The causes and roots of violence are a subject of endless debates. Every time we look back at our history, as far as the point that we could reach, violent and aggressive behaviors could be easily tracked. Stories of people who committed such acts are indicating that violent and aggression are parts of the human civilization from the primitive lives of yesterday to our modern lives today. What is aggression? “Aggression is a behavior characterized by strong self-assertion with hostile or harmful tones. Under some circumstances, aggression may be a normal reaction to a threat. Alternatively, it may be abnormal, unprovoked or reactive behavior” (“Aggression: Causes” bettermedicine.com). What really causes a violent reaction from a person is not a clear thing to conclude and document because we as humans are different in how we perceive things and react to them (“Aggression: Causes” bettermedicine.com). We all might share some physical features but mentally we all have different emotions and reactions towards anything we might face. There is a well-known and an influential story on literature in all around the world, that’s known as one of the subjects that address violence in the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, that is the story of Cain and Abel. The story of Cain and Abel is mentioned as the first violent act that led to death. Therefore, Abel is seen as the first martyr. On the other hand, Cain is represented as the root of homicide and evil in general (Nauta, Rein, 2008). In today’s world the media is blamed by many as a source of violence, but I would like to disagree with their statements because I think the media might influence them, but there must be other factors that push them to commit the act...
... middle of paper ...
..., 2001.
Merritt, Rob, Brooks Brown. No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death at Columbine. New York: Lantern Books, 2002. Print.
Nauta, Rein. Cain and Abel: Violence, Shame and Jealousy. OpenAccess: 8 August 2008. Print.
Pooley, Eric, et al.” Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold: Portrait of a Deadly Bond.” Time.com, May, 1999. Web. August 3, 2011.
Sung Hong, Jun, et al. The social ecology of the Columbine High School shootings. Elsevier, 2010. Print.
Threat assessment in schools: a guide to managing threatening situations and to creating safe school climates. Washington D.C: U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education, May 2002. Print.
U.S Bureau of Justice Statistics. Report to the Nation on Crime and Justice, 2nd ed. Washington, DC: U.S Department of Justice, 1988. Print.
“Unemployment rates for States.” bls.gov, July 22, 2011. Web. August1, 2011.
US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics. n.d. 13 February 2012 .
U.S. Department of Justice. (n.d.). Bureau of Justice Statistics. (U. D. Justice, Producer) Retrieved April 14, 2014, from http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=17
Violence in all of its manifestations is based on an exercise of power. It represents a means to gain power, to maintain power, or as a response to a threat to one's power. As long as a society maintains the legitimacy of social hierarchies, of the right of some people to have power over others, there will be violence. One can either seek to diffuse the concentration of power or to control violence. By its very character, the attempt to control violence is self-defeating. The control will itself become violent.
If there is one thing Australian society has an abundance of, it is images and opinions about crime. It is the central theme running through many forms of communication in the modern society. Whether the issue of crime is, drug-related, violent, juvenile, child abductions, serial killers, youth gangs, or crimes against the elderly, a public consensus exists that crime is rampant, dangerous and threatening to explode.
Violence comes from when you have a hate towards another person who is different or goes against what you believe. Violence has been attributed to many causes including mental illness, brain damage, child abuse, and social deprivation. A large proportion of violent acts are committed by individuals whose psychology is very different to that of the general population. understanding the origins of violence remains in understanding the broader picture - the type of environment that raised the individual, the effect it had on his developing brain, and the already existing, genetic predisposition the person has towards
The Columbine massacre was one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. On April 20, 1999, high school seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and killed 12 students, one teacher, and themselves. Twenty-five students were also injured, some very critically. While there had been many school shootings in America prior to this, the young age of the shooters, the number of victims, and the randomness of the people they killed shocked the nation. It has been 14 years since this tragedy and even now the word Columbine is synonymous with school shootings. The subsequent days, months, and years since this attack have proven that the Columbine massacre has influenced the United States in many areas of our everyday lives including school policies, anti-bullying programs, gun laws, and even popular culture.
