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April Wood
Barry Rich
Composition 1

The Media is not the Reason

Violent media gets a bad reputation because it is, well, violent, and many people

associate violence with barbarism. Over the years, violent media such as video games, TV

shows, or comic books have been to blame for youth violence in our society. Games like Mortal

Kombat and comic books like The Incredible Hulk are very violent in nature and children love to

read and play them, so it would only make sense that these sources of entertainment are negative

influences on our children, causing them to lash out with extreme acts of violence like school

shootings. A conclusion like this makes sense with stories of where a murderer claims that a

fictional vampire queen found in the movie Queen of the Damned told him to commit murder

(Coyne 1). This, however is not the case. Violent media is not the source of youth violence or

deviancy because there are several other factors to take into account like home life and how this

form of media can be a good medium for children.

Although many politicians and other high profile people may disagree, violent media can

be a positive thing especially for youth. It can inspire a sense of freedom, not just act as

entertainment. Gerrard Jones expresses this very well in his article Violent Media Is Good for

Kids by giving an example of how reading violent comics as a child helped break him out of his

comfort zone to explore life and make new friends with similar interests (230-231). His article

points out that the media is not to blame for violent outbursts in our children, but the repression

of it is. Jones spells this out very well here: When we try to protect our children from their own

feelings and fantasies, we shelter them not against violence but against power and selfhood

(233). To back up his statement, he points out that we are taught to repress our violent urges that
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are natural to us, and then gives another example of how violent media is not a negative, but

indeed a positive aspect of entertainment by saying it is a good form of self-expression. He uses

the example of a troubled girl who wrote stories about gruesome stabbings and acted out violent

TV shows. Instead of bottling up her emotions for them to explode, she dealt with them head on

because these actions let her vent her aggression in a positive creative way (232). This example

is important because it shows that violent media is not a negative influence on behavior, but a

positive one. Violent media did not teach this child to take her negative emotions out on

someone, but instead became a tool for her to use and shape into something creative and that

taught her to deal with aggression in a creative, non-violent way.

Looking at the media in Jones light is one way to defend the violence in it, but another

piece of evidence of how violent media is not to blame for our childrens violence is by looking

at it through a sociologists eye. It is evident that most of the people who blame the media for

things such as school shootings are people like politicians and other moral crusaders

(Sternheimer 204). Very few of these claims were made by experts, however (Sternheimer 206).

Sociologist Karen Sternheimer argues that there are deeper issues that are the cause of violence

in our youth, not the influence of violent media. She says the media is just an easy thing to blame

for deeper issues in our society and that It is equally likely that more aggressive people seek out

violent entertainment, instead of the media causing violence (207). She is not the only

researcher to believe such a thing. In Coynes study, she also found evidence that violent people

are more inclined to watch violent media rather than become violent from it (3). She also raises a

few questions by pointing out a difference in race and how we perceive crime between African

American teens and middle-class white teens. It is supposedly normal for an African American
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boy to be on the wrong side of the law, but when a normal white teenager commits a crime it

cannot be of his own doing. She explains this very well in her article with her quote:

The video game explanation constructs the white, middle class shooters as victims

of the power of video games, rather than fully culpable criminals. When boys

from good neighborhoods are violent, they seem to be the harbingers of a new

breed of youth, created by video games rather than their social circumstances

(209).

This shows that people are just looking for easy answers and want to ignore the real issues of

race and social class that are still evident in our society, while violent media becomes the

scapegoat for bigger concerns.

Another aspect to look at are crime statistics themselves. If violent media such as

television influenced crime, it would make sense that crime rates increased when the television

was introduced to society. Once again, this is not the case. Violent crime existed well before the

introduction of the television. Crime waves in the late 1800s and early 1900s exceed that of

todays crime rates. In the 1930s, roughly 20 years before television, homicides in the US

increased by a dramatic amount. If television wasnt to blame then what is? There are several

other factors that influence crime rate. Things from demographics, poverty, access to guns, and

even social change are all things that can influence crime (Coyne 3).

