Media Violence Effects and Violent Crime Good Science or Moral Panic?

Whether exposure of children or adults to violent media is a cause of aggression and violent behavior has been one of the most intensely debated issues in criminal justice and the broader populace. Debates about the effects of media ranging from books to video games have a long history (Trend, 2007). Even religious writings such as the Bible have been the target of criticism, from early Christian writings in the Roman Empire to “native” language translations of the Bible in the late medieval period. In fact, the Bible recently came back in the spotlight with a study suggesting that reading passages from the Bible with violent content provokes aggression in the same manner as violent video games or television allegedly do (Bushman, Ridge, Das, Key & Busath, 2007). The 20th century has seen many other examples, from Harry Potter teaching witchcraft, to the concern (largely evaporated) that playing Dungeons and Dragons would lead to Satanism or mental illness, to the Hays Code “taming” of Betty Boop (which, by forcing her to put on more clothes, doomed the comic strip). Concerns have come and gone that media such as comic books, jazz, rock, rap, role-playing games, and books, as well as television and movies, would lead to waves of rebelliousness, violence, and moral degradation. New media such as video games and the Internet inevitably