Shortly after a Boston television station showed a movie depicting teenagers dousing a
derelict with gasoline and setting him afire, six youths attacked a woman and set her on fire in an
identical manner. Several months later, NBC televised Born Innocent, a made-for-television-
movie, which showed the sexual violation of a young girl with a broom handle. Three days after
this program aired, a group of girls committed a similar attack on another 9-year-old girl (“Wild”
A20). These are just a couple of shocking examples out of many illustrating how televised violence
can spark violent behavior. Violence in society is a complex problem, and numerous sources can
be cited for blame. If control is to be gained, one obvious place to begin is television, for television
violence can promote violence in those who see it. This is especially true for our children and the
programming provided for them.
Many people claim that no cause and effect link can be established between violence seen
on television and behaviors in children. They insist that those who do assert such a connection are
merely engaging in an elaborate post hoc fallacy which hinges on simple coincidence. However, an
experiment at Penn State University begins to establish the conclusion that a strong tie does exist
between children’s behavior and the violence they are exposed to on television. In this experiment,
92 kinder- gardeners were divided into three groups according to measured levels of aggression
they displayed (high aggressive, middle aggressive, low aggressive). Over a four-week period, each
group watched set quantities of different programs. One group of programs contained high-
violence programs such as Superman and Batman. A ...
... middle of paper ...
...5-153. Social
Sciences Full Text. Web. 11 Mar. 2011.
Levesque, Roger J.R. Adolescents, Media, and the Law: What Developmental Science Reveals and
Free Speech Requires. Cary, NC: Oxford University Press, 2007. Ebrary. Web. 3 Mar.
2011.
Lyon, Royce l., John Newti, and Elan S. Dunn. Television: The Bent World. Ottumwa,
IA: Hawkeye State Press, 1975. Print.
Nathanson, Amy I. “Identifying and Explaining the Relationship between Parental Mediation and
Children’s Aggression.” Communication Research 26.2: 124-143. Social Sciences Full
Text. Web. 1 Mar. 2011.
“Wild Nights.” New York Times. 29 Nov. 1995: A20. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 Feb. 2011.
Wilson, Robin Fretwell, Dorothy G. Singer, and Nancy E. Dowd. Handbook of Children, Culture,
and Violence. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2006. EBSCO ebooks. Web. 4 Mar.
2011.
Leo, John. "The Amount of Violence on Television Has Been Exaggerated." Media Violence: Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. William Dudley. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1999.
...h murders and violence, we must regard aggression as a summated response to many factors. Individually, the factors probably are harmless, but when united, they can be unleashed as aggression in which case terrible crimes take the lives of so many innocent people.
When we think of violence, we automatically picture guns and knives being used to kill people. Although this is a part of violence, it’s not the only way a violent situation can arise. Violence can be any harm done to a person through physical contact. Along with guns and knives, this can include one’s own bare hands or any object within proximity. On television, we see every type of violence carried out, whether it be a simple punch or a serial killer who finds pleasure in the violence he causes. Any form of a violent situation that you can think of has most likely been acted out on a television series or movie. TV is written to blow scenarios out of proportion and create unrealistic versions of different scenarios. Instead of a decent conversation to solve a problem, a punch is thrown or a gun is pulled. By portraying these types of solutions, television is promoting violent behavior. The characters in the action, crime or horror shows are actively encouraging these types of behavior. Although these scenes are needed to produce a captivating plot, there needs to be awareness as to the fact that these scenes are being idolized to the wrong audience.
There are many factors that lead people to use violence. They use violence when they are stressed, angry, feeling hatred, drink too much alcohol, use drug. Children are more likely to grow up as violent men if they are influenced by their parents, brothers, sisters and friends, all of whom use violence.
Violence can also be cause by unnatural and natural triggers. Alcohol and drug consumption, considered an unnatural trigger, may cause behaviors that are outside of one’s character and interfere with judgment. It may also be learned as result of exposure to violent media, exposure to home violence, exposure to neighborhood violence, bullying, and placement in hostile situations.
The world has a problem with violence. It is not a new problem, and it not one that is likely to disappear soon. It is estimated that around 1.6 million people die of violence each year. Half of these deaths are attributed to suicide, while the other half are attributed to homicide, war and other conflicts combined. Historically, violence was seen as a social ill. Before the 1970’s, when genetic research began to take hold, most researchers believed that violence was caused by a number of social aspects. Even with our increased knowledge, there are still groups that view violence as a social ill. This is evident in the fact that there are groups like MAVAV, Mothers against Video Game Addiction and Violence, and Parents against Violence. These groups aim to reduce the amount of violence shown in video games and other media, in a hope that it will reduce the rate of violence. Technological advances have allowed researchers to delve into the causes behind violent acts and tendencies. Although genetics does not fully predict who will have violent urges, it does play a large role in the predisposition towards violent tendencies. Some of these causes are linked to hormones, like the amount of adolescent testosterone. Others are linked to brain activity, mainly in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex. There is even some evidence that the MAOA enzyme can play a role in violent expression. Of course, not all causes are genetically based. Although genetics can help determine who will have a predisposition towards violence, there are other factors at play. The peer group that one associates with, the environment that they are raised in, and the home life that they experience all play a role in determining if the vi...
Murray, John P. "Impact of Televised Violence." Kansas Journal of Law & Policy. 4.3 (1995): 7-14
When it comes to the topics of violence, murder, and mayhem among children, most will readily agree that children who committed these acts did so because their environmental situation inspired it. However, like me, some are convinced that biological factors are the main reasons children commit violent acts.
In a research analysis of Media and Violence, studies show that “Although the typical effect size for exposure to violent media is relatively small ... this ‘small effect’ translates into significant consequences for society as a whole” (“Media and Violence: An Analysis of Current Research”, 2015). This states violent behaviors can come from the smallest variables, or clips from videos, which is why it is important for parents to control what their kids see, read, and watch, and limit the amount of violence exposure.
The effect of the media on young children is especially salient. Young children often learn how to act and behave from what they observe at home, from the adults and older peers they come in contact with, and from what they see on television.
Rather, in some cases, violent behavior occurs for no other reason than that particular family member has the power to do so and uses the behavior as a tool to control and modify the behavior of another family
Fisher, Deborah A. "Television Violence Contributes to Aggressive Behavior in Young People." 2007. Opposing Viewpoints. .
Furthermore, television violence causes aggressive behavior in children. Many people believe that children who watch violent television programs exhibit more aggressive behavior than that exhibited by children who do not (Kinnear 23). According to the results of many studies and reports, violence on television can lead to aggressive behavior in children (Langone 50). Also, when television was introduced into a community of children for the first time, researchers observed a rise in the level of physical and verbal aggression among these children (Langone 51). The more television violence viewed by a child, the more aggressive the child is (“Children” 1).
The cause of violence can be blamed on many things but 1 mainly. And that one thing is drugs and gangs. Now that more people are selling and buying drugs, people are making money to buy weapons. Gangs, since they came around violence have been increasing steadily. The spread of gangs and drugs has also been implicated in the increasing violence of school youths (Glazer 14).
Television violence causes destructive behavior in children, however; television can be a powerful influence to young viewers in our society. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming are very violent. Many researchers like scientists, pediatricians, and child researchers in many countries have studied to find out what it is about television violence that makes it such a big affect on the way kids act and behave. Sometimes, children think that is a normal thing in our real life, by watching only a single violent program, which can increase aggressiveness on children and become violent, aggressive, and vicious.