Crime Rate / Incarceration Rate

Scientists have concluded that exposure to violent TV does indeed lead to more aggressive thoughts, attitudes and actions.  Could this help explain the fact that the homicide rate nearly doubled from the mid 1960's to the late 1970's  (see graphs).  In reaction to this huge crime increase, the public supported policies that have led to a 335% increase in the incarceration rate (pdf).  This has brought the crime back down to the early 1960s levels, but the United States now has the highest incarceration rate in the entire world (pdf) - see also The New York Times (April 2008)

Note: the 1960's was the first time large number of people came of age after spending substantial portions of their childhood in front of the tube.

But, did TV cause the huge crime increase starting in the mid 1960's?  There is no way to prove this.  But TV proponents often argue that the reduction in crime to early 1960 levels by the year 2000, is proof that TV is not the culprit.  They fail to mention that the U.S.A. has had to more than triple the rate of incarceration to accomplish this reduction.

Note: scientists are arguing that TV increases aggression.  No one is arguing that violent TV is the only cause of violence, just one of many (such as childhood neglect, family income, neighborhood violence, parental education, and psychiatric disorders).

As for the incarceration rate reducing crime, we could reduce the crime rate to zero by putting enough people in prison.  Note: The second factor keeping the murder rate from being any worse is medical technology.

Homicide rate per year per 100,000 inhabitants in the United States from 1910 to 2006 - Wikipedia

"A surge in violent crime that began last year accelerated in the first half of 2006, the FBI reported yesterday, providing the clearest signal yet that the historic drop in the U.S. crime rate has ended and is being reversed." - Washington Post (Dec 2006)

"Homicide rates in South Africa - Before & After TV" - The New Citizen (Fall 1992)

"Four years ago, Bhutan, the fabled Himalayan Shangri-la, became the last nation on earth to introduce television. Suddenly a culture, barely changed in centuries, was bombarded by 46 cable channels. And all too soon came Bhutan's first crime wave - murder, fraud, drug offences." - The Guardian (June 2003)

Overview

"Report Shows 'Unequivocal Evidence' That Media Violence Has Significant Negative Impact on Children" - ScienceDaily (March 2004)

The full report "The Influence of Media Violence on Youth" - Psychological Science in the Public Interest (Dec 2003)

AAP Statement on the Effects of Violent Media - American Academy of Pediatrics (July 2000)

Violence on Television: What Does the Research Show? - American Psychological Association (APA) 

"Mounting evidence links TV viewing to violence" - over 1000 studies over 30 years - The Christian Science Monitor (March 2002) 

"Two studies show that prolonged exposure to gratuitous violence in the media can escalate subsequent hostile behaviors and, among some viewers, foster greater acceptance of violence as a means of conflict resolution." - ScienceDaily (April 1999)

Scientific Facts Versus Media Manipulation - Media Violence and the American Public (pdf)

The Influence of Media Violence on Youth

Cognitive Daily - The influence of media violence on youth - Part 1

Cognitive Daily - The influence of media violence on youth - Part 2

Cognitive Daily - The influence of media violence on youth - Part 3

Cognitive Daily - What watching violent movies does to kids' brains

The influence of media violence on youth - Report (pdf)

Reducing TV = Reducing Aggression

"Limiting TV viewing reduces aggression in children, study says" - Stanford Report (January 2001)

"Effects of reducing children's television and video game use on aggressive behavior: a randomized controlled trial." - Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine (Jan 2001)

"Mich. kids urged to kick the TV habit" - The Free Radical (Feb 2006)

Stanford Student Media Awareness to Reduce Television (SMART) curriculum is being used in California and Michigan. SMART in San Francisco,  SMART in Canada

Examples from the Research

"Three-year-old children who are exposed to more TV appear to be at an increased risk for exhibiting aggressive behavior, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals." - Science Daily (Nov 2009)

