Performance Crimes on the Rise

With crimes being recorded and posted on social media, the world has begun to notice the rise of performance crimes. These are committed to show to an audience which hasn’t been as relevant before the rise of social media. The earliest and most well known example of this on social media was when back in 2015, a man named Bryce Williams shot two of his former co-workers and posted the video on Twitter. Next, 3 black teens and an adult allegedly tortured a mentally handicapped white teen on Facebook Live in opposition to Donald Trump’s election as the president. Now the most recent events have been Steve Stephens shooting and killing an elderly man and a Thai man killing his baby daughter and then himself live.

The rise in media coverage of these events may cause others to commit copycat crimes as said by Ray Surette, a professor in the department of criminal justice. He and others are trying to figure out the factors as to why people are committing more performance crimes. One of the reasons why could be that they are trying to fight the feeling of powerlessness that they feel in their everyday lives. This is shown as the reason people commit random acts of murder without posting them as well. When the suspect shares the video, they wish to gain fame or notoriety. When people watch the video, it elevates them to being on top of a pedestal. They are empowered because the world knows that they are willing to take another’s life in a crazy way.

To combat the rise in these events, Facebook is trying to crack down on their user policies when it comes to Facebook Live. Mark Zuckerberg, current CEO, even came out and said, “Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Robert Godwin Sr. (the man killed by Steve Stephens)… We will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening." We will have to see if his promises bear any fruit.