Violent Video Research Articles

Predictors of the Onset of Sexual Violence Perpetration in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood.

To identify factors in adolescence that predict the onset of sexual violence in adolescence and young adulthood. Data were analyzed from six survey waves of the longitudinal Growing up with Media Study (2008-2018) conducted in the USA. Participants were 778 youth 13-18 years old at baseline, who completed online surveys assessing sexual violence behaviors and predictors. Sexual violence perpetration behaviors included sexual assault, rape, attempted rape, and coercive sex. Only 2% of females and 3% of males reported their first sexual violence perpetration by age 14. In contrast, by age 18, 6% of females and 12% of males had perpetrated their first sexual violence. For both males and females, the rate of the onset seems to plateau by age 22. Predictors of the onset of sexually violent behavior for those who began perpetrating when they were 14-17 years old were largely similar to those who began perpetrating when they were 18-25 years old. Alcohol plus other substance use, aggressive and delinquent behavior, caregiver monitoring, behavior problems at school, externalizing peers, exposure to community violence, and exposure to violent media were all implicated. Early prevention-well before college and perhaps even before high school-is needed to have an impact on the onset of sexual violence perpetration, as most perpetrators of sexual violence will have acted for the first time by age 23. Several modifiable risk factors observed in adolescence could signal the opportunity for targeted prevention to reduce the odds of onset of sexual violence.

The Impact of Violent Media Content and Knowledge of Viable Responses to Cyberviolence on Good Citizenship Behavior Among South Korean Adolescents.

Exposure to cyberviolence among adolescents has become a societal issue in the media-saturated world. In this study, we examine whether or not exposure to violent media content, victimization or perpetration experiences, parental and teacher intervention, susceptibility, knowledge of viable responses when exposed to cyberviolence, and awareness of legal consequences influence the witnessing of cyberviolence among adolescents. Additionally, we investigate the characteristics that lead to good citizenship behavior when adolescents witness cyberviolence. We analyzed annual national survey data from 2018 to 2022 among adolescents in South Korea, including data collected from students ranging from grades 4 to 12. There were patterns that existed across five survey years; adolescents who were more exposed to violent media content, who were younger, and who experienced being perpetrators were more likely to be in an environment where they witnessed cyberviolence. The results also showed that less exposure to violent media content and knowing viable responses when witnessing cyberviolence increased the likelihood of adolescents adopting good citizenship behaviors. Educating adolescents about viable actions they can take when witnessing cyberviolence can lead to good citizenship. Making the online ecosystem a safe space for adolescents requires the attention of several parties: adolescents, parents, teachers, and online platforms.

Relationship between Exposure to Violent Content on the Media and Aggressive Behaviour among Adolescent Learners in Western Region, Kenya

This study explores the relationship between exposure to violent media content and aggressive behavior among adolescent secondary school students in Kakamega, Kisii, and Siaya Counties, Kenya. These counties have relatively high media technology access, particularly mobile phones and radio, which exceed national averages. They also report notable incidences of student aggression, with Siaya and Kisii counties showing high rates of student unrest. Grounded in Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, the study utilized a mixed-method approach, adopting descriptive survey and correlational research designs. A sample of 417 students was drawn from a population of 190,555, selected using stratified random sampling method. Data collection involved questionnaires, content analysis, and the Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument (APRI). A pilot study conducted in Vihiga County confirmed the reliability of the instruments, with a Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of 0.87. The study revealed a significant correlation between aggression and exposure to violent content on television (r = 0.211, p = 0.000), with television identified as the most substantial contributor to aggression (B = 0.218, p = 0.001). Notably, 46% of adolescents in Kakamega, Kisii, and Siaya reported constant exposure to violent media, while 11% frequently imitated the violence observed, primarily on mobile phones. Additionally, 9% of respondents justified the violence they encountered, and 56.5% exhibited mild violent tendencies. The study recommends stricter enforcement of media violence regulations, including enhanced penalties and parental guidance ratings, alongside the introduction of media literacy programs in schools. Additionally, it calls for limiting unsupervised internet access for minors, particularly in public cybercafes, to mitigate the negative influence of violent media content.

