Violent Media Influences on the Youth, Research Paper Example

Abstract

This paper examines whether viewing violent media has an influence of violence on the young. The paper is split into four distinct parts: (1) Introduction – defines the concept of violent media and the problem being addressed (2) What is violent media? – Explains the types of violent media and the implication of exposure to same. Particular reference to the conduits and psychological considerations. (3) Juvenile Crime – What constitutes the main types of juvenile crime in America? Examines factors of causation in context with both psychological and sociological considerations. (4) Conclusions – The critical success factors for reducing criminal behavioural activities and the justification for addressing violent media. The importance of protecting the young i.e. a healthy mind in a healthy body.

Introduction

This paper addresses the question of does exposure to violent media influence the young towards violent tendencies or criminal behaviour patterns?  Ultimately what steps might society take in order to protect the minds of our young and ensure that they grow up to become healthy responsible citizens and take their place in society?  Violent media manifests itself in a number of different ways but perhaps the most important types are:

• Violence on Television and Videos (DVD’s)
• Computer Games that involve graphic violence
• Magazines that depict gruesome graphic violence

What is violent media?

Television and videos

Two experiments were carried out in order to see children’s responses and stimulation towards the viewing of violent film clips “gifted high school students were exposed to a bucolic or violent film clip and then were asked to produce inkblot responses.”(Tanya H. Hess1, Apr 99 Vol 55).  In both experiments the exposure to media violence resulted in stimulated violent responses amongst the males.  Further research from leading psychologists suggests a strong correlation between TV violence and the stimulation of aggressive behaviour in the youth “Research on violent television and films, video games, and music reveals unequivocal evidence that media violence increases the likelihood of aggressive and violent behaviour in both immediate and long-term contexts” (Anderson, 2009). It is considered that psychology offers the best explanation for why viewing scenes of graphic violence triggers off or stimulates a violent response “priming existing aggressive scripts and cognitions, increasing physiological arousal, and triggering an automatic tendency to imitate observed behaviors…” (Anderson, 2009).

Two of the key words here are arousal and cognitive. In arousal it means that the kids are becoming stimulated and getting a buzz out of this behaviour. Cognitive stimulation leads towards the desire to emulate of simulate the behavioural pattern.  Within the context of TV and Video game media this is relatively harmless because the violence is self-contained within a simulated environment.  The danger occurs when you step out of the artificial reality environment into the real world and start experimenting in a live real world environment. It is the concept of where artificial reality (the virtual world of games) becomes blurred with reality (the real world of violence).

Violent video games

The American Psychological Society recently called for an end to graphic violence in video games and stated that the evidence amassed from 20 years of research is clear. “children exposed to virtual bloodshed showed greater “short-term” increases in hostility toward peers and authority figures than those exposed to more benign games” (O’CONNOR, 2005).  Despite the finding there was no evidence to suggest long term impact on aggressive behaviour tendencies it was basically more of a short-term stimulation.  One argument in favour of video games is that they improve the literacy and manual dexterity of young people interfacing with computers. Part of the violence issue relates to the amount of time parents allow their children to become exposed to computer games and videos that depict horrific graphic violence.  Prolonged exposure leading towards a sense of “brain washing” and confusing what is the norm in the virtual world to that of the outside real world. The concept of using guns and weapons in the virtual world is a lot of fun and highly stimulating.  This might easily tempt the child to obtain a gun and try it out for real. The Palo Alto Medical foundation conducted a study that revealed “adolescent girls played video games for an average of 5 hours a week, whereas boys averaged 13 hours a week”.(Norcia, 2010)

Magazines: Magazines that depict graphic violence, like that of the Rock Magazine Revolver are an added contribution to the pollution of the minds of the young.  Teenagers are impressionable and wish to experiment, part of the learning process of growing up and entering adulthood. Nevertheless, this does require some degree of guidance and self-control on behalf of the young person. For example if you start to obsess on watching too many ‘slasher flicks’ and start to get off on the blood and gore which in turn leads to a fascination of knives and other sharp instruments; the initial hunger being satisfied by visual images and then collection and observation of real articles. Moving from the virtual to the real world.  Add a potential drug addiction problem to this mix and you have created the formula for a potential disaster.  Particularly hallucogenic drugs like LSD where you can start to play out your fantasies in the virtual world to real life scenarios.

The world of juvenile crime

Juvenile gangs

From statistics collected by the Federal Government, gangs were placed into the classification as described above.  The chart illustrates that some 85% of gang culture in the USA is applicable to that of Juvenile and street gangs.  Gangs may be defined as “Gang is defined as three or more people who associate for the same common purpose.  The behaviour of the members, either individually or collectively, may be disruptive, anti-social or criminal” (Sachs, 2000).

