Media And Juvenile Delinquency Essay, Research Paper

When children are taught how to tie their shoes, it is because of how

their parents showed them. When children are taught how to do math problems it

is because how their teachers show them. With all of the role models how does

television effect our children?

Many adults feel that because they watched television when they were

young and they have not been negatively affected then their children should not

be affected as well. What we must first realize is that television today is

different than television of the past, violence is more prevalent in todays

programming unlike the true family programming of the past.

EFFECTS OF TELEVISION – THE BEGINNING

Questions about the effects of television violence have been around

since the beginning of television. The first mention of a concern about

television’s effects upon our children can be found in many Congressional

hearings as early as the 1950s. For example, the United States Senate Committee

on Juvenile Delinquency held a series of hearings during 1954-55 on the impact

of television programs on juvenile crime. These hearings were only the beginning

of continuing congressional investigations by this committee and others from the

1950s to the present.

In addition to the congressional hearings begun in the 1950s, there are

many reports that have been written which include: National Commission on the

Causes and Prevention of Violence (Baker & Ball, 1969); Surgeon General’s

Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior (1972); the

report on children and television drama by the Group for the Advancement of

Psychiatry (1982); National Institute of Mental Health, Television and Behavior

Report (NIMH, 1982; Pearl, Bouthilet, & Lazar, 1982); National Research Council

(1993), violence report; and reports from the American Psychological

Association’s “Task Force on Television and Society” (Huston, et al., 1992) and

“Commission on Violence and Youth” (American Psychological Association, 1992;

Donnerstein, Slaby, & Eron, 1992). All of these reports agree with each other

about the harmful effects of television violence in relation to the behavior of

children, youth, and adults who view violent programming.

The only thing that we know about the effects of exposure to violence

and the relationship towards juvenile delinquency we gather from correlational,

experimental and field studies that demonstrate the effects of this viewing on

the attitudes and behavior of children and adults.

Children begin watching television at a very early age, sometimes as

early as six months, and are intense viewers by the time that they are two or

three years old. In most cases the amount of televised viewing becomes greater

with age and then tapers off during adolescence. ). The violence that is viewed

is more important than the amount of television that is viewed. According to

audience rating surveys, the typical American household has the television set

on for more than seven hours each day and children age 2 to 11 spend an average

of 28 hours per week viewing. (Andreasen, 1990; Condry, 1989; Liebert & Sprafkin,

1988)

The most important documentation of the amount of violence viewed by

children on television are the studies conducted by Gerbner and his colleagues

on the nature of American television programs. The results of these yearly

analyses of the amount of violence on American television for the 22-year period

1967-89 indicate a steady but growing high level of violence. (Gerbner &

Signorielli, 1990) Programs especially designed for children, such as cartoons

are the most violent of all programming. How many times have we all seen the

Coyote try to kill the RoadRunner? GI Joe and many other programs also represent

violence and the use of deadly weapons.

Overall, the levels of violence in prime-time programming have averaged

about five acts per hour and children’s Saturday morning programs have averaged

about 20 to 25 violent acts per hour. (Lichter & Amundson, 1992) However a

recent survey by the Center for Media and Public Affairs identified 1,846

violent scenes broadcast and cablecast between 6 a.m. to midnight during one day

in Washington, D.C. The most violent periods were between 6 to 9 a.m. with 497

violent scenes (165.7 per hour) and between 2 to 5 p.m. with 609 violent scenes

(203 per hour). (Lichter & Amundson, 1992) Most of this violence is shown

during hours that are not generally viewed by the adults therefore violence in

the early morning and afternoon is viewed by children and youth.

CORRELATIONAL EXPERIMENTS

What are the effects of this televised violence on our children? What we

know about the influence of TV violence comes from the research of correlational,

experimental and field studies that have been conducted over the past 40 years.

The amount of evidence from correlational studies is very consistent in showing

the effects of violence in relation to children: In most cases viewing and

having a preference for watching violent television is related to aggressive

attitudes, values and behaviors.

During 1972 Robinson and Bachman (1972) found a relationship between the

number of hours of television viewed and adolescent reports of involvement in

aggressive or antisocial behavior. During that same year Atkin, Greenberg,

Korzenny, and McDermott (1979:5-13) used a different measure to determine

aggressive behavior. They gave nine to thirteen-year-old boys and girls

situations such as the following. Suppose that you are riding your bicycle down

the street and some other child comes up and pushes you off your bicycle. What

would you do? The response options included physical or verbal aggression along

with options to reduce or avoid conflict. This group found that physical or

verbal aggressive responses were selected by 45 per cent of heavy-television-

violence viewers compared to only 21 percent of the light-violence viewers.

During 1983 Phillips (1983:560-568) recorded the effects of the

portrayal of suicides in television soap operas on the suicide rate in the

United States using death records he gathered from the National Center for

Health Statistics. He found, over a six-year period, that whenever a major soap

opera personality committed suicide on television, within three days there was a

significant increase in the number of female suicides across the nation.

