Is Aggressive Behavior Linked to Television Violence?
According the Centerwall (1992), the average child aged 2-5 in 1990 watched 27 hours of
television per day, or almost 4 hours per day. When much of what is on television, including
cartoons and television shows targeted at children, contains violence, it becomes important to
know whether watching televised violence can lead to or increase aggressive behavior. Social
learning theory tells us that children model their behavior after those they see. It is reasonable,
then, to infer that watching violence on television will lead to behaving violently, due to the
modeling effect. The present study reviews some relevant prior research, and then investigates
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Centerwall found that in between 1945 and 1975, the homicide rate in the US increased by
93%, while in Canada, the homicide rate increased by 92% after the introduction of television. In
South Africa, however, the homicide rate decreased by 7%. In case we might think that South
Africa is just a less violent country than the US or Canada, Centerwall included the homicide rates
for the three countries in 1987. In the US and Canada, no significant changes were noted,
Homicides per 100,000
1945
1974
% Change
1987
% Change
United States
3
5.8
+93
5.4
n.s
Canada
1.3
2.5
+92
2.2
n.s
South Africa
2.7
2.5
-7
5.8
+130
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showing that the homicide rate had reached a plateau, at a rate that was nearly twice the pre-
television rate. In the fifteen years after South Africa received television, between 1975 and 1987,
the homicide rate increased by 130%. This is convincing evidence that television had an impact
on the homicide rates in the US and Canada, doubling the rate in 30 years, and more than
doubling the homicide rate in South Africa in only 15 years.
Centerwall notes that there was a delay of about 10-15 years between the introduction of
television in each country and the increase in homicide rates. He suggests that
This year’s shootings has climbed by twenty percent from 2013, there have been nearly one hundred homicides involving guns so far this year. This is an upsurge from sixty nine during the same period in both 2013 and 2014.In. In New York city officials have blamed the upsurge of homicides on deadly conflicts between career criminals and blamed gang activity in Brooklyn and the Bronx. On the other hand what’s been happening in Baltimore is different. The number of homicides has doubled while shootings has climbed more than eighty percent, and the vast majority of experts say that it is at partially connected to a averseness by police officers to aggressively do their jobs. (Sanburn, 2015)During the year of 2013 the population in New York, NY was 8,396,126 and they had 335 reported homicides, while Baltimore, MD had a population of 622,671 people and 233 reported. (Crime in te Unied States 2013,
Another factor that has been brought up several times is the gun laws and how they contribute to the rates of homicide. I know you’ve heard the old saying, “guns don’t kill people, people with guns kill people.” This statement has been argued both ways and there is no real information to support the claim
Does violence on television have a negative effect on children and teenagers? The violence seen on television has had surprising negative effect. Violence shown on television causes children and teenagers to develop behavioral problems and learning disabilities. Such behavioral and learning problems include; language development, school performance / learning, cognitive development and their general behavior to others (Kinnear 27). In a study on the correlation between violence and television done with 1,565 teenage boys over a six-year period in London, William Belson, a British psychologist, found that every time a child saw someone being shot or killed on television they became less caring towards other people. William Belson also
In 2015, Phoenix, AZ had a lower number of homicides compared to Dallas, TX. This is a city that is demographically similar to Phoenix. In 2015 Phoenix, AZ had 113 homicides, while Dallas, TX had 136 homicides (Martin, 2016). That is not a major difference, but Dallas is slightly higher in homicides. In the “Dallas News” it stated that Dallas homicides had increased 17 percent compared to the 2014 homicide number (Martin, 2016). The Dallas 2015 homicide number is still less dangerous compared to previous years (Martin,
On January 17, 2017, “Surge in the Violence” was released by the Crime lab at the University of Chicago, which had combined a report on the statistics of homicides taken place in the year 2015 and 2016. The number of homicides taken place in the year of 2016 has soared by record high of 67 percent than the previous year. Chicago is one of the busiest and advanced cities in the world and getting such high numbers in the field of crime is a shame and leaves a bad impression on the rest of the world. The violence related to guns has also increased enormously and according to “Chicago Tribune”, 2,958 people have been shot dead by now this year. Though the data shows that the homicides by gun has decreased significantly but the number is still a problem. The gun violence now is a serious problem and the current situation demands strict gun laws.
