INTRODUCTION
1. Bureau of Justice Statistics National Crime Victimization Survey, press release NCJ 176353 (Washington, D.C.: July 1999). 2. At this writing, the White House and Congress have announced the formation of such bodies in congressional committees, Federal Trade Commission, the Surgeon General's office, the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Sciences. One ad hoc panel of experts from inside and outside government is to be called the Task Force on the State of American Society. Its subject has repeatedly been referred to as "the decline of American society." 3. Lawrie Mifflin, "Many Researchers Say Link Is Already Clear on Media and Youth Violence," New York Times (May 9, 1999). 4. Catherine Greennian, "The V Chip Arrives With a Thud," New York Times (Nov. 4,1999): G1.
PART I
5. Jonathan Freedman, Testimony to the House Bipartisan Task Force on Youth Violence, Washington, D.C. (Oct. 13, 1999). 6. Committee on Communications and Media Law (Association of the Bar of the City of New York), "Violence in the Media: A Position Paper," The Record 52 (Apr. 1997): 284. 7. National Research Council, Albert J. Reiss and Jeffrey A. Roth, eds., Understanding and Preventing Violence (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1993): 20. 8. Nielsen Media Research, 1998, 1999. 9. Valerie Fahey, "TV by the Numbers," Health (December/ January, 1992): 35. 10. Sharon R. King, "Video Game Industry Makes Push at Self-Policing," New York Times (Oct. 12, 1999). 11. The Center for Media and Public Affairs, tracking of an 18-hour period on 10 broadcast and cable channels in 1992, found violence of all kinds, from fictional to cartoon to news reports and movie promotions. Overall, the researchers recorded 1,846 violent scenes. Two years later, they tracked a 41% rise in violent scenes, to 2,605. Violence in promotional spots for upcoming shows and movies also increased, by 69%. However, during that same period, from 1992 to 1993, 11 serious" violence and gunplay in prime-time network programming declined substantially, according to the National Television Violence Study. Joel Federman, ed., National Television Violence Study, (Santa Barbara: University of California, 1998). 12. Bureau of Justice Statistics National Crime Victimization Survey, press release NCJ 176353 (Washington, D.C.: July 1999). 13. Justice Department, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, press release (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 23, 1999). 14. Nancy D. Brener et al. "Recent Trends in Violence Related Behaviors Among High School Students in the United States," Journal of the American Medical Association (Abstracts Aug. 4, 1999). 15. Frank Rich, "Washington's Post-Littleton Looney Toons," New York Times (June 19, 1999). 16. Orrin G. Hatch and Senate Judiciary Committee, "Children, Violence and the Media: A Report for Parents and Policy Makers," (1999): 4-5. 17. Brandon S. Centerwall, "Television and Violence: The Scale of the Problem and Where to Go From Here," JAMA 267 (1992): 3059-63. 18. Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins, Crime Is Not the Problem: Lethal Violence in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997): 238-47. 19. Freedman, Testimony to House Bipartisan Task Force (1999). 20. The general critiques in this and the next section are drawn largely from Jonathan Freedman, "Effect of Television Violence on Aggressiveness," Psychological Bulletin 96 (1984): "Television Violence and Aggression: What Psychologists Should Tell the Public," in P. Stidefeld and P.E. Tetlock, eds. Psychology and Social Policy (New York: Hemisphere, 1991): 179-89; William J. McGuire, "The Myth of Massive Media Impact: Savagings and Salvagings," Public Communication and Behavior 1 (1986): 173-257-1 Kenneth D. Gadow and Joyce Sprafkin, "Field Experiments of Television Violence With Children: Evidence for an Environmental Hazard?" Pediatrics 83 (March, 1989): 399-405, Robert M. Kaplan and Robert D. Singer, "Television Violence and Viewer Aggression: A Reexamination of the Evidence," Journal of Social Issues 32 (1976): 35-70. Kevin Durkin, "Computer Games: Their Effects on Young People" (Sydney: Office of Film and Literature Classification, 1995); Jeffrey Goldstein, "Video and Computer Gaines: An Update of Research" (Washington, DC: Interactive Digital Software Assn., 1998). 21. Gadow and Sprafkin, op cit. 22. Marcia Pally, Sex and Sensibility excerpts on televised violence (New York: Ecco Press, 1994), typescript, 15. 23. Ziraring and Hawkins (1997):131. 24.Gadow and Sprafkin, 401-2. 25. The current star of this particular show is self-styled inventor of the theory of "killology" Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, who flies from coast to coast telling parents that video games "teach" children to kill. Grossman and Gloria DeGaetano, Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill (New York: Crown Publishers, 1999). His contentions are unsupported, and often contradicted, by evidence. See, e.g. Australian ruinisters study, at note 28. 26.Australian Commonwealth, State and Territory Ministers, "Computer Games and Australians Today" (Sydney, Australia: 1999) 27. United Press International (Aug. 18, 1999). 28. A. Irwin and A. Gross, "Cognitive Tempo, Violent Video Games, and Aggressive Behavior in Young Boys," ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ523517 (1995). 29. Goldstein, op. cit. 30. For a critique, see, Dale Kunkel, et al. "Measuring Television Violence: The Importance of Context," Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 39 (1995): 284-91. 31. Anne Sheppard, "Social Learning and Video Games," letter to The Psychologist (November 1997). 