Domestic Violence Essay

There are many theories out there that try to explain why domestic violence happens. Some like family violence theory say that it is passed down through the family because basically what you see is what you will do. Others say it’s a chemical imbalance or its based on other things. I believe that it is a little bit of all of the theories but the Culture of Violence Theory is playing a huge role today in helping shape our young children’s minds as to what is now acceptable. During this assignment we will look at four different types of examples of how the Culture of Violence Theory is doing just that. Culture of Violence theory claims that violence occurs at all levels of society and is looked at as a means to resolve a conflict. Violence and force are acceptable and are used even in family disputes. Theories believe that in order to stop a man from beating or hitting a woman then you have to change the way he believes or relies on violence being a means to solve all his problems. I also believe that our culture as a whole is violence driven. As a soldier in the United States Army, I deploy to combat areas and I have meet other new recruits who basically wanted to join the military for that reason. So then the question is why in the world would you want to do something just for the violence? Well we can look no further then what is the main culprit to me and that is the Mass Media. The Mass Media today is the main reason why our culture is so violence driven. First I am going to start off on the news media and movies that are being viewed by our children and young adults. The news media always seems to project negative things. You rarely hear anything about a city not having an violent acts being placed over the news. Instead you turn the news on and your going to see how a father came home and found his wife cheating on him so he beat her to death, then killed all his children before turning his gun on himself. The news always reports the violent acts so that’s what our culture is getting use to see. When we look at the type of movies being depicted that display acts of violence in a family household we look at the movie Precious. This movie won the actress a Grammy Award but in this movie your watching a girl being physically, verbally and sexually abused at home. The only time she was safe was at school. What does this type of information teach? It could teach a positive message but I believe that in reality all it did was downgrade women and especially African American women. Movies and the News aren’t the only means to project violence within our culture. The controversial video game by rock star called Grand Theft Auto has been sparking debates across the nation for years. This is one of the best selling franchises in the video game industry but the message in this top playing videogame for our youth in particular teens is violence. This game depicts family violence, drug selling, murder, extortion, robbery, theft, grand theft auto and many more violent crimes. This game really belittles women I feel because they always use derogatory language towards them. This game always shows â€Å"pimps† and ho’s† and the pimp is always beating on the women. This sends a message that our society is fine with this type of behavior since we generate it for our amusement and entertainment. I am one of those who is at fault by playing this type of games but I do understand that this is not appropriate for our youth because they are still learning and trying to understand what is the wrong and right way to act in society and this doesn’t help them in any way. Our society today is all about technology. Everyone has an internet capable phone and the internet is streaming videos constantly. With that being sad a lot of youth and teens are able to watch music videos either through their phone, laptop or on the television. The new hit song titled â€Å"Try† by Pink depicts two lovers basically having an all-out brawl with each other. They are pulling hair, breaking glasses, hitting each other. This music video shows our youth domestic violence but shows it as a poetry in motion or as just two people really in love with each other so even though they are hurting each other its ok as long as they continue to work it out and try again. So is the message here teaching our society to not harm each other? It doesn’t look that way to me and if this keeps up then we will continue to see the numbers as high as they are. All of the different examples I gave show you how our culture became so violence oriented. From the News stations to the Movies in the theaters to the videogames we buy our children and the music they listen to. What children hear and see is exactly what they will do so yes I believe Family Violence Theory plays a role in my paper but the Cultural Violence Theory is by far the most destructive force we have and we can only blame ourselves. Reference: CJ333 Chapter 3, Research and Theory on Family Violence Video Game Study Reinforces Negative Impact on Youth, Jennifer Leclaire, 4/10/06 Pink gets physical and aggressive in â€Å"Try† music video, Lucas Villa, October 10 2012