Northumbria University Do serial killer movies create a CSI effect? Ebony Jennings AN HONOURS PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF BSc (HONS) PSYCHOLOGY 2020 A special thanks to my supervisor Larry Taylor who gave me a lot of support and advice when I needed it. Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study is to investigate if inaccurate portrayals in serial killer films create a similar effect to that of the CSI effect in audiences. This is because there is a lot of research showing the CSI effect in TV dramatizations of crime but if there is the same effect in film is virtually unexplored. This is important as it could increase peoples fear of crime and effect how they behave as part of a jury. Method: This study used a qualitative approach as it was underutilised in the previous literature. A questionnaire, which was an adaptation of Saelens, Sallis, Black and Chen

(2002), was distributed using social media. This study also had ethical approval. The results were then analysed using thematic analysis. Results: 4 themes were identified: victims, perpetrators, safety and social policy. Conclusion: Findings mostly fit with the hypothesis (film had affected their perceived knowledge, potentially creating a CSI effect), apart from some variation within the data.

There was no evidence of the expected affect on fear of crime but the results do still suggest there may be an effect on their behaviour as part of a jury. It is suggested that future studies use a bigger sample and investigate movies portraying different crimes. A future study is planned that will investigate hate crimes in film.

Introduction

The media is a big part of the way we live our lives and exists in many different forms. This includes newspapers, TV, film, music and, more recently, social media. We use it for work and entertainment, meaning it influences all aspects of our day to day life. It is therefore not surprising that research has shown the media to have a significant impact on many different aspects of our everyday lives.

Guignard, Gallopel-Maruan, Mans, Hummel and Ngugen-Thanh (2018) showed how the affect of the media can be beneficial to society. This study found that a fear-appeal mass media campaign in

France to encourage people to quit smoking was effective in the cessation of the habit. However, as it was done in France the results may be culture bound and therefore not applicable to other countries. While this study does show the positive effect of the media, the vast majority of studies conflict with this and show the media as having a negative effect on audiences. One such study is that of White Hughto, Cahill, McMahon, Santostefano, Pletta, Mimiaga and Reisner (2019). This study recruited transgender adults and found that 96.7% of them reported seeing negative depictions of transgender individuals in a range of media formats. This was significantly associated with these individuals developing mental illnesses like depression, anxiety and PTSD. This study demonstrates how the media can cause damage to people’s mental health. The negative impact of the media can also be observed in Hoyle, Kyle and Mahoney (2017). This study also looked at how a group of people perceived the media and the effect this has on them. In this study they found that nurses perceived the media as portraying them negatively and this caused scaremongering and ill treatment from others. One topic the media seems to endlessly focus on is crime and this negative effect on perception that the other studies have demonstrated can be seen here too. Hoffner, Fujika,

Cohen and Atwell Seate (2017) observed how news coverage of a mass shooting affected how audiences perceive mental illness. They found that it caused those who experienced mental health issues to feel like they couldn’t talk about it and those who weren’t experiencing it developed a greater fear of those who were. However, this was carried out 1 month after the shooting and participants level of exposure to news items about the shooting weren’t measured so it’s possible this was in reaction to other things they were exposed to during that time. This study supports what we’ve seen previously, that the media is usually detrimental when it comes to mental health.

The previous studies highlight that how the media affects the way we perceive the world around us is the main issue that is being researched. This is supported by Gerbner’s (1972) cultural ratification model. This argues that the media emerged from politics to reinforce certain attitudes and opinions about how we should view the world. This model also says that this is especially true when it comes to crime. We saw in Hoffner et al (2017) that the media can create fear when discussing crime. This supports the cultural ratification model when it suggests that the media doesn’t encourage crime but does instil a fear in audiences that crime is everywhere. The media causes us to perceive criminals lurking behind every corner waiting to get us. This model was supported by Geboyts,

Roberts and DasGupta (1988). This study found that participants with higher scores for consumption of TV news also scored higher on perception of crime seriousness. This showed a positive significant relationship between media use and perceptions of crime. However, this study only focused on TV news, so it’s unclear from this research if a similar effect can be expected from other forms of media, like fictional programs. Also, this link between the news and perception of crime does conflict with an earlier study done by Sacco (1982). This study found no significant effect between newspapers and TV news and perceptions of crime. Again, this study does not show how this applies to other forms of media or fictional dramatizations of crime. These studies demonstrate conflict in the literature and also a need to see how this translates to other forms of media.