of homicides could reach 600 in 2016, a startling increase over any year in the past
values is the violent crime rate per 100,000 populations, which is 1,266, over two times the
In 1993, there were more than 18,000 firearm homicides in America. That number has been decreasing for the past two decades. In 2011, the reported number of firearm homicides was a little more than 11,000. In another part of the world, Germany was reported to have less than 200 firearm homicides, France less than 50. It is also estimated that there are around 270 million guns in America. This paper examines the possibility that if the American government put into place gun regulation laws, and made penalties more harsh for gun related crimes, the national murder rates would go down.
1999-2010 (Parker1). One other fact is that there have been higher rates of aggravated assaults,
interpretation, as well as varying degrees of moderated success or lack thereof. For example, they open the chapter with a discussion of the fact that sociological experts in the Clinton administration had predicted a massive influx of gun-related crime within the coming years, stating that the percentage of teen homicides was subject to increase as much as fifteen percent over the course of the next decade. They then go on to admit that even these experts were unable to adequately predict the trend that occurred, in that several factors ensured the actual decrease of teen homicides over the course of those years. By 2003, as this chapter states, the number of gun-related murders in New York City had fallen to 596, as compared to 2,245 in 1990.
Most nations today deal on a daily basis with the pervasive the issue of gun-related homicide. Journalists report on these crimes regularly, and still it is still a regular debate about what variables produce high rates of gun-related homicide. The United States of America boasts one of the highest rates of firearm violence among 1st world nations. Germany, also a 1st world republic, shares a violent past with the United States but sustains a much lower rate of gun homicide. Several variables from within both nations exert influence over this statistic, which makes the homicide rate difficult to predict.
“In 1994, there were 23,326 murders in the United States; by 2013, that number had fallen to 14,196, an incredible 39-percent decline. More specifically, according to the Department of Justice, the number of firearm-related homicides declined from 18,253 in 1993 to 11,101 in 2011. The Department of Justice further concludes that even non-fatal gun-related crimes are declining, dropping 69 percent between 1993 and
The United States has been a world leader in homicide for centuries. Indeed, “since the early 19th century ...[America has been] the most homicidal country in the Western world” and holds that title today (Kelley, 2009). In a 2007-2008 list of 31 nations, only two nations, Mexico and Chile, had higher homicide rates (Comparison, 2010). Nations with higher populations, such as India and China have fewer homicides (Comparison, 2010). Further, a nation such as Japan, which has a lower population but a higher population density then the United States, has one of the world’s lowest homicide rates (Comparison, 2010). Population size and density, therefore, cannot be the chief reasons for this nation’s higher homicide rates.
3. Donald Trump has been claiming that the crime rates in the United States have been skyrocketing, while reading the “Crime ‘Carnage’” section in the article he never really discusses the crime rates overall, during his inauguration speech he only discusses the crime rates that have happened in the past year. According to the article, the “FBI data shows that the violent crime rate has been on a “decline” since 1991 when it increased up to 758.2 but it was only half of that in 2015 with a rate of 372.6”. The murder rates also increased, increased by 14% according to the analysis from the Brennan Center for Justice but only
Can we afford to continue ignoring the connection between television violence and the increase in mass murders? The answer is no. We have to take a stance now and fight for stricter regulations by the government and the Federal Communications Committee (FCC). Television has been associated with influencing controversial acts since the beginning of its creation. One of the most recent acts that television is being blamed for is the violence associated Columbine High School murders in 1999. Many adults enjoy the entertainment of bad cop versus good cop, as well as the violent acts that are