The major experimental studies of the cause and effect relation between

television violence and aggressive behavior were completed by Bandura and his

colleagues (Bandura, Ross & Ross,1961:575-582, 1963:3-1) working with young

children, and by Berkowitz and his associates (Berkowitz, 1962; Berkowitz &

Rawlings, 1963:405-412; Berkowitz, Corwin & Heironimus, 1963:217-229) who

studied adolescents. A young child was given a film, then projected on a

television screen, the film showed a person who kicked and beat an inflated

plastic doll. The child was then placed in a playroom setting and then they

recorded the amount of times that aggressive behavior was seen. The results of

these early studies indicated that children who had viewed the aggressive film

were more aggressive in the playroom than those children who had not observed

the aggressive person.

The answer seems to be yes. Several studies have demonstrated that one

exposure to a violent cartoon leads to increased aggression. During 1971,

Hapkiewitz and Roden (1971:1583-1585) found that boys who had seen violent

cartoons were less likely to share their toys than those who had not seen the

violent cartoon. It seems clear from experimental studies that one can show

increased aggressive behavior as a result of either long term or brief exposure

to televised violence, but questions still arise about whether this increased

aggressiveness seen in these experimental settings show in the children’s daily

lifes.

FIELD EXPERIEMENTS

In normal field-experiments, the investigator shows television programs

in the normal viewing setting and observes behavior where it naturally occurs.

The investigator controls the television programming either by arranging a

special series of programs or by choosing towns that in the natural course of

events receive different television programs.

One of the early field-experiments in 1972 conducted by Stein and

Friedrich (1972:202-317) for the Surgeon General’s project dealt with 97

preschool children with a programming of either antisocial, prosocial, or

neutral television programs during a four-week viewing period. The results

indicated that children who were judged to be somewhat in the beginning

aggressive became increasingly more aggressive as a result of viewing the Batman

and Superman cartoons. The children who had viewed the prosocial programming of

Mister Roger’s Neighborhood were less aggressive, more cooperative and more

willing to share with other children. (Stein, Friedrich, 1972:202-317)

CAUSE AND EFFECTS ON TYPES OF CHILDREN

We get a clearer picture about the effects of TV violence when we know

more about the way children watch televised violence. For example, Ekman and his

associates (Ekman et al., 1972) found that children whose facial expressions,

while viewing televised violence, depicted the positive emotions of happiness,

pleasure, interest or involvement were more likely to hurt another child than

were those children whose facial expressions indicated disinterest or

displeasure.

Although there is much discussion about the amount of research evidence

concerning the impact of television violence, most researchers would agree with

the conclusion in the report during 1982 by the National Institute of Mental

Health, which suggests that there is a conclusion among members of the research

community that “violence on television does lead to aggressive behavior by

children and teenagers who watch the programs”.(NIMH, 1982) This conclusion is

based on laboratory experiments and on field studies. Not all children become

aggressive, of course, but the correlations between violence and aggression are

positive.

Television violence is strongly correlated with aggressive behavior as

any other behavioral variable that has been measured. The research question has

moved from asking whether or not there is an effect, to seeking explanations for

the effect.

While the effects of television violence are not simply straightforward,

analyses and reviews of research suggest that there are clear reasons for

concern and caution in relation to the impact of televised violence. To be sure,

there are many factors that influence the relationship between viewing violence

and aggressive behavior and there has been much debate about these influences.

It is clear that there is a considerable amount of violence on television and

that this violence on TV may cause changes in attitudes, values, or behavior on

children and older viewers.

Although there are many different views on the impact of TV violence,

one very strong summary is provided by Eron during his 1992 Congressional

testimony: “There can no longer be any doubt that heavy exposure to televised

violence is one of the causes of aggressive behavior, crime and violence in

society. The evidence comes from both the laboratory and real-life studies.”

(Eron, 1992) Television violence affects children of all ages, of both genders,

at all socio-economic levels and all levels of intelligence. The effect is not

only limited to children who are already aggressive and is not restricted to

this country. The facts remain that we get the same findings of a relationship

between television violence and aggression in children study after study, in

every country, and every economic level. The effect of television violence on

aggression, even though it is not very large, exists. This effect has been

demonstrated outside the laboratory in real-life among many different children.

Children ha ve come to justify their own behavior through the scenes of violence

and negativity involved in television programming.

The recent report by the American Psychological Association Task Force

on Television and Society (Huston, et al., 1992) adds: “…the behavior patterns

established in childhood and adolescence are the foundation for lifelong

patterns manifested in adulthood” (Huston,et,al., 1992:57).

CONCLUSION

The most recent summary released in August, 1993 of the American

Psychological Association Commission on Violence and Youth: Violence and Youth,

Psychology’s Response, confirms the findings noted above and reaffirms the need

to consider ways to reduce the level of violence in all media. (APA, 1993:77-78).

In conclusion we should remember that although the media certainly has a

lot to answer for, it is important to remember that not everything that comes

through the TV is bad. Rather, it is overuse and generally a careless attitude

by adults that so often leads to regrettable results.

REFERENCES

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