violent, and children's programming was the most violent. The use of guns was found in 26% of the violent interactions (Hepburn; Stasburger & Donnerstein, 1999, p. 130-134).
Some elements in the portrayals of violence are considered to be higher risk for children. Attractive perpetrators are a risk, as are minimal consequences for the victim or justified violence without punishment. Of the violent acts found in 1995-6, 40% were done by attractive perpetrators. Around 75% of the violence demonstrated no punishment for the perpetrators. The perpetrators demonstrated a lack of remorse and over half of the incidents did not reveal the victim's suffering. This media is found to include the portrayal of justified violence and an acceptance of aggressive attitudes (Aidman, 1997; Hepburn; Stasburger & Donnerstein, 1999, p. 130-134).
It is estimated that a child views 8,000 murders by the time they leave elementary school, from watching two to fours hours of TV daily. TV violence is increasing. War cartoons have increased from 1.5 hours a week (1982) to 43 hours a week (1986) (Smith, 1993).
TV violence has more than one effect on children's behaviors. For example they may imitate the violence, or it may simply reduce their inhibitions against aggressive behavior, or trigger an impulsive aggressive act. TV viewing further takes the place of nonviolent interacting with other children or adults (Josephson, 1995, p. 5).
TV violence has detrimental emotional effects as well. Children may become desensitized to violence and view the world as a frightening place that demands physical violence for conflict resolution. Support for the catharsis hypothesis, that states viewing TV violence helps vent destructive impulses through fantasy, has not been provided by empirical research findings (Josephson, p. 5).
Some studies have indicated that all effects are found on children, adolescents, and adults, with none specific to a pa...