Does the Media Cause Crime?
Whether the media causes crime has been a hotly debated topic for decades. Many studies on the subject have arrived at a variety of conclusions. The methodology and analysis of data in these studies are also a matter of debate. In essence, there are studies to support conflicting points of view on the subject.
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History
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Studies on the impact of crime images in the media on children date back to the 1950's. Early researchers showed a group of children violent cartoons and observed their behavior immediately afterward. They noticed that children exposed to violent cartoons were more likely to be violent themselves. A 1963 study by professors A. Badura, D. Ross and S.A. Ross exposed 100 children to one of four types of violence. Some saw actual violence, some violence on TV, some cartoon violence and some nothing at all. All the children who watched violence were more aggressive immediately afterward. These early studies were criticized because they only focused on short term effects.
Time Frame
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Longer term studies on the possible link between crime images in the media and real crime were started in the 1960's. One of the best known was by University of Michigan Professor Leonard Eron. He followed 856 third grade children for 22 years. Eron concluded that boys who watched television crime were more likely to commit crimes as teenagers and adults. Eron's work was criticized by other researchers like Richard Rhodes, who said Eron's test group was too small. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author said Eron's study lacked the data to support his conclusions.
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Effects
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The effects of crime images in the media have also been studied in societies. University of Washington Professor Brandon Centerwall found a rise in the murder rate in North America eight years after the wide scale introduction of TV. He also found a leap in the murder rate in South Africa 12 years after TV was introduced there. However, other studies dispute this conclusion. Professor Jonathan Freedman of the University of Toronto studied TV in Japan. He found that the Japanese have some of the most violent programming but an extremely low crime rate.
Significance
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Modern studies on crime images in the media suggest that it may be one of a number of factors that can lead to real life crime. Researchers in Norway found that children with involved parents were far less likely to commit crimes regardless of how many crime images they watched in the media. Other studies point to family values and socio-economic class as stronger influences than exposure to media crime.
Considerations
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Dozens of studies over the past 40 years have done little to answer the question of whether the media causes crime. Conflicting research seems to support both sides. However, a Department of Justice analysis of the studies based on modern standards of research finds that there is no conclusive data proving that watching crime in the media leads to committing crime in real life.
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