The Impact of Violent Media on Aggressive Behavior

In contemporary society, advancements in technology and the proliferation of online social media have provided numerous channels for accessing video and gaming content. Despite these developments, the depiction of violence in videos and games remains a contentious issue due to its potential aggressive impact on users. The relationship between exposure to violent media and subsequent aggressive behavior is multifaceted, involving both internal factors (such as perceived aggression, trait anger, violent emotions, and implicit aggression) and external factors (including cultural differences, age of exposure, proximity to real-life violence, domestic violence, and life setbacks). Internal factors significantly influence how individuals process and react to violent media, potentially reinforcing aggressive tendencies. External factors further moderate these effects, with cultural context and early exposure playing crucial roles in shaping long-term behavior. To address the aggression stemming from violent media, a multi-faceted approach is necessary. This includes monitoring and regulating young individuals' media consumption, implementing media literacy programs, providing robust support systems for those facing domestic violence or significant life setbacks, and therapeutic interventions such as cognitive-behavioral therapy. Moreover, promoting cooperative gaming environments and culturally tailored interventions can enhance the effectiveness of these strategies. Ultimately, a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between internal predispositions and external influences is crucial for mitigating the negative societal impacts of violent media.

The Impact of Media Violence, Narcissism and Sex on Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Adolescents: A One-Year Follow-Up Study.

While the impact of violent media on aggression is well established, less is known about how individual differences influence this relationship over time. This longitudinal study addresses that gap by examining whether narcissism and sex moderated the effect of violent media consumption and reactive and proactive aggression one year later. A sample of 2,284 adolescents from Cyprus (Mage = 16, SDage = 0.89, 49.5% female) participated in this study. Hierarchical regressions, controlling for baseline levels of aggression and age, revealed distinct patterns: violent media and sex predicted reactive aggression, but narcissism did not. In contrast, violent media, sex, and narcissism all predicted proactive aggression. Notably, sex moderated the link between violent media and reactive aggression, with females showing a steeper increase than males. Both sex and narcissism moderated the violent media-proactive aggression association, with males being affected regardless of narcissism, while only highly narcissistic females showed an increase in proactive aggression. These findings show the importance of considering individual differences, such as sex and narcissism, to better understand how violent media influences different functions of aggression.

The traumatic rural unconscious in contemporary Galician culture: hydropolitical violence in literature and film

ABSTRACT The article starts with an analysis of the national politics implicit in the España vacía debate, arguing that its vision of a unified Spanish territory marked by urban–rural tensions acts as a new imaginary of consensus. In parallel, it argues that the national politics of the España vacía debate relegate to invisibility the historical specificities of regions such as Galicia, whose traumatic process of rural dispossession has shaped both culture and politics in the region to the degree that Galicia’s traumatic relationship with the disappearance of its rural ecosystem constitutes the “traumatic unconscious” of contemporary Galician culture. To substantiate this claim, the article will offer new readings of three key works in contemporary Galician culture, focusing on reservoir building and hydropolitics. Chus Pato’s poetry book A ponte das poldras (1996, 2006), Enrique Otero’s film Crebinsky (2011) and César Souto and Luis Avilés’s documentary Os días afogados (2015) are read here as critiques of Galicia’s traumatic rural-to-urban transformations in the second half of the twentieth century. These works’ commentary on the experiences of forced displacement of Galician rural populations during Francoism, as well as their engagement with questions such as language and belonging, encapsulates the complex relation between rural dispossession, identity, violence and trauma that state-led debates on España vacía can camouflage.

Testing the direct and indirect relationship between media violence exposure and cyberbullying perpetration.

Testing the direct and indirect relationship between media violence exposure and cyberbullying perpetration.

People make mistakes: Obtaining accurate ground truth from continuous annotations of subjective constructs.

Accurately representing changes in mental states over time is crucial for understanding their complex dynamics. However, there is little methodological research on the validity and reliability of human-produced continuous-time annotation of these states. We present a psychometric perspective on valid and reliable construct assessment, examine the robustness of interval-scale (e.g., values between zero and one) continuous-time annotation, and identify three major threats to validity and reliability in current approaches. We then propose a novel ground truth generation pipeline that combines emerging techniques for improving validity and robustness. We demonstrate its effectiveness in a case study involving crowd-sourced annotation of perceived violence in movies, where our pipeline achieves a .95 Spearman correlation in summarized ratings compared to a .15 baseline. These results suggest that highly accurate ground truth signals can be produced from continuous annotations using additional comparative annotation (e.g., a versus b) to correct structured errors, highlighting the need for a paradigm shift in robust construct measurement over time.