32. Freedman (1984): 243. 33. For a summary of research supporting this point of view, see Stacy L. Smith and Edward Donnersteiri, "Harmful Effects of Exposure to Media Violence: Learning of Aggression, Emotional Desensitization and Fear," Human Aggression: Theories, Research, and Implications for Social Policy (New York: Acadernic Press, 1998): 167-202. Other social psychologists describe the social-learning process in a slightly different way. They say viewing violent fictions contributes to the formation of general "scripts" that come to dominate a child's imaginative resources. These scripts tell the child that conflict is to be dealt with using violence, not words of reconciliation. L. Rowell Huesmann and Laurie S. Miller, "Long-term Effects of Repeated Exposure to Media Violence in Childhood," in Huesmann, ed., Aggressive Behavior: Current Perspectives (New York: Plenum Press, 1994): 153-86. 34. The various findings and interpretations of this study have been widely published, e.g., L. Rowell Huesmann and Leonard D. Eron, "The Development of Aggression in Children of Different Cultures: Psychological Processes and Exposure to Violence," in Huesmann and Eron, eds. Television and the Aggressive Child: A Cross-National Comparison (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1986): 1-27. 35. Critiques include Freedman (1984) and Jo Groebel, "International Research on Television Violence: Synopsis and Critique," in Huesmann and Eron, eds. (1986), op. cit.: 259-281. 36. 0. Wiegman, M. Kuttschreuter and B. Baarda, "A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Television Viewing on Aggressive and Prosocial Behaviors," British Journal of Social Psychology 31 (1992): 147-64. 37. T.D. Cook, D.A. Kendzierski, and S.V. Thomas, "The Implicit Assumptions of Television Research: an analysis of the 1982 NIMH Report on Television and Behavior " Public Opinion Quarterly 4 7 (1983): 182. 38. Horst Stipp and J. Ronald Milavsky, "U.S. Television Programming's Effects on Aggressive Behavior of Children and Adolescents," Current Psychology: Research and Reviews 7 (Spring 1988): 76-92. 39.Kaplan and Singer, 57. 40. Freedman (1991): 179-80. 41. Henry Jenkins, Testimony before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee (May 4, 1999).
PART II
42. New York City Bar Assn., 309. For an excellent discussion of the Constitutional issues and dangers involved in the restriction of violent media content, see the New York City Bar Association Committee on Communications and Media Law's "Violence in the Media: A Position Paper" (note 4). 43. Turner Broadcasting System Inc. v. FCC 512 U.S. 622, 114 S. Ct. 2445, 2470 (1994). 44. Davis-Kidd Booksellers, Inc. v. McWherter, 886 SW2d 250 (Tenn. 1993), struck down a restriction on the sale to minors of material containing "excess violence." Video Software Dealers Assn. v. Webster, 773 F. Supp. 1275 CW.D. Mo. 199 1), aff d 968 F.2d 684 (8th Cir. 1992), held that "unlike obscenity, violent expression is protected by the First Amendment." State v. Johnson, 343 So. 2d 705, 710 (La. 1977), declared that prohibiting the sale of violent materials to minors exceeded the limits placed on regulation of obscene materials by the U.S. Supreme Court. Sovereign News Co. v. Falke, 448 F. Supp. 306, 400 (N.D. Ohio 1977), overturned a statute defining as "harmful to minors" material describing or representing "extreme or bizarre violence." Allied Artists Pictures Corp. v. Alford, 410 F. Supp. 1348 (W.D. Tenn. 1976) found excessive violence, even with definition, is unconstitutionally vague. Eclipse Enterprises, Inc. v. Gulotta, 134 F 3d 63 (2d Cir 1997), overturned a local law banning the sale of trading cards with the pictures and descriptions of heinous crimes or criminals. 45. New York City Bar Assn., 320-1. 46. Harry T. Edwards and Mitchell N. Berman, "Regulating Violence on Television," Northwestern University Law Review 89 (1995): 1487. 47. Bill v. Superior Court, 137 California Appellate 3rd, at 1008-1009. 48. Freedom Forum On Line (www.freedomforum.org) "Outrages" (November 1999). 49. Anthony Comstock, Traps for the Young (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1884). 50. Fifteenth Annual Report, Case 39,591 (New York: New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 1890): 15-16. 5 1. Agnes Repellier, "The Repeal of Reticence," The Atlantic (March 1914): 207-304. 52. Anemona Hartocollis, "School Officials Defend Web Site Filtering," New York Times (Nov. 11, 1999). 5:3. Jenkins, op. cit. 54. "Pac-Man Rewards the Brain," Psychologie 10 (July/Aug., 1998). 55. Robert J. Taylor and Elizabeth Berry, "The Use of a Computer Game to Rehabilitate Sensorimotor Function Deficits Following a Subarachnoid Hemorrhage," Neuropsychological Rehabilitation 8 (1998): 113-122. 56. A. R. Gray et al. "Individual and Group Learning of the Highway Code: Comparing Board Games and Traditional Methods," Educational Research 40 (1998): 45-53. 57. Rosalind Thomas et al. "Using an Interactive Computer Game to Increase Skill and Self-efficacy Regarding Safer Sex Negotiation: Field test results," Health Education and Behavior 24 (1997): 71-86; see also Jeffrey Goldstein's numerous reviews of video-game literature. 58. Jeffrey Goldstein, "Video and Computer Games:" A Summary of Research on the Attractions, Effects, and Applications of Video and Computer Games (Washington, D.C.: Interactive Digital Software Assn., 1997): 5. 59. Peter Applebome, "Theaters Vow to Enforce Ratings; Teen-Agers Vow to Get In," New York Times (June 15, 1!)9~)). 60. Butler v. Michigan, 352 U.S. 380, 381 (1957). 61. Ginsburg v. New York (1968) limited minors' rights to access certain sexually explicit materials.
