Rajin Cajun said:
No but a lot of people like to make the connection while ignoring the obvious connection with violent people they seek out violent material. For example the book American Psycho along with the movie was owned by a couple who were serial killers. To be honest someone who has violent tendencies looks for material for inspiration and to try to keep the their feelings internalized unfortunately these psychotics tend to spin out of control the more violent material they take in which does the opposite of the original reason they tried to keep it under wraps.
That's a very good statement about the reality of violent media and violent people.
Most people with psychopathic and disorders that lead to violent behavior become obsessed with various forms of violent expression. This includes video games and other media. Of course, most criminology studies seem to take a backwards approach to finding motive to violent crimes, so they look at ALL prior behavior and account for it as a CAUSE.
Lately, however, the official APA position has been pushing criminology and other law enforcement groups to not immediately point the finger at violent media as a cause, but a sign that a person was experiencing a psychopathic or violent break. It's important to understand what can trigger a person to go over the edge, but it's rarely the media they take in. It's usually a real-life event.
Also, teenage violence is partially a physiological and a mental problem. Bad parenting will fail to recognize the onset and help the teen. Furthermore, the bad precident of allowing people to blame their problems on violent media is causing problems (I call it the "Pass the Buck" syndrome of my generation - since no one takes accountability for anything any more, people assume it's okay to not take responsibility for their actions) with kids who have a hard time assuming consequences go with action.
And the person who said their professor and students blamed violent media in their sociology class about deviance - you need to inform your professor to go read the recent findings by the APA on the cycle of violence and the consumption of violent media. He should not be concretely telling you that violent media is proven to cause violent behavior.
