I will be researching the effect of violent media on crime increment. Subjects in my research will be prisoners with a moderate but known frequency of causing violence on fellow inmates. The identified prisoners will be divided into three groups, one for the catharsis hypothesis, and another for precipitation hypothesis. The third group will be a control experiment.
Under the catharsis hypothesis, the prisoners will watch one action-packed film per day and play a violent video game for three hours per day for 30 days. Their frequency to cause violence will then be monitored for 30 days and compared to their initial frequency. This will determine whether the media had a calming effect on them capable of reducing their levels of violence.
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The second group will be used for precipitation hypothesis. They will watch the same action film and play the same video game, for a similar duration as the catharsis group. The group under precipitation hypothesis will also be monitored for 30 days and their frequency to violence be noted. Their new rate of causing violence will be compared to their previous rate and conclusion be made on whether media increases violence and crime.
The control group will continue with their normal prison life without exposure to films and video games. Their rate of violence will also be monitored along with the first two groups.
Independent variables in my research are action films and violent video games. Action films will be defined as any video recordings, lasting approximately one hour with extreme levels of violence. Violence in the media must include the use of ammunition, crude weapons and physical fighting. Events in the films will include killing, torturing, bloody scenes, and the use of abusive language. Video games will be defined as competitive and computerized animations that will also involve the use of ammunition, fighting, and killing. These variables are intended to either calm prisoners or increase their frequency of violence in the two hypotheses used.
The dependent variables are the prisoners’ violence frequency after catharsis, precipitation hypothesis, and the control experiment. Violence will be defined as physical bullying, pushing, fighting or intentional use of objects to cause harm.
The frequency of violence will be recorded by their respective prison warders. Data collection on all three groups will begin 30 days before the introduction of films and video games on the catharsis and the precipitation hypothesis groups. This first data will be the initial frequency of violence. The second collection of data by wardens will take place after the introduction of the media. Data will be in tabular form, to show pre-media and post-media frequencies and questionnaire form for wardens to note possible forms of interference during the experiment. This will improve the credibility of the final data.
If there will exist notable changes in violent frequencies for the two groups without any notable interference, then this experiment will draw an enormous conclusion on whether media has a calming effect capable of reducing crime or exposure to media increases violence. These findings will be useful to law enforcers and rehabilitators in their efforts to curb crime. If the frequency of violence remains unchanged, the experiment will conclude that there lacks a correlation between media and crime.