PART III
62. According to recent statistics from the World Health Organization, the homicide mortality rate in the U.S. was four to eight times that of most European and British Commonwealth countries. National Research Council, 52. 63. Eron and Huesmann, quoted in Bernard Z. Friedlander, "Community Violence, Children's Development and Mass Media: In Pursuit of New Insights, New Goals and New Strategies," Psychiatry 56 (1993): 73. 64. Ibid., 68. 65. American Psychological Association, Violence and Youth: Psychology's Response, Vol. I (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Assn., 1993). 66. Julie L. Withecomb, "Causes of Violence in Children," Journal of Mental Health 6 (1997): 433-442. 67. D.O. Lewis, R. Lovely, C. Yaeger and G. Ferguson, "Intrinsic and Environmental Characteristics of Juvenile Murderers," Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 27 (1988): 582-87. 68. Franklin E. Zimring, American Youth Violence (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998): 60. 69. Leonard D. Eron, Nancy Guerra and L. Rowell Huesmarm, "Poverty and Violence," in S. Feshbach and J. Zagrodzka, eds. Aggression: Biological, Developmental, and Social Perspectives (New York: Plenum Press, 1997): 139. 70. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Corrections Compendium, and the Sentencing Project www.sproject.com (1999). 71.Sentencing Project, op. cit. 72. Marc Maurer, "Young Black Men and the Criminal Justice System: A Growing National Problem" (Washington, D.C.: The Sentencing Project, 1990). 73. Carey Goldberg with Marjorie Connelly, "Fear and Violence Have Declined Among Teenagers, Poll Shows," New York Times Web site (Oct. 20, 1999). 74. Withecomb, 434. 75. National Research Council, 72. 76. It's important to avoid reading a preference for loud, gory movies or warlike play as a sign of aggressive intent in boys. The point of play, after 4 is to enact fantasies, and even primates seem to make a distinction between play fighting and the real thing. Aggressiveness in a boy, moreover, doesn't predict criminality in adulthood. A study of more than 1,000 boys from kindergarten through adolescence found little bad boys improve. "It was clear that as boys grow older they generally show less and less physical aggression, opposition, and hyperactivity," wrote the authors, Daniel Nagin and Richard E. Tremblay. "Trajectories of Boys' Physical Aggression, Opposition, and Hyperactivity on the Path to Physically Violent and Nonviolent Juvenile Delinquency," Child Development 70 (1999): 1181-1196. 77. P. Gentry, "Pornography and Rape: An Empirical Analysis," Deviant Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 12 (1991): 277-288. 78. See, e.g., Debra Niehoff, The Biology of Violence (New York: Free Press, 1999). 79. Sandra Blakeslee, "Study Links Antisocial Behavior to Early Brain Injury That Bars Learning,"New York Times (Oct. 19, 1999). 80. National Research Council, 3. 81. Franklin E. Zimring, American Youth Violence: Studies in Crime and Public Policy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998): 35-38. 82. John Henry Sloan et al. "Handgun Regulations, Crime, Assaults and Homicide: A Tale of Two Cities," The New England Journal of Medicine 319 (Nov. 10, 1988): 1256-1262.
PART IV
83. Roger Jon Desmond et al. "Family Mediation: Parental Communication Patterns and the Influences of Television on Children," in Jennings Bryant, ed., Television and the American Family (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1990): 304. 84. Motion Picture Association of America, 1999. 85. CBS, Capital Cities/ABC, Fox Broadcasting, and NBC press releases (Feb. 1, 1994): "Voices Against Violence: A Cable Television Initiative" (1994). 86. Interactive Digital Software Association. Video Software Dealers Association, 1999.
Since this report was written, four documents have been published that examine the causes and cures for violence, and that review the trends in youth crime. The documents are: "Bruised Inside: What Our Children Say About Youth Violence, What Causes It, and What We Need to Do About It," released by the National Association of Attorneys General (April 2000). "Final Report of the Bipartisan Working Group of Youth Violence," released by The United States House of Representatives' Bipartisan Working Group on Youth Violence (March 2000). "Rampage Killers," a four-part series published by the New York 'Ames (April 9-12, 2000). "School House Hype: Two Years Later," released by the Justice Policy Institute/Children's Law Center (April 2000).
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