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Crime and the Movies

In: Social Issues

Submitted By kidork1
Words 2974
Pages 12
Have you ever seen a movie and automatically thought after now I know their crime story? When people talk about crime, most people are just basing there story off of something they saw in a movie or something they saw on television. Most of the crimes in movies are; assault, bribe, armed robbery, manslaughter, or racketeering, just to name a few. For example the movie “Public Enemies” starring Johnny Depp, it portrays a rough outline of the infamous John Dillinger and his gang. When I first saw this movie I was amazed because the story that they showed wasn't at all what I expected, I expected to see all major crimes take place one after another and grueling shootouts the whole movie but they showed his kind and calm side and it actually turned out to be a great movie. Another example of crime and the movies but on the other side of the law would be any of the “X-Men” series. These people may be mutants but most of them use their gifts for good rather than break the law. A classic example would be “Robin Hood”, he broke the law only to help those in need. (rottentomatoes.com) There are other examples where crime and the movies coexist on both sides of the law, whether it would be cheering for the good guy or cringing when a killer kills their victim, movies cannot show you the whole story and cannot show you the real justice system. During my research I came across this essay called “Does Movie Violence Increase Violent Crime?” (Dahl & DellaVigna, 2006) an excerpt from the essay caught my attention because I believe it is true. That excerpt says: “Warnings about media violence are largely based on the psychological research. As Anderson and Buschman (2001) summarize it, “Five decades of research into the effects of exposure to violent television and movies have produced thoroughly documented research findings. It is now known that even brief exposure to

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