There are three distinct approaches in terms of the classification of gangs.  (1) Traditional gangs — These are gangs that have been around for a long time and have traditional values, they are sometimes referred to as turf gangs (2) Non-traditional — These are more loosely organized gangs that mainly contain first time members. They are usually formed for power, protection, structure etc. (3) Entrepreneur gangs — These are mainly business gangs formed for the making of money and include organized crime syndicates, drug dealers, car thieves and fencing operations etc. The point that is being made here relates to the amount of juvenile gang and criminal activity and how easy it is for young impressionable people to slip into this behavioural classification. This particularly so where you live in a big City like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles etc.  Note that there are a large number of video games that use the theme of street gangs and violent behaviour, thus establishing the scene in the virtual world.

Living in a virtual world

The concept of people spending 1/3rd of their life in virtual societies is tantamount to losing your grip on reality.  Living out mass fantasies may also result in increased suicidal tendencies, increased violence in the physical world and breakdown in social relationships.  It will also be questionable in terms of your learning experience; learning in simulations is different to real life experiences. The concept of virtual reality defeats the traditional view that fantasy is unattainable. Fantasy and what we cannot obtain is intrinsic to our existence.

We have all experienced one kind of virtual reality over the last 100 years, this is the Telephone.  The ability to talk with another person over long distance. This was the audio virtual experience. The onset of Television provided the link of video with the audio experience. As this concept progressed we discovered the power of the IMAX theatre and the sophistication of 3D with films like AVATAR taking us into a new realm of experience.  A decade or so earlier we experienced Sensurround that enabled us to feel motion and sound in association with the film. Films like Earthquake and Rollercoaster provided a new experience of placing our senses into a virtual world.  The speed of technological progress over the last 100 years has been truly remarkable.  It has changed the very society in which we live.  The next 50 years look like being equally remarkable and equally somewhat disturbing “By the end of this decade, we will have full-immersion visual-auditory environments, populated by realistic-looking virtual humans. These technologies are evolving today at an accelerating pace, as reflected in the book Virtual Humans. By the 2030s, virtual reality will be totally realistic and compelling and we will spend most of our time in virtual environments. By the 2040s, even people of biological origin are likely to have the vast majority of their thinking processes taking place in non-biological substrates. We will all become virtual humans.” (Kurzweil, 2003)

We are really at the dawn of Artificial Intelligence technology and the introduction of this into virtual reality computer systems or simulations.  The advent of robotic technology is equally at a very young stage of evolution.  The complexity of this science will both benefit and baffle us all as it gets rolled out into every day usage. We are now at the stage of genetic re-engineering and possible cloning of animals and human beings.

The other aspect is that of the dehumanization of people as individuals. This new virtual society will result in less personal and social interaction and place us out of touch with the physical reality in which we live.  It is a fearful prospect for the future and one which may be the crossroads for mankind and the technology which is supposed to support individual growth. Mass escapism into created virtual worlds will ultimately create a new type of human personality.

Psychological considerations

Howard Rheingold discussed the virtual community in the online world.  He talks about having a network of invisible friends and his young daughter seeing him interact with these on his computer.  Equally his talking to them through the computer media (the virtual world) becomes materialistic when these invisible friends turn up at the door from overseas or different parts of the neighbourhood.  Fantasy then becomes reality.  Rheingold points out that the advantages of the virtual community allow you to work across space, time and organizational boundaries.  He states that this technology changes our personality and the way in which we communicate with people, with the virtual world taking over from the reality of our living world. He moves this claim to a darker side saying that these communities can result in increased attitude polarization amongst individuals, increased prejudice and facilitate sick people to deliberately indulge in their disease. “The most important critical uncertainty today is how we learn to use digital media and networks effectively, reasonably, credibly, collaboratively, civilly, and humanely. This difference is a matter of literacy–the norms of behaviour as well as the skills of encoding and decoding blogs, wikis, forums, blogs, micro blogs, search engines, text messages, and whatever a local teenager cooks up tomorrow in her basement or dorm room.”  (Rheingold, 2010).

Human beings are social animals and require social support.  This being physical and emotional comforts that are provided to us by our family and friends.  We need to know a sense of belonging and that we are part of a community that loves and cares for us. Research studies have demonstrated that social support is a moderating factor against diseases like clinical depression or hypertension.  Such support being rendered by social interaction and participation in a real time environment with other humans.  How this all translates to life in a virtual environment is relatively uncharted territory.  “A Google word count (conducted at April 23th, 2007) gives 1 220 000 hits for “virtual community”, while the polar term “virtual society”) lags hopelessly behind with only 108 000 counts. Apart from the psychological need to identify something highly familiar in a new technical environment, there may also more serious epistemological reasons why the community focus was preferred “. (Geser, 2007).

The link with juvenile violence

It is considered that the verdict is still out on this one. Social Psychologists state that there is a strong body of evidence to state that graphic violence leads towards criminal tendencies in the young. Nevertheless, there does not seem a great body of evidence to support that such behaviour is sustained rather than the fact that violet movies and games stimulate such behaviour.  The main areas that appear to support juvenile crime are poverty, drugs, and deprived areas.

