Comic Books Effects on Children Essay

Words: 1357
Pages: 6

History 129 research paper
11/8/11 1,282 words

What if I were to tell you that we could fix all of society’s problems today by getting rid of one of our most profitable media outlets and national past-times? You might ask which media outlet I’m talking about and that is comic books. Comic books have always received flak when it came to how influential they are to children, with scenes of graphic violence, criminal acts of mischief, and over-bearing sexual exploits. Many parents, schools, and communities have also noticed some of the crazy things that go on in comic books and have banded together to try and ban them because they are in fear that these comic books are poisoning our children’s minds to make them believe that committing
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Paul G. Cressey did a study at New York University to find similarities between young males seeing a crime in the media and then idolizing the criminal so much that they turn around and do the crime themselves, but Cressey found that “urban patterns of vice, gambling, racketeering and gangsterism, including large components of violence, were so familiar to the children of this district” that the media itself, “seemed rather tame by comparison.” (Thrasher pg. 199). He also went on to say, “That this section of New York is typical of the thousands of other delinquency areas in American cities cannot be doubted. It is from these areas that the large proportion of official juvenile delinquents come and there is no reason to doubt that the role. . . in producing delinquency is any greater in these areas in other American cities than it was found to be in New York” (Thrasher pg. 200). Since there’s already dubious amounts of crime in under-privileged cities how can you pinpoint the source of all that delinquency on one source which is comic books? You honestly can’t because it’s a statement of opinion without any fact. But to Fredric Wertham, the increase in crime is due to comic books. He also goes on to state that "Children who don't read