Crime rates were exceedingly high in the 19th century before TV, movies, and video games had been created?

Question

What, if anything, does this say about the effect of media on crime?

Answer 1

First. it is difficult to know what the crime rates were in the nineteenth century since it is hard to believe that accurate data was kept or is now available. So comparing the nineteenth century with the twenty-first would be dubious at best.

However, there have been many comprehensive studies on the effects of TV on children.

Here is a link to one:

http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html

Answer 2

So was homelessness, workhouses, disease, war, poverty in the 19th Century. By 1950, the figures had changed radically, and most people had a better standard of living, then came violent TV & movies, and video games, and crime again soared.
Crime fell in communist Russia under Stalin, would you like to live in a totalitarian state where the government executes millions of people?

Answer 3

Nothing. Most people in the19th century lived in poverty, which leads to higher rates of crime. Not to mention the utter lack of law enforcement, and the laws that were enforced were generally in the form of a punitive punishment for example hanging for stealing a horse, etc.

Answer 4

You just said it, people in the old day don't have a clue about what the crime rate is like, because of poor mediums of communications from town to town, and from state to state, and from country to country.News travels very slow in those days.

Answer 5

I think crime is just a part human nature. It's gonna happen with or without influence from the media.

Answer 6

Yes, and rape existed, probably more prevalently, before there was pornography, too.

But people want to blame things they seek to ban, rather than acknowledging the general imperfection of human beings. People seek to excuse and rationalize unjustifiably horrible behavior.