One study that looked at both TV news and dramatizations was Chadee and Ditton (2005). This study found no relationship between reports or dramatizations of crime and fear of crime. They also found that how participants perceived and interpreted the media that they saw was more important than how much of that media they consumed. A positive of this study is that it reviewed international evidence and is therefore not culture bound. Meaning that we can apply it to a larger group of people. However, although this study did consider fictional programs as well as non-fictional ones, it only looked at TV shows. It doesn’t tell us how this applies to other types of media, like film. A study that conflicts with this one is Boda and Szabó (2011). This study is unique within the literature as it looks at the link between the media and attitudes towards crime and the criminal justice system using a qualitative approach. The vast majority of the previous literature uses a quantitative approach. It’s useful to see a study with more detail about how participants perceive crime due to a link with the media not just if there is a link, which has already been established. This study found that participants in a focus group professed to have little trust in the media and criticised it heavily.

However, these participants still found the media to be highly manipulative and saw violence as a more frequent and bigger problem than it actually is. This study used a focus group to gather data.

This can be harmful as participants who aren’t as outspoken may not have their voice heard compared to those who are outspoken. On the other hand, this method allows participants to have a conversation that feels more natural. This may make them feel more at ease so they may express their opinions more frequently and honestly. However, as seen with the majority of previous research, this research focused on TV programs and ignored other media types like film. This link between the media and perception/fear of crime can be seen in a much more recent study by Mastrorocco and Minale (2018). This was a natural experiment looking at the introduction of digital

TV to Italy. They found that the media showed a high level of crime reporting and the more participants were exposed to it the more concern they showed about crime. However, this study is culture bound as it only looked at this affect in Italy and also mostly used participants over 50, meaning it may not be generalisable to all age groups. The fact that it’s a natural experiment means it’s higher in validity as it’s observing real life and how people naturally behave. On the other hand, there’s a higher chance of extraneous variables as there is less control. This could be affecting the results.

These studies clearly demonstrate that the media can cause us to believe that crime is everywhere and therefore become more fearful of it. The exposure model by Gerbner (1972) agrees that the media affects the way society fears crime but puts emphasis on perceived knowledge. It argues that the media affects our perceived knowledge of crime and this is what causes our perceptions to become warped and makes us demonise certain groups. This effect of perceived knowledge is most clearly demonstrated by the CSI effect. Schweitzer and Saks (2007) describe this as forensic science shows, such as CSI, having an effect on the perceived knowledge of those who watch them and this impacting how they behave as part of a jury. Schweitzer and Saks (2007) found that in a trial those exposed to the CSI effect were more critical of evidence, dismissed witnesses and were much less likely to convict. Participants who watched general crime shows or different shows entirely did not show this kind of behaviour. This study used a simulated trial, so the participants may not have acted the way they would have in a real trial, decreasing the studies validity. Also, the case for conviction was weak so it would make sense that participants would argue not guilty. Furthermore, a study conducted just after this one, Shelton (2008), found little evidence of a CSI effect and looked at actual jurors. This makes it more valid than the previous study as it used a real jury rather than a fake one, so participants will have acted more naturally. This previous research makes it unclear whether a CSI effect actually exists but more recent research shows that it does. Schanz and Salfati (2016) Found that jurors expectations were influenced by the

CSI effect. This study used a mixed methods design. This type of design is beneficial because its strengths cancel out the weaknesses of qualitative and quantitative research. It also helps to provide a more complete and comprehensive understanding of the CSI effect by using both approaches.

