Violent Content Affecting Juvenile Crime In The Media

Juvenile Justice Essay

Everyday in the United States millions of juveniles watch and play violent video games and movies. Both juveniles and adults are susceptible to the media. Thus, I believe that violent content does affect juvenile crime, but there are also other factors that can lead to juveniles committing crime.

In the article Under The Gun, the NRA vice president stated that, “TV and video game industries portray life as a joke and murder as a way of life (Under The Gun article).” Because of this both the parents and state are responsible for protecting our juveniles from being influenced to violent content. For example, the state should create new laws preventing certain ages from watching or purchasing violent content, similar to what we have today with the age limit for smoking and drinking. In the article Under The Gun, it states that, “Videogames today serve a majority audience of young males. Young men want to be empowered (Under The Gun article).” However, that certain power can only go so far. Thus creating laws can help prevent that. Furthermore, parents need to do more. They need to

let their child know when they’ve crossed the line for watching or playing violent content. If parents think that their child is too young or not mature enough, they shouldn’t let them watch or play that certain content. Juveniles should also be responsible for what they do. They should follow all video game and movie ratings as today nobody follows any of these ratings
Although violent video games and movies encourage crime, there are also other factors that can lead to juveniles committing crime.

Peer pressure from friends can lead a certain juvenile to commit the same crime like their friends. For example, if part of a group of friends start committing robbery and theft, the other half may possibly start doing the same thing together causing a chain reaction. Another example, would be if a child had abusive parents. Having abusive parents can significantly change a child’s mindset and how they act around others. Furthermore, during one of the group student presentations about school and juvenile violence, they stated that ⅔ of school shooters throughout the years were bullied. By providing counseling programs and other help for those bullied can prevent those from committing school shootings or other deadly

crimes.
On the other hand, many would disagree with the facts pointed out and say that violent video games and movies do not encourage juveniles to commit crimes. Since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut, the box office has been flooded every month with new popular movies that features some type of violence in their movie. Some examples include, The Hobbit and Zero Dark Thirty, all containing violence throughout their movie. Although both the movie and television industry want to be part of the solution to gun violence, they state that it will be hard for the industry to make any changes to their products as long as the audience maintains their interest for violence in movies and shows. In addition, some would say that both movie and television industries have the right to both do and show what they want.
With this said, violent video games and movies do encourage juveniles to commit crimes. However, if we create laws preventing certain ages from viewing and playing violent content and make parents more responsible for what they let their child do we can possibly lower juvenile crime rates.