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Since 1912, when the term “copycat effect” came about in response to the intense coverage of the Jack the Ripper murders spawned a multitude of similar crimes, criminologists has been aware of the potential for media exposure to lead to copycats. As the media has grown, other forms of entertainment — especially movies — have come under fire for allegedly leading to copycat killers who’ve based their crimes on the actions and characters in certain films.

No one really knows why people commit murder, but it’s pretty easy to figure out the raison d’etre of most copycat killers. Here are five killers and the imitators who tried to follow in their footsteps.

• Natural Born Killers Copycats: Perhaps no other film has been held more responsible for the generation of copycat killers than the 1994 Oliver Stone film “Natural Born Killers.” The film also has the bizarre status of inadvertently creating copycats of copycats.
• Jack the Ripper Copycat- Derek Brown: Derek Brown, a 47-year-old-father of seven, followed in the grisly footsteps of Jack the Ripper before he was caught. Brown was convicted of murdering two women in 2008, despite neither of the bodies being found.

Full list at HowStuffWorks.com.

Total aggregation of HowStuffWorks.com.

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