TV To Blame For Rising Violence

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Recommended: Mass media and influence on youths

"TV to blame for rising violence, says police chief' an article taken from the Times on 28th June 2002."

The article describes how the content of what young people are watching of television is responsible for rises in criminal behaviours amongst young people.

One assumption is that young people are susceptible to the influence of television. In the article Matthew Baggott, the deputy chief constable states of young people, `They are very vulnerable to the influences of the media.' This influence is bet shown in the famous Bobo doll studies of Bandura (1963). I chose this evidence because it is a benchmark in the field of the Social Learning Theory.

My second assumption is that the crime rate is affected by portrayals of other moral issues than violence on television. In the article Sir Edward Crew, the head of West Midlands police said of increases in violent crime, ` These increases are hardly surprising given the constant diet of aggression, undress, innuendo and dishonesty.'

Kohlberg (1976) is useful here because his work includes his theory of moral development which can easily be applied to the issue of crime.

My third assumption is that programs attempting to mimic reality are liable to have a greater effect on the youth watching them. Matthew Baggott says the young become disconnected from the normal standards of behaviour because `When situations on television are portrayed as real life it is difficult to detach oneself from what we are seeing.' Confusion of reality and the media is shown by Gerbner and Gross (1976) in their essay, `Living with television: The violence profile'. This links well with the article because it shows television can alter our perceptions. Comstock and Paik (1991), auth...

... middle of paper ...

... 2001 edition for information on Bandura's Bobo studies and Kohlberg Paradigm

webpage: www.apa.org/pubinfo/violence.html for general information.

webpage: www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1175/1_34/74924599/p1/article.jhtml Article: Violence on Television- What do Children learn? What Can Parents Do?

webpage: www.ksu.edu/humec/impact.htm Impact of televised violence by John P. Murray, Ph.D for information on Gerbner and Gross (1976). `Living with television: The violence profile.'

webpage: http://npin.org/library/pre1998/n00155/n00155.html for Comstock and Paik information

webpage: www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/bandura.htm for information on Bandura's television and violence bobo study.

Psychology And Crime, Clive R. Hollin

Angles On Criminal Psychology, Diana Dwyer for information on Bandura, Gerbner and Gross and Comstock and Paik

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