Report On Salman Khan's Criminal Charges For Killing Black Deer And Hit-and-Run Case

Write a report about the famous celebrity of Bollywood Salman Khan who had been facing criminal charges for killing black deer and ran over car  over the homeless people.

Description of Incidents

Psychology refers to scientific study in relation to mind and the behaviour. Psychology is indicative of a multifaceted discipline that is inclusive of different areas like human development, social behaviour and the cognitive process. Salman Khan is a big star in Bollywood who has appeared in greater than 80 Hindi film. Salman Khan is a very popular star and has a great number of fans following him. This essay elaborates on the incident of the famous Bollywood actor Salman Khan who had faced the criminal charges for the killing of black deer. The essay also talks about the incident of Salman Khan who ran the car over the homeless people on the street. This essay talks about the theories related to conditioning, personality disorders and the social psychological influences.

Salman Khan along with the co-stars of the movie “ Hum Saath Saath Hain” were held accused for the killing of two blackbucks. The hunting of the black bucks is prohibited under that of Wildlife Protection Act (Indiatoday.in., 2018). This incident was carried out in Kankani village in the area of Jodhpur within Rajasthan. The act was carried out on the 1-2^nd of October in the year 1998. It was at the time of shooting of the film Hum Saath Saath Hain that this act was carried out.

In the year 2017 at the time of recording of statement in that of blackbuck poaching case, Salman Khan mainly said ‘true’ along with ‘false’ at the time of answering the questions of the magistrate. First forensic report that was carried out by Dr Nepalia suggested that animals died owing to “natural causes”. It was said by the judicial magistrate, Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit that the locals had seen him committing the act. Salman Khan was also interrogated regarding the blood stains along with blackbuck hair in the jeep. Salman Khan was ultimately convicted based on eyewitness accounts along with the DNA tests. Salman Khan was sentenced to a jail term of five years and he had to pay fine of around Rs. 10,000. Salman Khan could not ask for bail in sessions court that was instrumental in convicting him.

According to “The Guradian”, Salman Khan was found to be guilty for culpable homicide, negligence along with driving under that of influence of the alcohol (Theguardian.com., 2018).  Salman Khan crashed the Toyota Land Cruiser into that of a group of the rough sleepers. The incident took place outside the bakery on the 28^th of September in the year 2002. It was said that Khan was drinking cocktails within an upmarket bar on evening of incident. Constable who was attached to the security detail of the actor told the police that Khan was instrumental in losing control of the car when he was driving at a speed of 55 mph. Salman Khan along with his cousin Kamaal had run away from spot. Salman Khan had denied the fact that he was behind wheel at the time of the accident. The lawyer of Kahn had stated that the actor contributes a lot to the aspect of charity and the neurological condition paved the path for his accident. High court within the Mumbai City has overturned the conviction of Salman Khan in the hit-and-run case of the year 2002.

Psychological Theories behind the Incident

The basic principles in relation to learning have a great influence on the aspect of human behaviour. There exist two fundamental forms in relation to learning- classical (Pavlovian) along with instrumental (operant) conditioning. With the help of these two conditioning factors an individual can associate the stimuli with environment. According to Rescorla (2014), the conditioning can help an individual in associating the behaviour with the important events. They help in providing the methods that can allow the scientist for analysing the process of learning in a rigorous manner. Classical conditioning helps in explaining how individuals learn various things in life. Operant Conditioning takes place when behaviour of an individual is associated with the occurring of an important event. Conditioning states that response can become predictable with the help of reinforcement. A response can occur with a great amount of regularity within a stable environment. Salim Khan, the father of Salman Khan was born in the region of Indore within the Central Provinces of British India. He was a migrant from the country of Afghanistan and the culture prevailing at the British times may had an effect on mind of Salman Khan at a tender age. It has been stated by Lachman, Lachman and Butterfield  (2015) that hunting was carried out by the royal families of that time and the killing of the black buck can have been propelled owing to what he had seen in his childhood.

