Television Violence and Violent Crime: An Aggregate Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the relationship between levels of exposure to television violence and rates of violent crime for samples of population aggregates. My primary hypothesis is that population aggregates with high levels of exposure to violent television content will exhibit high rates of violence. The results of a series of multivariate, crosssectional analyses fail to provide any support for this hypothesis. Contrary to expectations, aggregate levels of exposure to television are consistently related to rates of violent crime in an inverse direction. Analyses based on differing specifications and alternative measures of television exposure all yield highly similar results. I suggest that the theory of criminal subcultures and the routine activities approach offer possible explanations for these seemingly anomalous findings. Television is one of the most important media of mass communications in the United States. National Commissions have concluded that almost everyone in the United States watches television (National Institute of Mental Health, 1982:1), and surveys suggest that the television in an average household is turned on for about seven hours everyday (Comstock, 1980:30). Given the pervasiveness of television in U.S. society, it is not surprising that this medium has been, and continues to be, at the center of controversy and public debate. Perhaps the most intense and enduring controversy concerns the consequences of viewing television violence. Critics of the industry have charged that violence on television is a cause of many of the more important social ills of society, while representatives of the industry and a number of social scientists have disputed