"The research shows that even when other factors are considered, such as academic skills, encounters with community violence, or emotional problems, ”childhood and adolescent violent media preferences contributed significantly to the prediction of violence and general aggression“ in the study subjects." - ScienceDaily (Nov 2008)

"Watching media violence significantly increases the risk that a viewer or video game player will behave aggressively in both the short and long term, according to a University of Michigan study published today in a special issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health." - ScienceDaily (Nov 2007)

"Violent TV May Lead to Antisocial Kids: Study Shows Watching TV Violence as a Preschooler May Lead to Later Antisocial Behavior" - WebMD (Nov 2007) - more on the same study - Suite 101 (Nov 2007)

"Summary: Offers a look at a study that reveals that television violence makes children more aggressive and these more aggressive kids turn to watching more television to justify their own behavior. Study according to Leonard Eron; Details of the study; Conclusion that what one learns about life from the television screen seems to be transmitted even to the next generation." - Psychology Today (2006)

"Four-year-old children who watch more television than average are more likely to become bullies, research suggests." - BBC (April 2005)

"Watching violence on television, says Eron, leads to heightened aggressiveness, which in turn leads to more violence-viewing on TV. "Children who behave aggressively are less popular--and, perhaps because their relations with their peers tend to be unsatisfying, less popular children watch more television and therefore view more violence." From TV, they learn new techniques of agression, which makes them even less popular with their peers, which in turn drives them back to TV." - Psychology Today (2005)

"Childhood Exposure To Media Violence Predicts Young Adult Aggressive Behavior, According To A New 15-Year Study" - American Psychological Association (March 2003)

"Childhood Viewing of TV Violence Affects Women as Well as Men" - Newswise (March 2003)   More on the same study - Personal MD (March 2003)

"Researchers tracked about 700 boys and girls for 17 years. Even accounting for factors such as family income, childhood neglect or psychiatric disorders, the link between watching violent television and behaving aggressively as an adult remains, the study said. " - CNN (March 2002)

"Watching Wrestling Positively Associated with Date Fighting" - ScienceDaily (May 2001)

"Television shows like "The Bionic Woman" and "Charlie's Angels" may have faded into rerun history, but the heroines' aggressive behavior lingers in the psyches of many of the young women who watched such shows avidly 15 or 20 years ago." - The University Record (Feb 1996)

"Media's New Mood: Sexual Violence" - Center for Media Literacy

How Violent TV Increases Aggression Among Viewers

"Violent video games and movies make people numb to the pain and suffering of others, according to a research report published in the March 2009 issue of Psychological Science." - Science Daily (Feb 2009)

"Television characters like Dirty Harry or Bugs Bunny may seem harmless, but it's such characters who appear justified and rewarded in their portrayals of violence on television that could have a long-term negative effect on children, according to a team of University of Michigan psychologists." - American Psychological Association (May 2003)

How TV teaches Aggression - Thinkquest

"Many people believe that children are more aggressive than they used to be. If this is so, social psychologist Albert Bandura has found at least one reason why – social learning – the children copy the behavior modeled by others around them, and that imitation is influenced by reward and punishment." - A Line on Life (May 1995)

"Frequently viewing TV violence – with both children and adults – is directly related to increased aggression. Frequently viewed violence makes aggression seem like a social norm. In other words, it leads viewers to see aggression as an acceptable way – sometimes the only way – to solve conflicts. After viewing violent programs, children play more roughly – fighting more frequently, breaking toys, or snatching toys away from others." - A Line on Life (Nov 1995)

"What is Social Learning Theory?" - About.com

"Trained to Kill: A military expert on the psychology of killing explains how today's media condition kids to pull the trigger." David Grossman (August 1998)

Neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni discusses mirror neurons, autism and the potentially damaging effects of violent movies. - Scientific American (July 2008)

"Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center’s Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Research Center have shown that watching violent programs can cause parts of your brain that suppress aggressive behaviors to become less active." - Physorg (Dec 2007) - More on the same study - Science Daily (Dec 2007)

Can Catharsis Reduce Anger?

