The Copycat Effect

The no notoriety campaign implores journalists to focus on victims and facts and stop splashing killers' names and faces everywhere gratuitously.

Lauren Coleman, a researcher, wrote in his book, The Copycat Effect, that in modern times, we should treat coverage of murderers the way we eventually learned to handle coverage of individuals who terminate their own lives, carefully and with restraint.

For instance, reporting guidelines advise not romanticizing the act or giving explicit details to avoid inspiring copycats.

Coleman suggested that we should also not be giving serial killers the lurid, detailed coverage they seek, nor publishing their self-serving manifestos or dramatic stage names insofar as it is possible.