Enhancing online safety: The impact of social media violent content and violence among teens in Illinois

The ongoing prevalence and increasing rate of violence in the United States, particularly among teenagers, is a major concern for many families. Numerous incidents of gun-related violence involving teens have been reported. Concurrently, there has been a significant rise in social media usage among teenagers, particularly on platforms like TikTok, where violent content is often consumed. This paper aims to explore the relationship between the consumption of violent media content among teens and the prevalence of aggressive behaviours and violence which might include gun violence, drawing on the social learning theory. To conduct this research, an experiment will be carried out in a laboratory setting with 50 participants who are freshmen at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. These participants will be exposed to various forms of violent content to assess their levels of aggressiveness and attitudes using the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ) following the exposure. It is anticipated that the participants' aggression levels on the BPAQ will be high, thereby supporting the proposed correlations. Consequently, it is imperative to consider utilizing AI technology to enhance algorithms and recommendation systems that can help mitigate the dissemination of gun-related and violent content to teenagers.

A Survey Research on Children’s Psychological Impact to Sensitive News

In today's competitive world, people are updating themselves through News. The debate about the incorrectness of media violence for children emphases mostly on the negative effects of violence in entertainment world. Sensitive news published in news channels where children knowingly and unknowingly come in contact with those and may be psychologically affected by the that. This survey research study focuses on the children who are staying in Assam and their Psychological impact towards the sensitive news. 50 students were randomly selected for the study and a self-developed demographic data sheet and a self-developed survey research questionnaire were administered to them. Research showed that the children who were exposed to sensitive news informed being scared by the news. Reporting on what scared them in their subjective perception, children maximum time stated natural disasters, followed by kidnapping and Homicide After taking interview it was also found that some children have painful recalls of troubling news content. Suggestions for parental supervision and research methods are deliberated. It may also lead the journalist or news channels to publish the news in a favourable way for the children.

In the Wild Video Violence Detection: An Unsupervised Domain Adaptation Approach

This work addresses the challenge of video violence detection in data-scarce scenarios, focusing on bridging the domain gap that often hinders the performance of deep learning models when applied to unseen domains. We present a novel unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) scheme designed to effectively mitigate this gap by combining supervised learning in the train (source) domain with unlabeled test (target) data. We employ single-image classification and multiple instance learning (MIL) to select frames with the highest classification scores, and, upon this, we exploit UDA techniques to adapt the model to unlabeled target domains. We perform an extensive experimental evaluation, using general-context data as the source domain and target domain datasets collected in specific environments, such as violent/non-violent actions in hockey matches and public transport. The results demonstrate that our UDA pipeline substantially enhances model performances, improving their generalization capabilities in novel scenarios without requiring additional labeled data.

Factors Shaping Aggressive Behaviour among Key Stage 1 Students and Management Strategies

Young children learn all sorts of behaviour from their environment and are likely to imitate them. As such, parents, teachers and caretakers need to keep a vigilant eye on the behaviour of these students, especially when they display aggressive behaviour. In this study, factors that shape the aggressive behaviour of students in Key Stage 1 of a Maldivian school and strategies that can be used to manage them were examined using a qualitative approach. The study identified seven factors contributing to aggressive behaviour, including exposure to media violence, past victimisation, frustration, aversive events, parent and prenatal health, and developmental disorders. Additionally, four themes emerged regarding strategies to manage aggression, such as educating parents on parenting skills, interventions with behaviour observation, implementing classroom rules, and addressing children’s needs. These findings will be beneficial for policy makers and educators in formulating strategies with regard to student behaviour.

PUBG Game Addiction, Social Connectedness and Aggression in Young Adults

In today’s technological era, millions of young adults worldwide engage in violent video s. This study explored how addiction to PUBG game affects aggression, with social connectedness serving as a mediator. Involving 293 PUBG game players (158 men and 135 women) between age of 18 to 25 years (M = 22.21, SD = 1.89), the research used the Gaming Addiction Scale, a revised Social Connectedness Scale, the Buss and Perry Aggression Questionnaire, and a demographic questionnaire. Finding depicts that PUBG game addiction significantly and positively correlates with aggression. However, while the relationship between PUBG game addiction and social connectedness was positive, it was not significant. Social connectedness, on the other hand, was significantly positively related to aggression. Mediation analysis revealed a partial mediation effect of social connectedness on the link between PUBG game addiction and aggression; the indirect path through social connectedness was not significant, though both direct and total effects of addiction on aggression were significant. Independent samples t-tests found significant gender differences in PUBG game addiction, with men scoring higher than women, but no significant differences in social connectedness or aggression. Employment status showed significant differences, with unemployed participants scoring higher in both PUBG game addiction and social connectedness compared to employed participants. However, no significant differences were found in aggression based on employment status, despite unemployed individuals having higher average aggression scores. The findings were compared with existing literature, and recommendations for future research were made, highlighting important implications for young adults’ welfare.

