NCJ Number
151759
Date Published
Unknown
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the available literature examining linkages between watching violence on television and behaving aggressively.
Abstract
Prior to the 1960's, most experts agreed that entertainment had, if anything, a cathartic effect on viewers; fantasy was not thought to inspire imitation. With the emergence of social learning theory in the 1960's, however, reports of laboratory studies claimed there was a causal link between aggressive material and aggressive behavior among children. Despite some questionable research methodologies, this type of finding formed the primary basis for the 1972 Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior and a 1982 survey sponsored by the National Institutes of Mental Health. There was some acknowledgement in these reports that the findings were, at best, tentative and established causal relations only in children already predisposed to aggression. Attempts to find a statistical correlation between adult television viewing and antisocial behavior also yielded mixed results. This author argues that, scientific research aside, the real problem with trying to develop censorship schemes is that they go against the philosophical foundations of the Constitution, and specifically the First Amendment that guarantees free speech. 41 notes