"You Can't Punch Your Way Out of Anger" - Psychology Today Blog (Sept 2009)

"Anger: the misunderstood emotion" - Google Books

"Though pop psychology books and articles perpetuate the notion that ''getting your anger out'' is cathartic and can help dissipate hostility, the researchers have found just the opposite: Venting anger on inanimate objects -- punching a pillow or hitting a punching bag, for example -- increases rather than decreases aggressive behavior." - APA (March 1999) see also The New York Times (March 1999)

Violent TV and Aggression - Two Theories

"What happens when a child is exposed to violent entertainment? Two theories are helpful in answering that question. One, social cognitive theory (formerly called social learning), posits that children learn ideas, values, emotions, and even behaviors by observing others in their social environment.75 Children can imitate people in their immediate surroundings or they can imitate characters in the media. Indeed, children as young as one are capable of imitating simple behaviors displayed on television.76 According to social learning theory, children are more likely to imitate observed behaviors that are rewarded than those that are punished.77 Children will also imitate behaviors that produce no consequences because, especially in the case of antisocial acts, the lack of punishment can serve as a tacit reward.78 The type of media role model also makes a difference. Children are most likely to learn from models that are attractive and from those they perceive as similar to themselves.79"

"Social cognitive theory, then, helps explain how children can acquire new behaviors from watching a media character on the screen. Rowell Huesmann uses a second theory, information processing theory, to explain the long-term effects of media exposure. Focusing on the learning of scripts—mental routines for familiar events that are stored in a person's memory—Huesmann theorizes that children develop scripts for bedtime routines, for going to the doctor, and even for getting ready for school.80 He argues that a child who is exposed to a great deal of violence, either in real life or through the media, will acquire scripts that promote aggression as a way of solving problems. Once learned, these scripts can be retrieved from memory at any time, especially when the situation at hand resembles features of the script. The more often an aggressive script is retrieved, the more it is reinforced and becomes applicable to a wider set of circumstances. Thus, children who are repeatedly exposed to media violence develop a stable set of aggressive scripts that are easily prompted and serve as a guide in responding to social situations."

- The Future Of Children - Princeton Brookings

Violent TV/Video Games and Aggression - GAM and GAAM

General Aggression Model (GAM)  - University of Michigan

General Affective Aggression Model (GAAM)  - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (April 2000)

Violence on TV

"In a paper published in the August issue of the journal Pediatrics, Dartmouth researchers document the alarming numbers of young adolescents age 10-14 who are exposed to graphic violence in movies rated R for violence." - Science Daily (Aug 2008)

"They found higher levels of physical aggression in designated children's programs (rated TV-Y and TV-Y7) than among programs for general audiences (rated TV-G, TV-PG, etc.)." - Science Daily (March 2009)

"The Parents Television Council, an advocacy group, reported on Wednesday that the portrayal of violence against women and teenage girls on prime-time broadcast television shows had increased at a faster rate than overall violence on television." - The New York Times (Oct 2009)

"There's something wrong with Dexter the serial killer" - The Guardian (July 2007)

"Americans are being subjected to more sex, violence and profane language during the traditional, early evening ”family hour“ of broadcast television viewing, a watchdog group said on Wednesday." - Reuters (Sept 2007)

"Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: A Content Analysis of Children's Television" - Parents Television Council (March 2006)

Violence on Prime Time Broadcast Television 1998-2006 - Parents Television Council (2006)

"An average American child will see 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders on TV by age 18 " - University of Michigan

"Three-year Study Documents Nature of Television Violence" - American Academy of Pediatrics (August 1998)

TV Violence And Children - Turn Off Your TV (2004)

Graph of Violence on TV

Children, Adolescents, and the Media - Pediatrics (January 1999)

How Violent TV Effects the Brain

"As expected, the results showed that all of the aggressive children had reduced activity in their frontal cortex while completing the task, regardless of their levels of media violence exposure. But researchers found that nonaggressive children who had high levels of media violence exposure also displayed a similar pattern of low activity in the frontal cortex. Children in this group who weren't exposed to high levels of media violence had more frontal cortex activity." - WebMD (June 2005)

