Do you think that we are more violent now than we were before, say 50 years ago?

Question

I need people's opinion on violence for a reseach paper. Tell me if you think whether we are more violent now than we were before, 50 years ago or so and if possible why you think that we are or that were are not more violent than we were before.

Answer 1

I hate to say it but yes we are more violent, the worse thing is that it is mostly young people that are the violent ones. I think it all stems from parents not being able to discipline, no respect for teachers or authority figures. Kids today get everything they want when they want it they aren't required to EARN anything. They watch violent games and movies and Hollywood glamorizes thugs and violence. I wish I had a solution but I don't.

Answer 2

I think we've gotten more violent over the years. To understand that we have to understand that violent things have happened with in the last 50 years. The world in a whole has seen more violence than really imaginable.
We have violent teen who's mom has decided to move him away from the violence and to a new neighborhood. This is all this teen knows and will try to find that outlet still. He/or she may become the most violent person in the neighborhood and create that neighborhood to be like the enviroment that mom moved away from.
There are a lot less consequences in some of the children today, stop that or I am going to give you a time out. Fear controlled our past children whether one likes to hear it or not. But I didn't do certain things that I see other kids doing even today for the simple fact had I tripped that stranger and giggled about it I'd had my butt paddled by that very stranger and my parents would have backed him and said that I deserved it. The wouldn't press charges against the man, like many would today. Basically, we are in a world where the children lead us around with the fear of going to jail for punishing them.
The problem is that with society's poor punishment levels, well they don't understand a crime has punishment with more than a slap on the wrist. They can't comprehend severe punishment. Or the wrong from the right without fear reminding them that if they do something that they know is wrong they are going to get into A LOT of trouble.

Answer 3

Its hard to say... depending if you are asking about a particular country or on a global scale. Some regions in the world that would've been considered violent in the past are now quite peaceful and vice versa. I'm no historian, but I'm pretty sure there wasn't as much (but there was some) violence in the middle east (pre1980s) as there is today.. and I don't think the Japanese would resort to beheading prisoners with a sword in future conflicts, but then again there are no real rules out in the field. In the general community, you still have certain groups who thrive on carrying out violent acts and most people these days are de-sensitised when it comes to violence. Increases in poverty, drug use, mental illness, domestic violence, pessimistic thoughts about the future and social unrest will obviously result in an increase in violence. Most people would prefer to live happy and peaceful lives, but you still get stooges adding negativity to the world

Answer 4

A little more violent. But I would point out in the past violence often had the stamp of approval from the law and didn't always come across as violence in the way you mean it. There are plenty of people who don't see the death penalty as violence, but as justice.

In that same vein one could point out there was a time when a black man could be hanged (and lawfully so, though obviously not rightfully so) for looking at a white woman. By today's standards the hanging would be violent and wrong, but by the standards of say 70 years ago it was justice. So what we see as violence and what was seen as violence many years back are two diffent things.

There's also the spousal abuse. 50 years ago beating one's wife was no big deal, and was in fact something to praise (seen as keeping her in line). In fact in my home state there is still a law on the books that says a man can take his wife to the steps of a courthouse and beat the holy hell out of her. Nowadays it is seen as violence of among the worst sort. But since it was seen as okay no one kept a record of the wife beating statistics, and so it seems like it has exploded in record numbers when in fact we are simply recording it better.

I would agree that it has gotten a little worse, but not as much so as many would think.

Answer 5

I do not know if we are more violent, but our technology has changed. People have always been violent, this is something that is controlled by ones moral standards. Violence in our schools, video games, movies and everything that sells around us has increased over the last 50 years, but what has'nt.

Answer 6

Oh yes I believe that we are a more violent culture now than back then. OK first off I wasn't alive 50 years ago but I can remember being able to play outside without worrying about being picked up by a stranger. I can remember going to school and not having to worry about gangs and peer pressure. I just want it to go back to the way that it was. You could trust people back then and now you can't.

Answer 7

I think the violence is pretty much the same, it is now we can hear about a religious slaying in say the middle east on the 5pm news before it was more or less kept in the dark. sort of like does the tree make a sound in the forest if it falls if no one hears it

Answer 8

If anything I think it's pretty much the same.
There were people being killed in the world then just as now. There is still violence amongst civilians and other countries. There is still rape, murder, suicide. ect.