Violent crimes seem to have become a part of everyday life.
By KATHLEEN MORRIS
Springfield Central HIgh
Violent crimes seem to have become a part of everyday life. When one turns on the news, it’s now commonplace, even expected, to hear of crimes that have been committed. On the USA Today website, it was reported that in 2012, 26 out of every 1,000 people were victims of violent crimes. According to the Info Wars website, a study shows that crime in the United States had increased by 15 percent since 2012.
A lot of things can be said to contribute to this spike in violence. People may find themselves in desperate situations, moving them to commit violent crimes. Or, mental health can play a factor, as seen through the past few years, with various mass shootings.
Another contributor to this could be environmental factors. The types of environments that people grow up in have been shown to have major effects on them. Yet, there’s another factor that should be looked at: the popularity of violence in the media. If you were to take a trip to your local movie theatre, there’s a high chance that most of the movies playing include scenes of violence in them.
The CNN website states that “94% of the most popular movies since 1985 contain at least one violent scene, and half of those involve a gun.” It goes on to say that “gun violence in PG-13 films has tripled since 1985, even exceeding the amount found in R-rated films in more recent years.”
Movies aren’t the only media outlet that’s desensitizing people against violence. Video games also do this. The Psych Central website notes that “new research has found exposure to violent video games can desensitize individuals to real-life violence,” and that “video-games can alter physiological responses typically aroused by real violence.”
This means that, once you play these sorts of video games enough, you start to have a different outlook on violence. Instead of having the usual reaction of fear and unease, one could start to admire, enjoy, and justify violence. In fact, one newly released video game that includes drug dealing, cruelty to women, carjacking, robberies, gun fights, and murder managed to bring in a whopping $800 million on its first day. It’s the fifth installment of a popular video game series.
The obsession that society has seemed to taken up with violence is proving to be detrimental. The more that violence is promoted, the less that people view it as something bad. It becomes routine, just a part of regular life. This makes some people feel less opposed to engaging in it. And when people no longer feel bad about hurting others, going so far as to kill them, there’s something really wrong.