The Social Effect of Batman

This is going to be really self indulgent, because I get to talk about one of my favorite things: the (newer) Batman Movie Franchise.

A friend of mine linked me to the documentary "The Psychology of the Dark Knight" a while back, and while admittedly I'm a documentary junkie, this was also just really interesting on a regular level, too. It's not too long- only about forty five minutes- but it's really worth it, I promise.

It focuses intensely on the psychology of the characters- the hero complex of Bruce Wayne, the guilt complex which drives him to create his alter-ego, the unadulterated violence of The Joker, so on and so forth. While these are all psychological characteristics, they are shown and glorified at large, effecting entire societies at large.

While I've been focusing on Violent Crime in the Media and what makes people act on the crime they see, now I'm wondering how people react to the violence they see. When things like this are, like I said, glorified in films such as Batman, where the main character is acting under good intentions, but the violence is still present. Those are conflicting ideas- violence for good? How does that make us feel? What are common views about violent crime, and how does media affect them?

Anyway, watch the documentary if you want and see what you think! (It's one of my favorites of all time!)

Children's Exposure to Violent Crime

I'm not going to lie, I was struggling to figure out what to write for this week, until I stumbled across this article, and ideas hit me like a freight truck.

The main point of the article shows that children's exposure to real life violent crime (living in a house with a victim of rape, domestic abuse, etc.) has gone down dramatically since the 1990's. From 1993 to 2010, studies have shown that children's exposed to violent crime has gone down a whopping 68%, from 8.7 million to 2.8 million, which is absolutely crazy.

Researchers think this is because now a days so many clinics and programs and legal help centers are available for victims of crime that action is taken before it can affect a child, which is terrific, as prolonged experience with violent crime in childhood can lead to adolescent and adult depression, anxiety and antisocial tendencies.

What does this say about our culture as Americans? Are we finally becoming more aware of victims and helping them, instead of blaming them or keeping them quiet? Lately movements for rape victims and domestic abuse victims have become widespread, whereas before subjects like those were mostly taboo.

What do you think? Are we become more understanding, or are things just looking up on their own?

A Focus on Media

A huge focus of mine when it comes to violent crime revolves around the idea that violent crime in the media affects us as a whole society. We see action films with chase scenes and combat scenes and just general streetfighting scenes, and while they're interesting and exciting for us as movie-watches to see, what affects do they have on the overall population who watches them and possibly learns from them?

This article explains the forms of violence in the media that children and adolescents are exposed to, and the long term influence these media outlets could have on children throughout their life. The article itself it chocked full of facts about the film and media industry and how they work with the portrayal of violent crime. 15% of music videos have some form of impersonal violence. Television programs overall show an average of 812 violent acts per hour. Most children will watch 200,000 acts of violence on television by the time they turn 18.

But exactly what input does that have on how we act in social groups, or what we think about violence in general. Sure, it's been drilled into our heads since we started watching TV that its influence is greater than we could imagine, but is it really? This article say yes. It states that children under four cannot distinguish between reality and fantasy, and may therefor become immune to the idea of excessive violence and may grow up to think it is a normal occurrence. Ideas of a hero complex where the hero is violent and then worshiped for being so lodge in the minds of children and could have serious affects on problem solving as they grow up. With the whole population acting on ideas such as this, does that make us as a whole society more violent, simply because of the culture we live in? It seems crazy to think we, as Americans- civilized, self-sufficient, intelligent Americans- could be predisposed to violence and things we almost think of as barbaric, just because of the things we watch and the society we live in.

My question is, what do you think? We've all sat down with a good superhero movie, or even a horror or action thriller, but does that make us more susceptible to break out into a fight? Because I watched the latest Batman film, does that mean I'm doing to infiltrate Wall Street, or take out a couple dozen cops or so?

What do you think, how does violence in the media affect our ways of thinking and interacting?

An Introduction, of sorts.

On November 20th, 1976, my father was shot outside a bar on Broadway in Manhattan.

The man who shot him had a small handgun, one that could be purchased in any second-rate gun shop at the time. The provocation was a bar fight involving my uncle that my father stepped into to protect his best friend. Neither he nor my uncle were armed. He was twenty three years old at the time.

As a direct result of the shooting, my father became one 100% paralyzed from the waist down, and now can only walk with the use of crutches.

My own dad was a victim of violent crime.

It's jarring to think about this, especially in such a personalized matter. Statistically, though, violent crime is less of a scary thought and more of a terrifying reality. It runs rampant on our news circuits, is reported every single day, no matter where you live or who you are. There's hardly a single person in this world who hasn't been affected in some way by the spread of violent crime.

Why are we so fascinated by violent crime? Movies are made glorifying it, crime dramas continually scrape the top of the television charts, murder mystery novels were once the highest selling genre of books in the entire American market. Statistically, in one way or another, crime affects the whole world, both negatively and positively.

It's my goal to find out why, and to understand how, violent crime is persistently in the forefront of the American mind, and the Global mind. It means loads to me, coming from a place where my life has been personally affected by violent crime, and since criminology is something I plan to spend my whole life studying, this seems like a good place to start.


Question: Have you, your family, or friends ever been affected by violent crime of any sorts?