      More on the same study - ScienceDaily (June 2005)

TV Violence and Brainmapping in Children - Psychiatric Times (Oct 2001)

Introduction to the Frontal Lobe - SparkNotes

"Watching graphically violent or emotional scenes in a movie may induce enough stress to interfere with your problem solving ability, says a study."  - Bio-Medicine (Nov 2005)

The Neuroscience of Porn - The Frontal Cortex (Sept 2006)

"Neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni discusses mirror neurons, autism and the potentially damaging effects of violent movies."  - Scientific American (July 2008)

"The only people who dispute the connection between smoking and cancer are people in the tobacco industry. And the only people who dispute the TV and violence connection are people in the entertainment industry."

- TV researcher Dr. Leonard Eron of the University of Michigan

"The real impact is not so much that violent images create violent behavior, but that they create an atmosphere of disrespect. The kid who sees a violent movie and imitates what he sees is very unusual, but we're seeing pushing, shoving, and hitting among children occurring with increasing frequency. It's a subtle shift, from 'Have a nice day' to 'Make my day.'"

- Dr. David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, on the consequences of media violence.

"Klebold and Harris do not seem to have been inspired by Hitler, as early theories in the press suggested, but by a desire to see their stories told in a Hollywood movie."

-The Washington Times on the motivation for the Columbine killers.

"I think the thing that comes across so often to our young people is the idea that if someone disrespects you, violence is the best solution. By the time you're 21, 22 years old, you've probably seen between 20,000 and 30,000 people blown away on your TV set…. At some point, the tide needs to turn a little bit."

- Tom Osborne, former head coach of the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers

"The evidence shows that consistent exposure to stories and scenes of violence and terror can mobilize aggressive tendencies, desensitize some and isolate others, intimidate many and trigger violent action in a few."

-George Gerbner, Violence and Terror in the Mass Media, reprinted in the Vancouver Sun.

Quotes from parentstv.org

AAP Statement on Media Violence

Violence May Change the Brain

Peaceful Schools Project Tackles Bullies

JAMA Study: Link found between TV and homicide rates

Youth Crime in N.C. linked to media violence

Stores renting "death videos" to minors

Killology

Watching Violent TV May Cost Kids Friends - Washington Post (April 2006)

Collective Efficacy and crime abatement - Can Block Clubs Block Despair?

How TV Promotes Torture

Violent Video Games

"One of the writers for Modern Warfare 2 defends the airport massacre scene in the game. He is wrong. The scene is indefensible." - Oliver Willis (Nov 2009)

"New game lets players massacre civilians" - Raw Story (Oct 2009)

"A video game to reduce aggression" - Cognitive Daily (April 2009)

"Flower is the only video game I've played that made me feel relaxed, peaceful, and happy." - Slate (Feb 2009)

"Violent video games and movies make people numb to the pain and suffering of others, according to a research report published in the March 2009 issue of Psychological Science." - Science Daily (Feb 2009)

"Human Development Scientists and Computer Game Developers Design Video Game That Teaches Conflict Resolution to Kids" - DBIS (Dec 2008) 

Study Links Violent Video Games, Hostility: Research in U.S., Japan Shows Aggression Increased for Months After Play - Washington Post (Nov 2008)

The bloodier the game, the more hostile the gamer - Cognitive Daily (Sept 2008)

"Violent video games and desensitization" - Cognitive Daily (April 2008)

Video Games Normalize Killing, Doctors Say - KETV (Nov 2007)

"Most Middle-school Boys And Many Girls Play Violent Video Games" - ScienceDaily (July 2007)

"New research by Iowa State University psychologists provides more concrete evidence of the adverse effects of violent video game exposure on the behavior of children and adolescents." - ScienceDaily (April 2007)