Exploration of stress reactivity and fear conditioning on intrusive memory frequency in a conditioned-intrusion paradigm

Background and objectivesThe conditioned-intrusion paradigm was designed to provide insight into the relationship between fear conditioning and intrusive memory formation, which is relevant to understanding posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and treatment. However, boundary conditions of this new paradigm have not been explored and it is currently not known whether findings from this work are valid in a clinical context. MethodsIn the current study, we explored the relationship between stress reactivity to trauma film clips, usual exposure to violent media, renewal of fear conditioning using skin conductance as well as subjective ratings, and the effect of shock versus film clip during conditioning on the frequency of intrusive memories. An adapted fear conditioning paradigm using trauma clips as unconditional stimuli was used, and participants subsequently reported intrusive memories of the trauma clips. ResultsSkin conductance responses to conditioned stimuli paired with shocks and film clips were significantly higher than conditioned stimuli paired with film clips alone. Subjective stress reactivity, previous exposure to violent media, and film valence rating were associated with the frequency of intrusive memories. No aspects of fear conditioning were associated with intrusive memories, and factor analysis suggested the fear conditioning and stress related to film clip viewing were mostly separate constructs. Similarly, content and triggers of intrusive memories were usually film-clip related rather than conditional stimulus related. LimitationsWe did not observe strong conditioning effects of the unconditional stimuli to conditional stimuli, which were shapes rather than high frequency stimuli such as faces. ConclusionsThese findings provide potential boundary conditions for this paradigm and suggest multiple ways in which the validity of the paradigm can be tested in the future.

Superhero Films’ Impacts on Prosocial Behavior: The Mediating Role of State-Empathy and Violence Justification

The present research aimed to observe superhero films’ impacts on prosocial behavior, mediated by state-empathy (cognitive, affective and associative empathy) and moral justification. To achieve this goal, two online experiments were conducted, each with 200 Brazilian volunteers (Study 1: 70.5% women, mean age = 28.82, SD = 9.22. Study 2: 52.5% men, mean age = 27.63, SD = 9.25). We used a scene from Batman v Superman as the stimulus in the experimental groups. Prosocial behavior was measured using a food allocation task. Data from both studies showed that even when featuring violent elements, superhero films positively impacted prosocial behavior. These effects were indirect, mediated by associative empathy in Study 1 and moral justification in Study 2. Results highlight the complex relationship between prosocial violent media (aggressive content with prosocial goals) and behavior. We also emphasize the research’s novelty, as studies that investigate media content that is both negative and positive are still scarce.

School Bullying and Violence: Challenges and Perspectives for Building an Inclusive School

This article discusses the relationship between bullying, school violence, and the construction of an inclusive school. Initially, bullying and school violence are defined, exploring their multifactorial causes, such as family problems, low self-esteem, and exposure to media violence. The negative consequences for victims, aggressors, and witnesses are highlighted, emphasizing the need for a safe and welcoming school environment. Next, the concept of school inclusion, its principles, and challenges, such as lack of resources and inadequate teacher training, are discussed. The relationship between bullying/violence and exclusion is analyzed, highlighting how these phenomena perpetuate discrimination and compromise the integral development of students. Finally, the article presents strategies to prevent and combat bullying and school violence, such as the implementation of clear policies, teacher training, the creation of dialogue spaces, and the promotion of a culture of peace. The involvement of family and community is highlighted as fundamental to the success of these actions.