Severe juvenile delinquency in the USA really started to appear in and after the Great Depression of the 1930’s.  Partly due to the slum conditions and shanty town that were created and a sub culture of crime. There is doubt that poverty and depravation are major contributing factors to the behaviour of young offenders. Notable areas in the USA were the backwaters of Chicago and New York where gang cultures were formed.  Poor economic conditions and ethnicity problems have deepened the problem to other Cities in the USA. ” American society has determined a culture goal, i.e., to acquire wealth for all the citizens and has specified hard labour honesty, education for achieving that goal. But there is gap between theory and practice. Social recognition to people who have acquired wealth through ways not approved by the society and insufficient social opportunities to acquire wealth causes high rate of deviant subculture” (Karzon).

Some recent interesting statistics in the USA indicate that about 62% victims of non-fatal violence occur at the hands of juvenile offenders.  95 % of sexual assaults were committed by youths under the age of 18. Some 74% of reported juvenile offences said the perpetrator was a male.  61% of simple assaults were carried out by juveniles.  One area singled out as having the most continued troublesome record was Los Angeles in California.  (Montaldo).

Some recent interesting statistics in the USA indicate that about 62% victims of non-fatal violence occur at the hands of juvenile offenders.  95 % of sexual assaults were committed by youths under the age of 18.  Some 74% of reported juvenile offences said the perpetrator was a male.  61% of simple assaults were carried out by juveniles.  One area singled out as having the most continued troublesome record was Los Angeles in California.  (Montaldo)

Types of Juvenile Offences:  The following have been categorized as amongst the ten most typical examples of juvenile crime:

• Murder / Homicide
• Rape and Assault
• Theft / Robbery
• Aggravated Assault
• Drink Driving
• Drug Addiction
• Vandalism

“2.3 million Juveniles were arrested in 2002. This accounts for 17 percent of all arrests and 15 to 25 percent of all violent crimes. According to juvenile crime statistics, murder accounted for five percent of violent crimes committed by juveniles, 12 percent for rape, 14 percent for robbery, and 12 percent for aggravated assault.” (Smith)

The penalties for juvenile crime vary from State to State, with the death penalty being imposed at the severest end.  The Supreme Court generally does not advocate the death penalty for juveniles, nevertheless this remains at the prerogative of the State laws.  At the moment the USA has executed 6 juveniles this decade with Oklahoma and Texas strong advocates of this.

Conclusion

There is a need for responsible government to be concerned about the distribution of graphic violence and the forms in which this is distributed to the younger generation. Primarily though responsibility rests with the parents to limit the amount of time that their children are exposed to this type of media.  There does not appear to be any conclusive evidence that supports the concept that violent graphics media like TV, Videogames and DVD’s are the sustained causation for juvenile crime and inciting violent behaviour in juveniles. They are most certainly a stimulus for violent reaction in a short period of time. The other question is whether prolonged exposure causes cognitive damage due to brain washing. This may be more prone to the mentally retarded, less educated or slow learner. It may not necessarily apply to the more educated affluent children that participate in these games etc.  There is also the question of whether such exposure is a detraction to education and ultimately may lead children down the wrong path i.e. anti-social behaviour, violence and joining in gangs. Again this really rests with the controls of the parents in limiting their exposure to this media and ensuring that the children have an adequate balance of entertainment, exercise and education.

Works Cited

Anderson, C. A. (2009). The Influence of Media Violence on Youth. Journal of Association forPsychological Science, 81-110.

Geser, H. (2007, 4). A very real Virtual Society. Retrieved 1 27, 2010, from Towards Cybersociety and “Vireal” Social Relations: http://socio.ch/intcom/t_hgeser18.htm

Karzon, S. H. (2003, 8 10). An inquiry into the causes . Retrieved 11 17, 2009, from http://www.thedailystar.net/law/200308/02/index.htm

Kurzweil, R. (2003). Virtual Humans. AMACOM.

Montaldo, C. (2009). Most Juvenile Crime Victims Are Other Juveniles. Retrieved 11 17, 2009, from http://crime.about.com/od/juvenile/a/juvenile_vics.htm

Norcia, A. (2010). The Impact of Video Games on Children. Retrieved 10 27, 2010, from Palo Alto Medical Foundation: http://www.pamf.org/preteen/parents/videogames.html

O’CONNOR, A. (2005, 8 30). The Claim: Violent Video Games Make Young People Aggressive . Retrieved 10 27, 2010, from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/health/psychology/30real.html

Smith, L. (2009). Juvenile Crime Statistics . Retrieved 11 17, 2009, from http://www.onlinelawyersource.com/criminal_law/juvenile/statistics.html

Tanya H. Hess1, ,. K. (Apr 99 Vol 55). Tanya H. Hess1,, Kathryn D. Hess2,, Allen K. Hess3,. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 439-445.