However, this design is very complex and can therefore makes it unclear how discrepancies in the data can be resolved which can affect the interpretation of the data. This study is supported by

Hawkins and Scherr (2018). They found that those who watch crime shows, like CSI, were much more likely to give a strong not guilty verdict. Previous studies, like Scweitzer and Saks (2007), have discussed how participants treat the evidence they are presented with (e.g. dismissing witness statements as they see forensic evidence as holding more weight) but this study doesn’t tell us this.

It tells us how the CSI effect impacted their overall decision but not how they got there. Also, both of these studies show that the literature still predominantly focuses on TV shows and ignores other forms of media like film.

A common issue that has been shown throughout this literature review is that research tends to focus on TV shows. This is especially true when it comes to research focusing on the CSI effect. It would be useful to see how this translates to types of crime-based movies. Film is something that we have not seen in this literature, but it is important to look at. In 2019 the film industry made 10.9 billion in the US alone (Watson, 2019), showing it to be a big part of the media we consume.

Therefore, it is important to investigate if it is having an effect on audiences. Welsh (2011) argues that although there is a growing amount of research being done on the portrayal of crime and criminals in literature, few efforts have been made in film. One type of crime that we see a lot in film is serial murder. Kvaran (2010) talks about how slasher films in particular have become an extremely popular sub-genre. Depictions of serial killers and their victims has not been investigated, so it’s unclear if they have the same inaccuracies as TV shows like CSI, which we know affects perceived knowledge. In real life serial killers are typically white (51.7%), male (93%), have average/ above- average intelligence (same as general population) and not typically mentally ill (if they are it will be a personality disorder, particularly Antisocial Personality Disorder) (Aamodt, 2016). Their victims are also mostly white and not particularly defined by sex (49% male, 51% female) or age (Paulson, 2018).

If the portrayal in film is accurate to this and if this creates something similar to the CSI effect is unknown. Schultz, Moore and Spitzberg’s (2013) study on stalking in film suggests that portrayals are inaccurate. They found that mainstream movies that focused on stalking did not match up with real- life data. Movies tended to portray stalking as more deadly and sexualised than it actually is.

However, this does not give any indications of how this affects audiences. Clearly more research on perceived knowledge and it’s affects needs to be done in the world of film.

As we saw previously, Gerbner’s (1972) exposure model tells us that it’s inaccurate perceived knowledge due to the media that is the main issue when it comes to fear of crime. Most of this research focuses on the CSI effect and doesn’t investigate how this could apply to other forms of media like film. This is despite serial killer movies being so popular. This is important because audience’s fascination with serial killers could increase their fear of crime or affect how they behave as part of a jury. A qualitative approach will be used as this is lacking in the literature and will better help us to understand not only if there is a link but in what way they perceive this type of crime and how it makes them feel.

Therefore, this study aims to determine if serial killer movies create an effect similar to that of the

CSI effect. It is hypothesised that inaccurate portrayals in these movies will affect perceived knowledge which leads to a CSI effect. The research question is ‘do serial killer movies create a CSI effect?’.

Method

Approach This study used a qualitative approach as it was underutilised in the previous literature. This approach allows for a more in detail look at the topic that hasn’t been seen previously as it will not only show if a CSI effect does exist but how exactly it changes perceived knowledge.

Parti cipants

The exclusion criteria for participants included: being over 18 and not studied in forensic psychology

(so they wouldn’t have existing knowledge of the CSI effect or serial killer and victim profiles).