Emotion refers to a conscious experience which is characterized by that of intense mental activity. The appraisal theory of emotion refers to the fact that interpretation of situation paves the path for emotional response of an individual. Appraisal theory in relation to emotion evolved with the help of researchers like Magda Arnold along with Richard Lazarus. According to Schiffer et al. (2017), the appraisal theory of emotions states that emotions can be extracted with the help of “appraisal” of the events. The appraisals cause specific reactions in the different people. The celebrity status that Salman Khan have gained over the passage of time may have made him feel that he can work on the basis of his own volition without taking into cognizance the rights of other people in the society. It has been argued by Baez et al. (2015) that Salman Khan may have felt that he had the right to kill the black buck as it was an animal that could be treated in any way he wanted. The rough sleepers who were sleeping on the road were from the lower class and Salman Khan may have felt that these creatures did not have the right to live like the people belonging to the upper class. He should have been more careful while driving and should have been more responsible while driving.

According to O’Neill et al. (2015), personality Disorder is a kind of mental disorder where an individual has an unhealthy pattern in relation to thinking. Person having personality disorder cannot perceive and relate to the situations easily. This has an impact on their relationships along with social activities. Cogitive behavioural therapy acts as psycho-social intervention that can help in improving the mental health of an individual. The interpretation of an event can be said to be linked to the core beliefs of an individual. The blending of factors from “nature” along with “nurture” is instrumental in forming the core beliefs of people. It has been stated by Thibaut (2017) that cognitive theory states that inherited disposition like temperament interact with the environment of the children that plays a major role in influencing the personality of an individual. The theory states that childhood trauma acts as a significant factor that helps in establishing the core beliefs of an individual. The events are appraised not on the basis of immediate experience of situation but with the help of preconceived ideas. The behaviour of Salman Khan can be explained with the help of cognitive theory as it talks about the importance of the environment in the mental development of the individuals. In both the cases of black buck incident and in the hit-and-run case Salman Khan could have been influenced by his immediate environment. Salman Khan was at that point of time with other co-stars and the incident could have been driven by the instigation of the co-stars who were with him. Social environment has a great amount of influence on the behaviour of an individual and it can be stated that the incident was caused owing to the company who accompanied him. Similarly, the hit-and-run took place when Salman was with his cousin called Kammal and this incident could have taken place because of the influence of the cousin. The social connections that an individual has can have a great influence on the actions of an individual.

Chivalry is a code of the conduct that was associated with the Christian notion of knighthood. It stated that the conduct of the men in the society was governed with the help of societal laws that put emphasis on the display of courageous behaviour of the people belonging to the male gender (Payne, 2015).  The act of Salman Khan of killing the black buck can be said to be in tandem with the chivalric notion that exists in the society that the act of aggression helps in revealing the male status of an individual. Gender roles have an influence on the men along with the women in relation to every aspect of their life. Gender roles helps in determining how the males along with the females would interact in the context of society. According to Blau (2017), it was held in the previous era that the act of drinking is masculine in nature and it provides liberty to an individual to carry out acts on the basis of his own volition. This may have caused Salman Khan to rash drive while he was in the drunken state that killed the rough sleeper on the streets of Mumbai.