"Can video games make kids more violent? A new study employing state-of-the-art brain-scanning technology says that the answer may be yes." - MSNBC (December 2006)

"Adolescents who had played violent video games exhibited more brain activity in a region thought to be important for emotional arousal and less activity in a brain region associated with executive functions. Executive functions are the ability to plan, shift, control and direct one’s thoughts and behavior." - Indiana University School of Medicine (Nov 2006)

"Psychologists Produce First Study on Violence Desensitization From Video Games" - ScienceDaily (July 2006)

"Video Game Violence Can Make You Cold Blooded in Real-Life" - Softpedia (July 2006)

"...their study shows that young men are more likely to see others' attitudes toward them as hostile if they've just played a violent game." - News in Science (April 2006)

"This is your brain... on violent video games" - Cognitive Daily (April 2006)

"In Video Games, Not All Mayhem Is Created Equal" - ScienceDaily (December 2005)

Punishing video game violence: Does it reduce aggressive behavior? - Cognitive Daily (Nov 2005)

"Violent Video Games Lead To Brain Activity Characteristic Of Aggression" - ScienceDaily (October 2005)

Do MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) games increase aggression? - Cognitive Daily (August 2005)

"Violent video games can increase aggressive behavior in children and adolescents, both in the short- and long-term, according to an empirical review of the last 20 years of research." - American Psychological Association (August 2005)

"Do games prime brain for violence?" - New Scientist (June 2005)

"Game mocks real tragedy, gang experts say" - MSNBC (Nov 2004)

Violent virtual video games and hostile thoughts - Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media (Sept 2004)

"Negative effects of violent video games becoming clearer" - AFA (July 2004)

"Psychological research confirms that violent video games can increase children's aggression, but that parents moderate the negative effects." - American Psychological Association (June 2004)

"Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts, and Unanswered Questions" - American Psychological Association (Oct 2003)

"Violent Video Games FAQ" - YMA (2002)

"Computer games stunt teen brains" - The Observer (August 2001)

"Playing violent video games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D or Mortal Combat can increase a person's aggressive thoughts, feelings and behavior..." - ScienceDaily (April 2000)

Ratings and Descriptions

Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)

What They Play - The Parents Guide to Video Games

Military Recruitment

Army Recruits Video Gamers, Latest Recruiting Tool Winning Over Hearts, Minds Of Teens - CBS News (March 2004)

The U.S. Army and video game producers are increasingly collaborating on war simulation games designed to attract a new generation of potential soldiers. - WireTap Magazine (May 2006)

"America's Army (also known as AA or Army Game Project) is a series of video games and other media developed by the United States Army and released as a global public relations initiative to help with recruitment." - Wikipedia

Violent Video Games Teaching Hate

"Should the United States ban a Japanese "rape simulator" game?" - Slate (March 2009)

"Racist Groups Using Computer Gaming to Promote Violence Against Blacks, Latinos and Jews."  -  Anti-Defamation League (February 2002)

Muslim groups condemn 'Muslim Massacre' video game - The Raw Story (Sept 2008)

"Islamic resistance group Hezbollah has sold over 100,000 copies of a computer game where players become anti-Israeli terrorists, prompting calls for it to be banned in Australia." - The Age (May 2003)

"The new game is called Underash, and its hero is a young Palestinian stone- thrower, Ahmed, fighting Israeli soldiers and settlers." - Middle East Online (February 2002)

"A new video game, designed in-part by a former Guantanamo detainee, takes place in 2011 and has the player kill what would be understood to be American and British troops as the player attempts to escape." - KFox (June 2009)

"Some popular video games promote racist, negative stereotypes of Asians that would be unacceptable in other forms of media, says a Canadian researcher." - News in Science (July 2006)

"Grand Theft Christianity" - The New York Times (Dec 2006)

"Grand Theft Auto" - Wikipedia - The player gets extra points for killing cops. If the player kills a prostitute after using her services, he gets back any money paid to her, plus any other money found on her person.