Originally 7 participants took part in this study but 3 participants did not answer any questions after giving consent. Therefore, these 3 were removed from the study, leaving 4 participants whose data was used. 3 of these were female and 1 male. 3 participants were in the 18-25 age range and 1 was in the 35-45 age range. These participants were then separated into two groups based on how they answered question 1: the avid watcher’s group (those who watched serial killer films very frequently) and the non-avid watchers’ group (those who hardly ever watched serial killer films). 3 participants fell into the avid watchers of serial killer movies group (age: 2 18-25’s and 1 35-45, gender: 2 females and 1 male) and 1 in the not avid watchers of serial killer movies group (age range was 18-25 and gender was female).

Recruiti ng

Participants were recruited using an opportunity sample. This involved sending out a request (which can be seen in appendix A) via social media (Facebook and Instagram) which asked people to take part in the study.

Materials

The Neighbourhood Environment Walkability Scale (Saelens, Sallis, Black and Chen, 2002) was used as the basis of the questionnaire. This questionnaire was used in Foster, Knuiman, Wood and Giles-

Carti (2013) and found to be reliable. This study also adapted this Questionnaire to fit their research better, showing this can be adapted and still be reliable. Therefore, the questionnaire was adapted to better fit this study. This was mostly done by changing the wording of the questions to make it more specific to serial killers and their victims. A question on the participants watching habits of serial killer movies was also added at the beginning. This question was also changed half way through the data collection as no participants were answering no to this question. It was suspected this was due to the question not being specific enough and when this was changed a participant did answer no. The original question was “Do you regularly watch serial killer films (e.g. Joker, Silence of the lambs, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc)?” and this was changed to “Are you an avid fan of serial killer movies (e.g. Joker, Silence of the Lambs, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc) and watch them very often?”. A copy of the questionnaire can be found in appendix B.

A list of the top 20 serial killer films according to IMDB (IMDB, 2015), which can be found in appendix

C was used to assess the accuracy of the portrayals in film. Some films from this list were excluded.

The first being biographical films as they were depicting real life cases so may have a greater level of accuracy than pure fiction. The other exclusion criteria were foreign films as a predominantly

English-speaking group of participants was expected, based on the area the data was being collected in, and they would be less likely to have seen those films. One film was added to the list which was

Joker. This is because it is not only a very recent example of the genre but also a very popular one, being the highest grossing R rated film of all time (Yang, 2019). These movies were then assessed for their depictions of serial killers and victims, by comparing them to the aforementioned profiles. It was found that depictions of both were typically inaccurate. Victims were typically shown as young females, especially in slasher films. Serial killers were typically depicted in two ways. The first is the evil genius, for example Hannibal Lecter has a genius level intellect and easily fools the police. The second is the crazy killer, which is typically shown as a psychotic disorder or presents itself in a way which is akin to a psychotic disorder. Lots of these movie serial killers have a break from reality, such as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho and Arthur Fleck in Joker. As we saw from the introduction none of these depictions are accurate. Qualtrics was used to create, distribute and collect the questionnaire data. This is a website that allows you to create your own questionnaire. This was done by first adding in all the questions, information and debrief sheet in the desired order. A forced response was used for the consent question. This meant that participants could not complete the questionnaire until they had given consent, this allowed us to only gather data from those who had given consent, making the research more ethical. A link for this questionnaire was then generated and was sent out during distribution.

This website also collected the data.

Procedure

The first step was to determine that there was an inaccuracy in serial killer films. This was done using a list of the top 20 serial killer films according to IMDB (IMDB, 2015), which can be found in appendix

C. Once the inaccuracies of films were determined, the next step was to see how these affected participants perceived knowledge by distributing the questionnaire. This questionnaire was first created on Qualtrics using an adapted version of The Neighbourhood Environment Walkability Scale

(Saelens et al, 2002). The questionnaire was distributed using the social media sites Facebook and

Instagram. Once participants had clicked the link, they were shown an information sheet (appendix

D) which told them what the study was about and what it would involve. They were then asked to give consent (appendix E) and was not able to continue until they had. They were then shown the questionnaire and asked to fill it out, before being shown the debrief sheet (appendix F). The debrief sheet informed them that they had not been deceived and what to do if they wished to withdraw their data from the study. Once the data was collected this was exported to Microsoft Excel and cleaned up. This involved removing any irrelevant data and any participants who hadn’t answered all questions. The remaining participants were then put into either the avid or non-avid watchers’ group, based on their answer to question 1. This study had no major ethical issues, except that the subject matter may be uncomfortable for some. This study received all approvals as per the Psychology Ethics Committee, Northumbria University. The results were then analysed using thematic analysis.