The American culture has been tainted with school shootings that are becoming a sort of tradition found in America. Most twenty-first-century school shootings have taken inspiration from the Columbine shooting, an event that has left a remarkable imprint on the future of school shootings and made the ones responsible infamous among them. In fact, Dave Cullen explores this idea in his nonfiction novel “Columbine”, where he illustrates the story of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and how the Columbine shooting was orchestrated, how it was carried out, and the aftermath that ensued, along with the pair’s psychotic paths that led to that event. Cullen’s argument was Eric being the manipulate genius behind the organization of the shooting while Dylan, who was not as psychotic, followed Eric through the event. One of the many
Nine students were killed at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. A man opened fire in a church, in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine people, including the pastor. Twenty-seven were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Twelve were killed in the Washington Navy Yard. This is only a few examples from a very long list. The grim truth is that mass shootings are becoming the new normal. Every few months, another mass shooting occurs and the public goes through the same routine of mourning, honoring, and ultimately debating. What causes these manic episodes of multiple, indiscriminate gun deaths? Some push for more gun control, others argue that the U.S. mental health system is a failure. Controversy aside, mass shootings are on the rise, and it is imperative that the factors leading to these outbursts are accurately identified and appropriately addressed.
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) . (n.d.). Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) . Retrieved April 10, 2011, from http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/
4. Dodge, Kenneth A., John E. Bates, and Gregory S. Pettit. 1990. “Mechanisms in the Cycle of Violence.” Science 250: 1678–83.
Crimes and criminal law have always been a sensitive subject with the people; criminal law concerns itself with issues such as morality, authority, equity and integrity – all of which are aspects on which the public may have strong beliefs; strong but suggestible. It is well known that finances, media, education and law are fundamental to a society – two of them are also inherently linked through society: media and law. The media affects society’s perspective and values which, in turn, shape the law. What is little known, perhaps, is the depth of control that the media possesses over society: it influences through language, the staging of criminal cases in popular media and through subtle, indirect means like presentation. Of course, this level of influence on the public reflects itself in society’s values and beliefs on a general scale.
The media and entertainment play a very crucial role in our perception of violence in society. Exposure to violence in the media, including television, movies, music, and video games helps us construct our own perspective on violence. According to Joel Best, his theory on random violence states that random violence and violence, in general, is patternless, pointless, and leads to the deterioration of society. Many examples can be given from national and international media coverage on various random violence acts. There are many sides to the debate about whether or not violence in the media affects us and how prevalent it is in our society. The focal discussion is the influence of violence on people through the mass media: movies, television,
Media representation has always been a topic of debate, from representation of minority groups, individuals with mental illnesses and gender presentations. The latter, of course, turns mostly towards the female characters as they are presented in various medias; movies, news, and television shows. The representation of women in the media has always been leaning more towards ‘pleasing’ than it is towards informative or accurate. Representation of female offenders in the media has not deviated from the route that other representations of female factions has gone, focusing more on what is pleasing and entertaining than what is not harmful to the demographic as a whole. Women who are represented as offenders are done so in a way that is biased and very narrow in scope considering the sensitive topics that are covered under such an umbrella, and because the public generally does not have much contact with this particular faction, then there opinions are shaped wholly by what the media has to say about what these offenders are like, which is wholly inaccurate and harmful towards the women and girls that are involved with the criminal justice system.
Bureau of Justice Statistics, (1998, Dec.) National Crime Victimization Survey. Washington, DC: Department of Justice.
The mass media is a vehicle for delivering information and to entertain. But implications that the media do more harm than good concerning its practices and its effects on the public. The two main categories of mass media are print media and electronic media. Although they overlap in some areas, they differ mostly in the subject matter they cover and in their delivery methods. Research had been conducted in using both these forms to gauge the impact that each one has on the public. Print media tends to be more factual based whereas electronic media tend to focus more on visual aids to help relay the information. The public’s fear of crime has an impact on the public agenda of policy makers. Fear of crime not only affects individual but may also have an impact on the laws that affect crime control and prevention.