Tv Crime. Does it affect us?

A recent study has shown that there is more crime and violence on our TVs than ever before. Abe Kowalski met with a group of sixth formers at an inner city comprehensive to find out their opinions.

Anita Shar, 17, has strong views on the subject. ‘There’s no doubt that violence and crime on TV have a negative impact on society,’ she says. ‘We’ve seen over the last fifty years or so a huge rise in TV violence, and a corresponding rise in violence in society. That’s not coincidence. The two are clearly related.’

Anita’s twin brother, Alvin, is not so sure. ‘I must have watched hundreds of bank robberies, murders and other crimes on TV over the years,’ he says. 'That hasn’t made me any more likely to go out and kill someone or rob a bank myself. It’s too easy to say there’s a direct link between what we watch and what we do. People have been stealing and killing since the beginning of time'

Toby Bassett, also 17, agrees with Alvin that it may not be a simple case of cause and effect. ‘I think maybe Anita’s got it the wrong way round. The increase in violence and crime in society is just being reflected in the programmes that are shown. And we have to be very careful. Abe mentioned this study that said there’s more crime on TV than ever before, but what form is it in? Is it drama, or is it on the news? Programmes like Crimewatch, where they re-nact real crimes and get people to ring in with information, help to catch criminals. They’re clearly good for society. But if they’re being included in the figures then that’s just misleading.

Devi Parscha, 16, believes there’s little cause for concern. ‘I agree that the vast majority of people can watch violent crimes on TV without wanting to commit similar crimes themselves. I’d take it one stage further, though. Programmes like that actually stop some people breaking the law. What’s the message that these programmes are sending out? That crime doesn’t pay. At the end of the show, the goodies win, the criminals get caught, the justice is done. Most of the programmes with crime in are police dramas. The police always come out on top in the end.

Liz Black, 18, believes we are focusing on the wrong problem. ‘TV programmes are an irrelevance,’ she says. ‘What’s more important is what people experience in their daily lives. Round here, it’s not safe to get your mobile out in public because it might get nicked. We should concentrate on that before we worry about what’s on TV.’

Damon Psaropoulos, 17, agrees that we should not worry about TV drams. ‘To me,’ he says, ‘the worst kind of violence we see on TV is on the news, but it’s important that it’s reported, so we know what our society is like. What we must not do, though, is see one crime and think that the whole country has become a nation of criminals. It hasn’t.’

‘Programmes about crime can definitely be educational,’ says eighteen-year-old Greg Dawson, ‘whether the criminals get punished or not. Take Grange Street, which has been dealing recently with the issue of shoplifting. Yes, we saw two teenagers going into a shop and stealing some clothes, but we also saw the repercussions – their being arrested and being taken to court – and the guilt they felt. I think that particular show has stopped a lot of teenagers who might have thought about shoplifting from trying it.’

Notes

misleading	обманчивый
to commit a crime	совершать преступление
irrelevance	ненужность, бесполезность
repercussions	последствия, результаты
guilt	вина
shoplifting	магазинная кража