Analysis

The data was analysed using thematic analysis. This involved first becoming familiar with the data by reading through it several times. Once this was done, it became easier to see codes within the data.

Once all the codes had been identified they were grouped into common themes. These themes were then given appropriate names.

Results

The data was analysed using thematic analysis and 4 themes were found. The full transcript can be found in appendix G.

The first theme that was identified is victims. This theme reflects how the participants viewed victims of serial murder. Those in the avid watchers group expressed views of victims being vulnerable, elderly and homeless. We see this in the transcript when one participant said “I believe that serial killers will usually target vulnerable people such as the elderly or homeless”. However, there was variation within the data with one participant saying a victim could be anyone. We see this in the transcript when that participant said “the victim could be anyone based on that particular person’s (serial killers) motivations”. The non-avid watchers’ group also felt victims could be anyone.

We see this in the transcript when the participant said “I think they can be anyone”.

The second theme that was identified is perpetrators. This theme reflects how the participants viewed the perpetrators of serial murder. Those in the avid watchers group expressed views of perpetrators being intelligent, manipulative and outcasts. We see this in the transcript when one participant said “highly intelligent individual” and another said “they may be an outcast in society”.

However, there was variation within the data with one participant saying that there were different types of perpetrators and they may have experienced trauma. We see this in the transcript when the participant said “there are many different types”. The non-avid watchers’ group talked about how a lot came across as normal people and they were committing their crimes because they get some kind of pleasure from it. We see this in the transcript when the participant says “Probably come across as normal people... they derive pleasure from it”.

The third theme that was identified was safety. This theme reflects how safe participants felt walking around at different times of the day. Those in the avid watchers group expressed feeling safer in populated areas and tending to stick to populated areas. They also expressed that they tended not to feel unsafe but if they did it was more so at night. We see this in the transcript with “really safe, there’s enough people around the village” and when asked about at night said “quite safe”.

However, there was variation within the data with one participant saying they didn’t feel safe at night especially after being exposed to serial killer related media. We see this in the transcript with

“don’t feel massively safe, think I freak myself out in the dark, watching and reading about serial killers probably doesn’t help”. The non-avid watchers group expressed similar views to the avid- watchers and specifically mentions CCTV as the cause of this. We see this in the transcript when the participant says “I feel pretty safe, there is CCTV everywhere these days”.

The final theme that was identified was social policy. This theme reflects how social policy has affected their fear of crime and serial murders prevalence within society. Those in the avid watchers group expressed not feeling much fear of crime due to deterrents in society. They also expressed viewing serial murder as a big issue within society. We see this in the transcript with “I feel safe because I know there are enough deterrents” and “it must be a big problem because there are endless programs”. However, there was variation in the data as one of the participants said they see serial killers as being in the minority. We see this in the transcript with “serial killers are actually in the minority in terms of total murders committed”. The non-avid watchers group also expressed serial killers as being uncommon in society. We see this in the transcript when the participant says “I don’t feel like it’s a big problem... not in newspapers”. Discussion

This study aimed to answer the question: do serial killer movies create a CSI effect? This study found

4 themes within the data, each telling us something that helps to answer this question. The first theme, victims, found that although the avid watcher’s group didn’t show the stereotype of victims being young females, they still targeted a specific group of people, being those who are vulnerable and homeless. As we saw before victims are varied and don’t belong to any particular group of people so we are still seeing an effect on perceived knowledge. This effect on perceived knowledge could be put forward as evidence for serial killers’ films creating a CSI effect. However, we saw that there is some variation in the data suggesting that not all individuals perceived knowledge is affected by serial killer films. The reason for this is unclear from the current data. In the non-avid watchers’ group, we see more accurate views of victims as they expressed victims could be anyone. This supports the idea that they would not show a CSI effect due to the fact that they rarely watch serial killer movies.

