NCJ Number
160247
Date Published
1995
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Although media violence has been connected to violence in society, the media should not be blamed entirely for societal violence; censoring the media would be ineffective and unethical.
Abstract
Violence and "base stupidity" on TV and in the movies is excessive and getting worse. With the proliferation of cable channels, the market has become much more competitive, and violence sells. Further, research has shown that viewing violence desensitizes people, particularly children, to the actual effects of violence, leaving them more likely to act out in antisocial ways. The American Psychological Association reported to Congress in 1988, "Virtually all independent scholars agree that there is evidence that television can cause aggressive behavior." These findings and conclusions, however, do not warrant collective intervention. We live in a market economy in which blood lust and other primitive needs of people will be met one way or another; trying to ban something only makes it more attractive and marketable. Parents should monitor the images and influences to which their children are exposed; the state should do nothing. The alternative to government action is for the public, or rather some segment of it, to demand something better on at least a few of the many channels that are opening up. Government cannot control the tastes of the American people. Tastes and needs will always determine what appears in the marketplace, and when the taste for violence diminishes in the public, so will violent programming.