NCJ Number
78514
Date Published
1976
Length
122 pages
Annotation
This dissertation examines a population of inmates at short-term penal institutions concerning their television preferences, their attitudes toward society, and their own histories of antisocial behavior.
Abstract
Studying men and women who have been obviously antisocial is deemed to have a decided advantage over trying to observe or predict abnormal and aggressive behavior from groups of youngsters who have been exposed to television violence. Previous research with children is reviewed concerning effects on learning, emotional effects, and the question of catharsis in television viewing. These studies are found lacking in conclusive results, while research studies with delinquents or deviant adults have been few and highly exploratory in nature. This field survey research involved administration of a questionnaire to 185 prisoners at several Ohio detention facilities. Questions concerned the crimes and the demographic variables of the respondents; their attitudes toward television; program preference; and the Buss-Durkee hostility inventory. Analysis of the results did not indicate that mass media consumption has any relationship with assaultiveness. The best predictors of mass media consumption appeared to be the demographic variables. The study did, however, identify factors for future research. Inmates admitted that learning criminal techniques from television was a possibility and that a number of people seem to have become desensitized to television violence and hence to real life violence. Another finding of the study was that radio, newspapers, and comic book consumption were better predictors of nonviolent crime than was television. Tabular data are given. The study instrument is appended. Approximately 100 references are listed.