Social influence takes place when the emotions of a person are affected by intentionality or unintentionality in relation to an individual. Social influence can take up many forms and it can be evident in conformity, peer pressure and that of leadership. According to Davis (2018), the social psychologists believe that one person can affect the thoughts along with feelings of another individual. The situational forces have a great influence on the aspect of human behaviour that includes social roles along with the social norms. It has been found that social factors bear a great amount of influence on the aspect of heavy drinking that has an effect on that of public health. Social factors have long-lasting effect on that of alcohol intake that often paves the path for excessive alcohol intake. Peer group refers to social group who have got similar interests, age and social status. It has been found that the peer influence has a great influence on the behaviour pattern of an individual. It has been stated by Akers (2017) that  peer influence plays an important role in shaping the behaviour of the individuals in the society. The acts that an individual commits are often propelled by the wishes of other people. It can be said that the influence of the friends of Salman Khan was responsible for the regressive acts committed by the actor. It has been found that the actors often involve themselves in anti-social acts as they have seen other people also engaging themselves in these kind of acts (Steinberg & Darling, 2017).  The actions that other actors commit can be said to have an influence on the behaviour and the devious acts committed by the Bollywood star, Salman Khan. The influence of the society can shape the thought process of the individual in the society. Salman Khan may have felt that since he is an actor he can go beyond all kinds of moral order that must have brought about the incidence of the two acts committed by the actor (Blau & Schwartz, 2018). 

Conclusion

Psychology is indicative of study of the mind along with behaviour. Salman Khan was accused of killing black bucks at the time of shooting of the movie, “Hum Saath Saath Hain”. Wildlife Protection Act prohibits the killing of the black bucks. Salman Khan was found to be guilty of culpable homicide that was carried out under that of influence of alcohol. Salman Khan drove Toyota Land Cruiser into rough sleepers on the streets of Mumbai. Appraisal theory of the emotions indicates that one can extract emotions by appraising events. These will have repurcussions on the behaviour of other people. Celebrity status accorded to the superstar Salman Khan may have made him feel that he can work on his own irrespective of taking into consideration of the rights that the other people have within the framework of the society. Social psychologists believe in the fact that the actions of one individual can have impact on the behaviour of other individual. Social factors have effect on the aspect of alcohol intake that can cause an individual to take in excess amount of alcohol.

References

Akers, R. (2017). Social learning and social structure: A general theory of crime and deviance. Routledge.

Baez, S., Marengo, J., Perez, A., Huepe, D., Font, F. G., Rial, V., ... & Ibanez, A. (2015). Theory of mind and its relationship with executive functions and emotion recognition in borderline personality disorder. Journal of neuropsychology, 9(2), 203-218.

Blau, P. (2017). Exchange and power in social life. Routledge.

Blau, P. M., & Schwartz, J. E. (2018). Crosscutting social circles: Testing a macrostructural theory of intergroup relations. Routledge.

Davis, M. H. (2018). Empathy: A social psychological approach. Routledge.

Indiatoday.in. (2018). Blackbuck poaching case: What Salman Khan says happened that day. Retrieved from https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/celebrities/story/blackbuck-poaching-case-what-salman-khan-says-happened-that-day-1205306-2018-04-05

Lachman, R., Lachman, J. L., & Butterfield, E. C. (2015). Cognitive psychology and information processing: An introduction. Psychology Press.

O’Neill, A., D’Souza, A., Samson, A. C., Carballedo, A., Kerskens, C., & Frodl, T. (2015). Dysregulation between emotion and theory of mind networks in borderline personality disorder. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 231(1), 25-32.

Payne, M. (2015). Modern social work theory. Oxford University Press.

Rescorla, R. A. (2014). Pavlovian Second-Order Conditioning (Psychology Revivals): Studies in Associative Learning. Psychology Press.

Schiffer, B., Pawliczek, C., Müller, B. W., Wiltfang, J., Brüne, M., Forsting, M., ... & Hodgins, S. (2017). Neural mechanisms underlying affective theory of mind in violent antisocial personality disorder and/or schizophrenia. Schizophrenia bulletin, 43(6), 1229-1239.

Steinberg, L., & Darling, N. (2017). Parenting style as context: An integrative model. In Interpersonal Development (pp. 161-170). Routledge.

Theguardian.com. (2018). Salman Khan: Bollywood star jailed for five years over hit-and-run crash. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/06/bollywood-star-salman-khan-found-guilty-over-hit-and-run-crash

Thibaut, J. W. (2017). The social psychology of groups. Routledge.