DYING IN CYBERWORLD: VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES EXTINGUISHED CHILDREN’S DEATH CONCEPT AND ATTITUDE

Death is often a taboo topic in society, especially among the Chinese community. Most of the violent video games spread immoral values of life and death. Hence deformed death concept and death attitude are easily moulded in children particularly without proper supervision from parents. The misconception of death concept and death attitude can manipulate primary school children’s attitudes towards death which gradually might lead children to harm themselves or others. This study is aimed at identifying the relationship between violent video games and children’s death concept and death attitude (Fear of death, Death avoidance, Approach Acceptance, Escape Acceptance). The differences between the level of exposure to violent video games towards children’s death concept and death attitude are also carried out in this study. A total of 397 data was collected from Malaysian Chinese schoolchildren between 10 to 12 years of age by using the purposive sampling method. Instruments used in this study consist of demographic information, Death Attitude Media Violence Exposure. The study showed that a high level of exposure towards violent video games had a significant negative correlation with death concept and fear of death, whilst significantly positive correlation with escape acceptance. The result of the independent samples t-test showed that children with high exposure to violent video games had lower death concept and fear of death and a higher level of escape acceptance. Further research is needed to explore the death concept and attitude among children as technology has become an inseparable part of human beings in the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Kekerasan dalam Film “Galaksi” (Analisis Isi Kualitatif)

The movie Galaksi is a movie adapted from Poppi Pertiwi's novel is a movie that tells about life and romance in high school. In the movie, there are many scenes of violence and this research aims to describe the forms of violence contained in the movie "Galaksi" which is popular on Netflix. This study uses the theory of violence by Weiner, Zahn and Sagi with a qualitative approach and the research method used is qualitative content analysis. The results showed that in this movie the dominant indicator of violence is physical violence in the form of beatings, beatings. Then there is also psychological violence and sexual violence. This research is expected to be a reference material for further researchers in analyzing forms of violence in films. Keywords: Violence, Content Analysis, Galaksi Movie.

Revisiting vision-based violence detection in videos: A critical analysis

An ever-increasing installation of surveillance cameras at different places for ensuring public safety, security and asset protection has triggered the need for intelligent video surveillance to monitor the people and their behavior. Violence detection is a prominent application of intelligent surveillance as it plays a vital role in public safety, behavior monitoring, and law enforcement. It deals with identifying whether the violent event or behavior occurred in video sequence or not. Various researchers have developed different techniques and features for the detection of violence in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to provide an expository study of various state-of-the-art approaches for detecting violence in videos. It is evident from the ongoing effort in this field and with the advancement in computer vision technology, previous approaches get surpassed and new methods and features always keep on developing. Therefore, in order to complement ongoing research, it is also imperative to conduct a comprehensive analysis of different works from time to time. In this survey, each work has been critically analyzed, along with its pros and cons. The violence detection techniques have been divided under three categories: handcrafted features based, deep learning and hybrid violence detection approaches that have been extensively reviewed in various sub-categories. The major challenges faced by researchers and the steps involved in the process of violence detection are also discussed. Moreover, unlike typical practices of comparing the performance of models within same datasets, we examined a few models for cross-dataset assessment and revealed their limited generalization. This emphasizes the crucial need for robust model generalization to ensure efficacy across varied real-world scenarios. Finally, the paper carried out a discussion of various research gaps in the current approaches and the possible solutions to be taken to resolve them, laying a solid foundation for future work in this area.

Causal Factors Contributing to Youth Cyberbullying in the Deep South of Thailand.

Violence against each other via social media has increased and caused cyberbullying that can happen anytime through electronic communication tools that everyone can access easily. Cyberbullying is sending, posting, and sharing negative, harmful, and false information about another, causing embarrassment online on social media. This study aims to investigate causal factors contributing to youth cyberbullying in Thailand's deep south. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 340 youths in Thailand's deep south, consisting of 220 males and 120 females. The subjects were divided by age range: 22-23 years old (40.6%), 24-25 years old (26.8%), 18-19 years old (17.1%), and 18-19 years old (15.5%). The data were analyzed with structural equation modeling (SEM). The results were that the model of the causal factors resulting in youth cyberbullying in the deep south of Thailand was consistent with the empirical data (the relative chi-square (χ2/df) was 1.77). The goodness-of-fit index (GFI) was 0.95. The root-mean-square error of approximate (RMSEA) was 0.049). Cyberbullying was positively influenced directly and indirectly by negative upbringing, the influence of personal violence, and the influence of media violence at a statistically significant level of 0.001, with total effect sizes of 1.13, 0.74, and 0.64, respectively. Additionally, cyberbullying was positively influenced directly by negative mental traits with a statistically significant level of 0.05 and a total effect size of 0.17. This study suggests that the results could be beneficial in concretely forming policies and strategies to prevent and mitigate the problem of youth cyberbullying.