The second theme was perpetrators. This found that participant’s in the avid watchers group expressed movie stereotypes of perpetrators. Particularly when they talked about them being

‘highly intelligent individuals’ which, as we saw before, is a big stereotype in serial killer movies that does not reflect serial killers in real life. This supports the hypothesis that serial killer films affect perceived knowledge in a way that would create a CSI effect. However, there was some variability in the data as one participant said they thought there is many types of perpetrators. It seems that this participant wasn’t as susceptible as the other participants but it’s not clear why. The non-avid watchers group talked about them appearing to be normal and deriving pleasure from their crimes, which research does support in many cases. This supports the idea that they would not show a CSI effect due to the fact that they rarely watch serial killer movies.

The third theme was safety. This found that participants in the avid watchers group expressed that they feel safe when walking home. This feeling of safety increases when it’s day time or they are in a populated area. This was unexpected as it was assumed that the effect on perceived knowledge demonstrated by the previous two themes would increase fear of crime but this result suggests the opposite. The next theme tells us a little about why this is in terms of wider society. I speculate that watching serial killer films may give watchers a feeling of being prepared for such a situation.

However, this data does not tell us if this is the case. However, there is some variability in the data as one participant talked about how serial killer books and films do make them feel more afraid at night. This suggests that serial killer movies do increase fear of crime in some individuals, perhaps this is due to individual differences. The non-avid watchers group expressed feeling safe as well. This was expected as they don’t watch as many serial killer movies, which was expected to increase fear of crime.

The fourth theme was social policy. This found that participants in the avid watchers group expressed that although they felt serial murder was a big problem in society due to how prevalent they are in the media; they think there is a lot of deterrents of crime. This may explain why they don’t have an increased fear of crime like we saw in theme three. It is still unusual as they believe serial murder to be more common than it is, so it would make sense they would fear it happening to them more. We also saw variation in the data for this theme too. One participant expressed that they did not believe serial murder was common, showing that they have not been affected by those films the same way as the rest of the group. The non-avid watchers group talked about serial killers being uncommon and things like CCTV decreasing their fear of crime, supporting what we saw in theme 3.

Overall, what was expected was mostly found with the themes of victims and perpetrators. These themes supported the hypothesis that those who are avid watchers of serial killer films affects perceived knowledge in a way that will create a CSI effect and those who don’t show the opposite.

This supports previous literature, such as Schweitzer and Saks (2007). This study found that watching forensic science shows like CSI affected participants perceived knowledge which affected their behaviour as part of a jury in a simulated trial. This research shows that serial killer movies seem to have the same effect on perceived knowledge but it’s not clear from this data if this would definitely affect how they act as part of a jury. More research is needed to determine this. However, the variation seen within these two themes does not fit with this previous literature. Although some studies don’t support the CSI effect and this variation may support that research. One such study is

Shelton (2008), which found little evidence of a CSI effect in a real jury. The results of the themes of safety and social policy did not fit with what we expected to find. The results showed that participants whose perceived knowledge was affected did not have their fear of crime affected. This seemed to be because this affect was less important than deterrents in society when calculating fear of crime. This conflicts with the majority of the previous literature, such as Geboyts, Roberts and

DasGupta (1988) which found a significant positive relationship between media use and fear of crime. However, some research does support there being no link between media use and fear of crime as these two themes showed. One such study is Chadee and Ditton (2005), which found no relationship between dramatizations of crime and fear of crime.

