Stupid kids recording their crimes.

Now criminals aren't the brightest bulbs, I can say that pretty confidently. But rule 0 of successfully committing a crime is don't record it and upload it to youtube. It is literally showing the world what a dumbass you are and it seems to be happening rather regularly for serious crimes, what the hell people?

They all want their 5 minutes of fame...+ stupidity.

Young kids have trouble grasping concepts that involve more than two days.

The whole "criminal record erased at 18" might be a factor too...probably not a complete clear, but something along that line.

edited 4th Jun '11 10:00:53 PM by Signed

I much prefer when stupid people voluntarily put record of their crimes in the public domain. Makes the legal process so much quicker.

In agreement with Pykrete. If criminals want to be dumb, great. It's better than the other thing.

Youtube - being Exhibit A since 2006.

If this is inspired by the other thread, why not? The girls likely didn't expect to face any repercussions, and they were right.

Awesome, they should also leave as many fingerprints as possible and some DNA too. Also, send the tapes to the police

Fuck, if we could only convince them to wander down to the closest station and hand themselves in as well, it'd save tax-payers dollars on the cost of sending the cops out to pick them up.

Sadly it's not _that_ positive - like with happy slapping, recording the crime is done to further humiliate the victim, increase the criminal's respect among his peers, even gain some Internet fame. It's bloody good when the little shit gets traced and imprisoned though, and all that Youtube notoriety will screw his chances of ever getting a decent job (for good and for bad).

Reminds me of the Lynndie England scandal somewhat.

Yes. The purpose of recording is public satisfaction; it humiliates the victim (by providing concrete evidence that, yes, they are easy to beat up!) if there is one, and glorify the perpetrator.

There are also horrifying examples, like the video of two teenagers throwing a cat from a rather high window.

We had a whole mini-TV series about people doing highly illegal shit for television.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/may/28/the-scheme-bbc

This seems to be quite frequent for the British equivalent of American "gangbangers", although with them it's not so much recording the crime as recording boasting about having committed the crime, presumably as a way of increasing the "respect" that your average street-level gangster is obsessed with.

Completely stupid, of course, but then they are generally pretty stupid and, as someone's already said, not given to thinking about much more than immediate gratification. It's the few who aren't like that that worry me more.

Also, in a lot of cases the dehumanization factor is so high that the people don't even think that there's anything wrong with what they're doing.

"If this is inspired by the other thread, why not? The girls likely didn't expect to face any repercussions, and they were right." - Mostly Benign

This. They are opportunistic pieces of shit, and though I still think they're stupid for incautiously relying on the double standard, society certainly proved them right.

Anyway, don't discourage it. If they're going to record their crimes, good, because they're going to commit them anyway, so at least this way we have strong evidence that they did.

Talk about incriminating yourself.

Criminals often want to get caught. Criminals who don't regret their crimes want to brag about them to somebody, like everybody wants to brag about an achievement. On the other hand, people who regret their crimes get themselves caught because they're either sloppy or they don't want to live with the guilt on their conscience.

This may be true for gratuitous criminals, but not for those who gain something (like stolen goods) that depends on them not getting caught (and the goods taken back), is it?

Related to this topic is the sad tale of Liam Cunliffe, 18, of Weston-super-Mare, reported in the British press today. Ahead of being sentenced for burglary, he commented on his Facebook page that he was "a happy bunni (sic)" as he would only get 6 months in jail, which would be "easy".

The remarks were drawn to the judge's attention. Cunliffe was sentenced to 27 months in jail.

"What a f***in' balloon-head!" as Joe Pesci playing Nicky Santoro would say.

Anyone remember Kenny Glenn?

nevar forget. Very good example of someone being caught due to stupidly recording his sick-fuckness

edited 9th Jun '11 11:49:12 AM by nzm1536

What about those teenaged maniacs who killed about 20 people?

If criminals are stupid enough to post their stuff on the internet, that's just one more reason why they deserve to get caught.

It's a pride thing. Whether the person did it solely to be a dick, or if he actually wanted those items, he likely still wants recognition. If one gets the goods and gets away scot free with nobody the wiser, well that's neat, but nobody will ever know of your big acomplishment.

And let's face it, most young criminals are in it for thrills, not for practicality. Being hush hush about your crime and being successful with it just isn't that thrilling, you just have to tell people about it. Not that they'll care, but you still gotta do it. Thinking about what the police will do with it is secondary.