Title: Watching Violence in the Media Does Not Cause Crime | Psychology Today
Headings: Watching Violence in the Media Does Not Cause Crime
Stanton E. Samenow Ph.D.
Watching Violence in the Media Does Not Cause Crime
The personality of the viewer is key

Content: Not everyone who smokes goes on to get lung cancer, and some people who get lung cancer have never smoked. Does that prove that smoking is not a causal factor in lung cancer? Interestingly, between the mid-1960s and the late 1970s (just as the first generation of children exposed to violent TV came of age) the American homicide rate doubled and stayed high until 1990. Between 1990 and 2000 the homicide rate dropped back to their mid-1960s level. Why the drop? Hasn't media gotten even more violent? Well the 500% increase in the incarceration rate (from 1975 to 2006) could be a huge confounding factor. The doubling of the homicide rate does not prove that violent media causes real-world violence. And yet, our incarceration rate is 500% higher than it was in the mid-1960s and we are no safer and crime-free than when our incarceration rate was only 20% of what it is now. In other words, could we release 80% of the criminals who are now in jail or prison without any increase in the homicide rate?