Human Nature, Improved Reporting, Increased Violence

The posting about two young kids killing a three year old got me to thinking about human nature, improved reporting and increasing violence in American society. Are we hearing more about such awful crimes because

  1. human nature being what it is will always result in stupid, horrific behavior, or

  2. has “news” reporting expanded in such a manner that these stories are now more accessible to many more people, or

  3. there is an increase in such violence because our media is becoming more violent and parents are less available to monitor our children’s behavior?

First of all, I want to say that this news story has to be such an horrific event for the adults involved. Everyone involved will be effected by this for years to come. My heart goes out to the parents of each child.

I wonder if there really is an increase in this type of incident or, whether, the increasing number of times we hear about these tragedies is due to easier, speedier access to news stories and a greater willingness to print stories like this.

I’m convinced that stories about Wolfman and vampires etc are based on earlier serial killers. Back then people fell onto superstitions to explain horrific murders. Police and newspapers that existed during those times were much different from what we have nowadays. Here are two examples of incidences that occured in Central Africa where I lived for quite a few years:

a. A small baby/newborn from a fairly well-off family disappears without a trace. There is an intensive search for the child that ends up fruitless. Rumours fly about witchcraft and jealous neighbors until the newborn is found in the family well on the compound several days later. The general consensus is that the baby was kidnapped for some spell casting and the body returned once the ceremony was done. Most people were horrified by the possibility that someone in the family might have “done the kid in”… no one I talked with could conceive the idea “because parents and family don’t do those things…”

b. Another time there was a series of kidnappings and child murders; each subsequent was rumoured to be worst than the previous one. Bodies mutilated and tossed under bridges or into drainage ditches - pretty gruesome stuff. The GC was that the highly unpopular President was nervous about loosing the upcoming elections; his “counselor” from Benin was casting spells to increase the President’s popularity [??] while also helping to improve his health. There were quite a few reports about severe beatings given to unknown men talking to neighborhood kids. I heard that at least one of these men was beaten to death. The mysterious deaths suddenly stopped, the President lost the election and his counselor ran out of the country.

None of these stories made the newspapers [which were few and govt controlled]. But everyone knew about them by word of mouth. A foreigner could find out about them by keeping in touch with the folks and asking questions. I remember asking a co-worker why everyone was putting palm fronds over their compound gates only to be told that a ghost [from Togo no less] was walking up to households asking for a drink and directions to the river [where her children drowned with her]. You would die if you looked her in the eyes and refused to given her water. She wouldn’t come to your compound if you had palm fronds - a symbol that someone had just died.

This is getting a bit long - sorry. I just wanted to make the point that I think that these kinds of things have happened since people started living together. What do you think?

Actually, I tend to think that the number of these types of violent crimes, has risen dramatically. In the United States, the media is set up in a way that makes sure this stuff gets reported for the most part. Each news paper, news channel, etc., wants to be the first one to expose the crime, and they all want to have the best story with the most facts. As far as the media is concerned, I really think that many times, we end up hearing about far fewer murders, beatings, etc., than we used to, or at least a smaller percentage. I live in a small town, and when I was growing up, there was a man murdered in a local high-school’s seminary building. The story was all anyone could talk about for months. No one could believe it would happen right here, in “happy valley”. The more common this sort of thing has become, the less attention is paid to each account.

In a somewhat related example, we all remember when the space shuttle blew up. Every channel on TV showed the footage over and over. The country mourned, etc… Less than a week later, a jumbo passenger jet crashed, killing everyone on bored. A few hundred IIRC, but it didn’t even make most local news papers. Most TV news shows I saw reported the crash, but it was just a small part of the newscast. Plane crashes are MUCH more common than the space shuttle blowing up, so it didn’t get as much attention.
I honestly think our society is falling apart. As I travel around the country, I meet some really neat people, but I think there is a lack of discipline in our nation. Too damn many people have made it their business to get involved in other people’s lives. It’s gotten to a point that you can’t even spank a child in public any more without fear of going to jail. Kids are getting away with MUCH more than they used to. When I was a little kid, any adult was looked at as somewhat of an authority figure. Kids were taught to respect other people and their property. Now days, kids have no respect for anything, including themselves. Adults don’t mean authority, and discipline is not carried out in a way that teaches kids right from wrong.

Note: I am speaking “generally” here. I know there are some well disciplined kids out there. I also know there are a lot of great parents out there too, but there are many who really suck at the parenting game.

So, now that I’ve rambled on, and probably made my reply nearly as long as the OP, I must say again, I don’t think it has anything to do with media. I think it’s the upbringing of our country’s youth that’s really causing the problems.

I’m a journalism student, and I’ve studied the media quite extensively, as well as worked for several newspapers in my day. There are several things that are obvious to everyone in this field:

1- Right now, profit is the single most important thing to most publishers.
2- The more copies a paper sells, the higher profit they make.
3- People tend to buy more copies of publications that titillate them with stories of disaster, murder, etc.

Can you see what I’m leading up to? I personally don’t agree with the last poster that “our society is falling apart.” I think many people believe that it is, which may become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I don’t think crime as a social problem is as bad as it’s made out to be, for the reasons above. For example, take the school shootings you hear so much about. Newsweek actually described it as “a wave of school shootings in the past ten years” and cited about 9 examples. But I have seen with my own eyes FBI records concluding that these types of crimes are actually less common now than they were thirty years ago! (I believe Newsweek pointed this out too, with the caveat that the ones that do occur have become more vicious and random. Or it might have been TIME, I can’t remember.)

Sure, crime rates rise and fall, and everyone has their theories as to why. There are a bewildering array of social forces at work in the United States. And we are somewhat unique in that not only do we have a tremendously varied population ethnically, racially, and culturally, but most of our population can get a firearm much easier than people in other countries can. This makes comparisons of our crime situation with other nations difficult, because very few have this same mix of social factors.

I do agree with the last poster that kids today have a lot less self-respect. I believe this is a function of the business climate we have allowed to grow unchecked in our nation, a climate that values profit above all else. Are businessmen who are under pressure by stockholders to make a buck going to spend a lot of time thinking about the moral implications of their advertisements, marketing, or products? Hell no! MTV is good example of how as profits go up, cultural value goes down. There are several threads on the SDMB where people mention how much better MTV was when it was new. It played much more music, and a much broader range of music. Now, MTV is a finely honed ratings machine that makes millions for its owners by playing mostly Britney Spears and N’Sync.
The cyniscism of much of our culture is having an effect. People are becoming afraid. Afraid of crime, afraid of change, afraid of social contact. It’s too bad really, because I sincerely believe that we have the power to be the people we choose to be. I just hope we choose to be something different than we are now in the future.

Kiffa, I agree totally. There are plenty of examples to be cited, too. I just finished Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy, featuring photography and newspaper stories out of Black River Falls Wisconsin in the late 19th Century.

It was sooo depressing. Suicides. Arsons. Rapes. Incest. School violence. Ax murders. Hangings. Insane asylums.

Okay, so I can’t deny that icky stuff goes on today…but it looks like it’s no use trying to believe that it happened much less often in the past.

The difference is that today we get it crammed down our throats live on CCN.

…er, that’s CNN…