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Prison Populations

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Submitted By mybaby11
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Wk 8 Day 2 Checkpoint: Prison Populations

Axia College/University of Phoenix

CJS/200

FOUNDATIONS OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

March 22, 2011

Instructor Vernon Anderson

Prison Populations There have been many studies conducted that suggest that the media has a major influence on the crime rates that America endures today. “Two of the most compelling field studies have viewed the way that T.V has influenced the town when it was first introduced. In 1973, Tannis MacBeth Williams studied the kids who lived in the town before and after they received their first television. Studies found that the towns’ creativity decreased and two years after the arrival of the television, rages of punching, pushing and bullying among first and second graders increased by 160 percent (Violence, Reel to Real, 1995). This article explains that media has a large impact on children and the adults that they become. It is believed that whenever a child witnesses a murder or crime on television they are more likely to believe that it is real. This, in turn, begins to numb the child and then this type of after-school training subconsciously teaches the children that it is okay to become violent by criminal behavior. When a child sits down on their livingroom floor while watching someone get murdered on a television show, or in the Media for a long period of time they begin to find the criminal activity facinating. When the media expliots someone being punished (with violence) who is portayed as a criminal this can be just as harmful as a murder movie. When children view violence or criminal activity they begin to believe that violence is the way to handle “bad people” or bad situations. Whereas, as an adult, they would more likely become trained to believe that these types of people should be punished. So therefore, if and child, adolesent, or adult

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