A positive of this study was that the issue with the wording of question 1 was identified before the completion of the study. This allowed the issue to be rectified and the required data could then be collected. Without this foresight it may not have been possible to compare avid watchers to non- avid watchers and see if there is a difference. On the other hand, the answers that participants gave lacked the detail that was expected. This could have been due to one of two reasons. The first being the way the questions were worded. This may have not been done in a way that signified to the participant that a longer answer was desired. The other could have been the fact that it was done using Qualtrics. Questionnaires using Qualtrics are typically filled out by participants on their phone.

People typically use their phones for shorter messages, perhaps a future study could look into using a written answer or clearly stating a short essay answer is required so to use a laptop. This would possibly give better results. Another positive of this study is that participants were able to remain anonymous. Participants were only asked for their gender and what age range they fell in. They never had to reveal their identity, codewords were used in case a participant wanted to remove their data. This is an advantage to the study as when participants are anonymous, they feel more comfortable giving honest answers. This meant participants who may not want to have talked about their level of fear or were worried about giving answers that weren’t correct would have felt more able to answer. However, the data may have been honest but there wasn’t a great deal of it. Only 4 participants had their data used in the study and there was slight variation in the data. If a larger sample was used it would be easier to see the significance of the data and the variation within it.

One implication of this research is the effect of perceived knowledge on fear of crime. The results of this study did not find any evidence that believing serial killers to be prevalent within society increases participants fear of becoming a victim of that type of crime. This was unexpected and conflicts with the majority of the previous literature. This implies that the media may give an inaccurate portrayal of crime but this does not make us more fearful of crime.

Another implication is that people will act in a certain way when part of a jury due to their perceived knowledge being affected by these movies. Court cases involving a serial murderer typically require a jury and it’s important to make sure that jury isn’t going to be influenced to make an incorrect decision. The results of this study suggest that jury members who are avid serial killer movie watchers may have expectations of the case based on incorrect film stereotypes, which will affect the decisions they make.

A follow up study could repeat what was done in this study but use a bigger sample. This would allow us to see if the outlier was a one off or if a significant portion of those who are avid watchers don’t subscribe to the stereotypes. A follow up study could also be done to improve upon this one in other ways. One way would be to test these same participants on how they would act as part of a jury, this would allow us to confirm if watching serial killer films has indeed created a CSI effect. Another idea is to investigate why there was variation within the data. This could be done by investigating if there are individual differences that makes someone more susceptible to the CSI effect, like how much trust a person puts in the media. A final way to improve upon this study would be to further investigate the different variables that affect fear of crime. It was discussed that watching these types of movies could decrease fear of crime by making viewers feel as if they have greater knowledge of how to deal with a similar situation, a follow up study could investigate this further. A follow up study that’s different to this one could be done to see if a similar effect can be found in movies that focus on different types of crime. A follow up study looking at hate crime in film is currently being planned, but there are many other types of crimes that could be looked at also.

To conclude, the findings of this study mostly fits with the hypothesis and previous literature.

However, there was some unexpected variation in the results that didn’t fit. The implications of this study are that perceived knowledge doesn’t affect fear of crime but the impact of perceived knowledge may have an effect on the behaviour of jury members similar to that of the CSI effect.

Future research could try to replicate the current study but improve upon it in a range of ways. A future study is also being planned which will investigate if there is an effect similar to what we have seen here in films focusing on hate crimes.

Appendix Appendix A: social media post

Appendix B: Questionnaire Appendix C: IMDB movie list

1. Seven 2. Silence of the Lambs 3. Taxi Driver 4. Psycho 5. American Psycho 6. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 7. The Brave One 8. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer 9. Badlands 10. Mr Brooks 11. Natural born Killers 12. The Pledge 13. Red Dragon 14. Joker 15. Citizen X 16. Manhunter 17. Arsenic and Old Lace 18. Death Proof 19. Sweeny Todd 20. Hannibal

Appendix D: Information sheet

Appendix E: Consent

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