Friday, December 17, 2004
“The only real way to curb gun violence is to fight with the culture of violence in our country. Whether this is possible with the huge amount of television (culture) and video games (enabler) we surround ourselves with would also make a good debate.”
“If you google up a UBC report which focused on three cities in interior BC as they were introduced to television, you will see that that study found an increase in violence and petty crime no matter which channels were broadcast."
The introduction of TV did lead to an increase in crime. However, not quite in the way you describe. With the emergence of consumer culture, there was suddenly, to put it simply, a hell of a lot more stuff worth stealing. TVs were one such product. That helps explain it does not matter what kinds of channels were broadcast. Add to this an emerging market for illegal drugs, the war on drugs, rapidly changing social mores and the explosion in the number of young people and you have the foundation for the spike in crime that occurred in the 70s and 80s. (Moralistic attitudes have helped produce the two most violent periods, in terms of sky high homicide rates, over the last 100 years, viz., prohibition and the War on drugs) In countries such as Brazil and Mexico and indeed to a lesser extent in the US, you also have a 5th factor, viz., huge inequalities of wealth. It does not take a genius to figure out that reminding the poor just how poor they are on a daily basis, especially if there is limited social mobility, is a recipe for disaster. It is this that makes the Conservatives tough on crime talk disingenuous. If you are going to intact policies that increase inequalities of wealth, then you can be tough on crime all you want; you are going to have crime.
Incidentally, over the 90s video games have gotten more and more violent. However, youth crime in both Canada and the States is down in the 1990s, especially according to a recent US report, in schools.
“If you google up a UBC report which focused on three cities in interior BC as they were introduced to television, you will see that that study found an increase in violence and petty crime no matter which channels were broadcast."
The introduction of TV did lead to an increase in crime. However, not quite in the way you describe. With the emergence of consumer culture, there was suddenly, to put it simply, a hell of a lot more stuff worth stealing. TVs were one such product. That helps explain it does not matter what kinds of channels were broadcast. Add to this an emerging market for illegal drugs, the war on drugs, rapidly changing social mores and the explosion in the number of young people and you have the foundation for the spike in crime that occurred in the 70s and 80s. (Moralistic attitudes have helped produce the two most violent periods, in terms of sky high homicide rates, over the last 100 years, viz., prohibition and the War on drugs) In countries such as Brazil and Mexico and indeed to a lesser extent in the US, you also have a 5th factor, viz., huge inequalities of wealth. It does not take a genius to figure out that reminding the poor just how poor they are on a daily basis, especially if there is limited social mobility, is a recipe for disaster. It is this that makes the Conservatives tough on crime talk disingenuous. If you are going to intact policies that increase inequalities of wealth, then you can be tough on crime all you want; you are going to have crime.
Incidentally, over the 90s video games have gotten more and more violent. However, youth crime in both Canada and the States is down in the 1990s, especially according to a recent US report, in schools.
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