In a 1972 trial, a prosecutor accused a 14-year-old defendant of manslaughter, citing similarities between the crime and the film A Clockwork Orange. The 16-year-old attacker had pleaded guilty, saying friends told him about beating someone up like in the film. The defense counsel argued the link between the crime and the film was clear. The press also blamed the film for inspiring a copycat rape. Subsequently, the director asked to withdraw the film from distribution in Britain due to concerns it could inspire real-life violence.

1. Topic 7: Crime and the Media: THE MEDIA AS A CAUSE OF CRIME
STIMULUS MATERIAL
Bobo Doll Experiment
Albert Bandura
Children watched an adult model
show aggressive behavior toward a
Bobo doll.
Children copied the behaviour and
were violent to the Bobo doll.
I’m Hector
Riva...Welcome
to my world
Film Clockwork Orange. In March 1972, at trial, the
prosecutor accused a fourteen-year-old male
defendant of manslaughter of a classmate,
referred to A Clockwork Orange, telling the judge
that the case had a macabre relevance to the
film. The attacker, a boy of sixteen, pleaded guilty
after telling police that friends had told him of the
film "and the beating up of an old boy like this
one"; defence counsel told the trial "the link
between this crime and sensational literature,
particularly A Clockwork Orange, is established
beyond reasonable doubt".[29] The press also
blamed the film for a copycat rape. Subsequently,
the director Stanley Kubrick asked Warner
Brothers to withdraw the film from British
distribution, disliking the allegation that the film
was responsible for copycat violence in real life.