at University of Chattanooga.
• UC Hastings was closed this afternoon after a bomb threat was called in.

Real threat or not (all of the above threats turned out to be unsubstantial), the fact that these incidents are occurring within days of the media frenzy surrounding Virginia Tech shed some light on the whole ‘copycat effect’ idea. Certain people are obviously watching the non-stop news about the Virginia Tech shooter, and in response, those certain individuals, whether out of stupidity or sincerity (mostly stupidity, I think), are calling in threats to various institutions. It’s scary because you never really know which one is going to be real.

I can only predict that the number of bomb threats will increase in the coming days.

Just so you know, if you’re in NYC, Borders Books does NOT carry The Copycat Effect in ANY of their NYC stores. Lame. I wanted to pick it up today, too. I guess it’ll have to be Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.