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Violence in Movies

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Michael Bijou

A 1991 study by William Bennett declares that “children under the age of ten committed more than 1000 acts of aggravated assault and 81 cases of forcible rape. Juveniles 12 and under committed crimes such as murder, robbery, larceny-theft, and forcible rape.” What causes children to act so violently these days? Violence in movies and on television that they watch and emulate. The same study provided evidence of the link between movies and the crimes committed by such children: “the configuration of corpses, mutilated by disturbed teenagers to resemble victims in slasher movies.”Children at young ages are very impressionable. When a child is born, it is born without knowledge of how to act, speak, or think positively. Instead, as they grow, they pick up behavioral tendencies from various outside sources. Such impressions have a lasting effect on children which can last through adolescence. As these children develop, they copy the violent behavior of characters portrayed in the false reality created by movies, not knowing the difference between behavior that is proper, and behavior that is not.
In today’s age of digital entertainment, video media such as movies are highly influential to people of all ages. Children, however, may be the age group most affected by movies. At younger ages, children’s minds are more pliable and will follow any behaviors set by any source. For example, let’s say that a family of 3, a mother, a father, and a 5 year old boy, go out to see Bangkok Dangerous, an action movie currently in theaters This movie is a typical modern action movie, containing generous amounts of gun violence and explosions. If the child sees action movies in a generally positive light, then chances are he will enjoy the movie.
If he enjoys the movie, no doubt there will be parts of the movie that appeal to him more than others, say a gun battle on

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