# Does Violent Movies Cause Violence?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-violent-movies-cause-violence/15145>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 26, 2000, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-violent-movies-cause-violence/15145 "2000-03-26T16:20:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bsgurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c89c15/32.png) [@bsgurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bsgurl)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-violent-movies-cause-violence/15145/1 "2000-03-26T16:20:00Z")

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I am looking for some websites that might have info. on my subject. I have a persuasive speech on violence in movies and televison and my side is that it doesn’t cause people to do violence, it is just a scap goat. If anyone has info. please help.

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**Author:** ![Nu\_Vo\_Da\_Da](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/97f17d/32.png) [@Nu\_Vo\_Da\_Da](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nu_Vo_Da_Da)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-violent-movies-cause-violence/15145/2 "2000-03-26T16:49:00Z")

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Well, it’s hard to conduct studies of that sort of causation. The two camps seem to be divided up into different sets of proof(ie, they don’t contradict each other, they just offer different sorts of evidence)

From what I’ve heard the Violent-media-does-not-equal-violence camp mostly uses things like comparison between say, American and Japanese culture to indicate that there are more significant factors in violent crime. Historical evidence(ie the lack of an increase in violent crimes in recent history despite the increase in violence in the media) is also used to support this conclusion.

On the other hand the violence-in-the-media-can-cause-violence side generally uses psychological evidence. Movies help to teach people values inherent in the culture, and depending upon what those values are, they can result in higher levels of violent crime. Violence in video games probably has a better case to be made for being a later cause of violence in real life though, simply because they often teach violent reflexes that tend to take control in moments of stress. (In one case a boy in the process of robbing a convenience store ended up killing the clerk when the clerk made what was interpreted as a threatening gesture. Of course, he was still _robbing a convenience store_, but he didn’t initially intend to kill anyone, he just saw the clerk do something out of the corner of his eye, and a rather violent reflex kicked in.)

(note to the mods. this might do better in GQ, or depending upon how it goes, even GD.)

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Still later, Gerald did a terrible thing to Elsie with a saucepan.

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**Author:** ![ChiefScott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@ChiefScott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChiefScott)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-violent-movies-cause-violence/15145/3 "2000-03-26T17:03:00Z")

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Posts bsgurl:

> [@](#):
>
> Does Violent Movies Cause Violence?

No. But they _are_ a leading cause of poor grammar in message board topics.

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And narrowly averted the despised moniker **Smiley Master**

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