Television shows violent crimes at six times their real-world rate

Evidence

The world of television is heavily populated with villainous and violent characters. In reality, only about 10% of crimes are violent, whereas about 66% of the crimes committed on television are violent ones (Gerbner, 1972b). This distorted portrayal of crime can breed frightful public images. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 784

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

Related

• Television portrays roughly two-thirds of crimes as violent though only ten percent are (similarity 0.96)
• Two-thirds of American dramatic TV programs depict violence at eight assaults per hour. (similarity 0.88)
• American prime-time television sustains a stable eight assaults per hour (similarity 0.87)
• Televised violence does not increase viewership according to Nielsen data (similarity 0.83)
• Viewing televised violence increases rather than reduces aggressive behavior. (similarity 0.82)
• Children’s cartoons contain the highest concentration of televised violence (similarity 0.82)
• Institutional incentives, not human nature, drive televised violence. (similarity 0.81)
• Fictional violence affects adult aggression as much as real-life violence does. (similarity 0.81)
• Televised violence harms nonviewers through emulation and victimization (similarity 0.80)
• Televised violence is kept off camera to avoid viewer revulsion (similarity 0.80)
• Televised violence does not attract larger audiences (similarity 0.80)
• American youth absorb thousands of onscreen violent acts by adulthood (similarity 0.80)
• Crime television shows function as instructional media teaching viewers criminal techniques (similarity 0.80)
• TV defenders invoked even tobacco deaths to minimize their programs’ violence (similarity 0.80)
• Media violence teaches aggression, weakens restraint, desensitizes, and distorts perceived reality (similarity 0.79)