Tiara Smith
November 24, 2010
Socy 227
Violence in Contemporary American Society
Violence within the American culture plays a significant role in society and especially in the influence in individuals’ behavior. Violence usually apprear in two significant way; deviant and acceptable. Deviant violence is relative to location and context, such as military violence versus gang violence. Military violence is socially acceptable being that our country is being defended against “the enemies”. Other examples of acceptable violence includes self defense, law enforcement, and line of duty. Violence with no purpose or reason behind it is considered senseless and is against the law. These deviant types of violence include gang violence, domestic violence, and abuse.
I believe we should draw the line against all deviant violence. There should be stricter laws, rules, and regulations in place in order to discourage people from committing violence. For example, in Bowling for Columbine they showed a comedy clip from Chris Rock saying how we need less gun control and more bullet control. Even though his message was portrayed as comedy I believe this would actually work if the price of bullets increased. People would be less inclined to buy bullets to commit violent acts. You can’t shoot a gun without bullets and if you have limited bullets you will take into consideration how and when to use them. Obviously gun control is ineffective because people can buy and sell guns illegally on the streets.
Our norms and values shape the way we think about violence. America is usually more accepting to expose violence in the media in opposition to sex. As stated in This Film is Not Yet Rated, the MPAA is less concerned about violence and more concerned about sex portrayals in films. This is the exact opposite in Europe. They are more concerned about violence than about sex portrayals in movies. And as we saw in Bowling for Columbine, America has the...