Also, there are several things that factor into violent crime, like home life, that shows that

media is not to be blamed. Ferguson et al. explains that there are several factors that lead up to

criminal behavior in his quote Violent criminal is a complex phenomenon, and to often,

potential causes are studied in an isolated manner (396). He says that one factor that has a big

influence on children is parental behavior. Violence within the home life increases the chances of
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a person becoming violent themselves, as well as making it more likely for them to view violent

media. Children who witness or experience domestic abuse are much more likely due to the fact

it increases their risk for borderline personality disorder, which in turn puts them at a higher risk

for committing violent crime (397). This is due the fact that child abuse increase the risk of not

developing appropriate attachments in relationships, increase the risk of making the child feel

isolated, and cause the child to not regulate emotions properly which could all lead to more

violent behavior.

Another argument that can be made in defense of violent media is how Ferguson et al.

show is how simple personality traits can play a large part in violent crime. He states that:

Few studies of either family violence or media effects seriously consider the

potential role of individual personality as an independent factor in the

development of violent criminal behaviors. However, recent research from twin

studies has suggested that genetic and personality factors may be as powerful as

environmental factors in explaining antisocial and violent behaviors, and that

genetic and environmental risk factors may interact in significant ways(399).

This brings up that personality is another big factor in violent crime, not just environmental

factors. Researchers have proven that traits like aggressiveness and antisocialism are common

traits amongst violent criminals, yet not in non-violent offenders. The two main personality traits

that can predict violent crime are agreeableness and conscientiousness. Also another key factor is

neuroticism(399). Ferguson et al. explain this by saying A brain that is already genetically hard-

wired for more violent behaviors may increasingly mold neurological pathways emphasizing

violence in response to environmental abuse. A person who is known to have poor

agreeableness or an aggressive personality are more likely to lash out during times of stress.
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Also, people who are more at risk for violent behavior require less environmental stress to trigger

outburst that could lead to crime (401). Like Sternheimer, Ferguson et al. also believe that people

with violent personalities are drawn to violent media. They state that:

Violent media may act as stylistic catalysts. When an individual high in

violence proneness decides to act violently, he or she may then model violence

that he or she has seen in the media. As such, the style or form of violence may be

socially modeled, but not the desire to act violently itself. Thus a predilection for

media violence is caused by a developed personality style (itself caused by

genetics and family violence) rather than vice versa (401).

Criminals arent getting the idea to act violently, but may be getting an idea of how they want to

act violently. This could explain incidences similar to the ones mentioned before and why people

blamed the media as the influence behind these crimes.

In conclusion, violent media may still be hotly debated but the facts are clear, it is not

comic books, TV programs, or video games that cause our youth to become violent or deviant,

but several, more complicated factors such as, environment, mental health, and over all

personality. These factors prove that it is more complicated than just simple media influence, and

that there may be underlying reasons as to why we pin the blame on the media. People may not

want to dig deeper into social issues like race, social status, and domestic violence, so they

choose an easier target: the media. It has been shown that not only is it not a cause of violent

crime, but it can be a positive thing for our youth when used the right way. For children with

troubled home lives or children who are simply born more aggressive, it can be used as a creative

medium. In the end, when statistics and facts from years of research are observed, it is clear

violent media does not cause violent crime.

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Works Cited
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Coyne, Sarah M. "Does Media Violence Cause Violent Crime?." European Journal On Criminal

Policy & Research 13.3/4 (2007): 205-211. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.

Ferguson, Christopher J., et al. "Personality, Parental, And Media Influences On Aggressive

Personality And Violent Crime In Young Adults." Journal Of Aggression, Maltreatment

& Trauma 17.4 (2008): 395-414. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.

Jones, Gerrard. Violent Media is Good for Kids. Perspectives on Contemporary Issues:

Reading Across the Disciplines. Ed. Katherine Anne Ackley. 6th ed. Boston: Wadsworth

Cengage. 2012. 230-233. Print.

Sternheimer, Karen. Do Video Games Kill? Perspectives on Contemporary Issues: Reading

Across the Disciplines. Ed. Katherine Anne Ackley. 6th ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage.

2012. 204-210. Print.