Television Violence and Violent Crime - An Aggregate Analysis

• NCJ Number: 102118
• Journal: Social Problems Volume: 33 Issue: 3 Dated: (February 1986) Pages: 218-235
• Author(s): S F Messner
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 18 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Seventy-ninth Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, August, 1984.

Annotation

This paper examines the relationship between levels of exposure to television violence and rates of violent crime for samples of population aggregates.

Abstract

The primary hypothesis is that population aggregates with high levels of to provide any support for this hypothesis. Contrary to expectations, aggregate levels of exposure to television are consistently related to rates of violent crime in an inverse direction. Analyses based on differing specifications and alternative measures of television exposure all yield highly similar results. The paper suggests that the theory of criminal subcultures and the routine activities approach offer possible explanations for these seemingly anomalous findings. (Author abstract)