The Impact Of Violence In Music

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Graham 1

Andrea Graham

Penny Sansbury

English 101

February 24, 2013

The impact of violence in music on delinquent acts in our society by Juveniles

Since the onset of our inhabitance upon this earth man has had to deal with numerous factors centering on violence and the causal relationships that influenced this phenomena. Throughout time, these impacts have been denoted as "Crime". Throughout history, there have been such heinous acts of crime as in the first murder ever recorded, according to the bible, being between Cane and his brother Able over 6000 years ago to the massacres and bloodshed of the Greek empire under the auspices of Alexander the Great during the Hellenistic period. Moreover, there was the Holy crusades rendering its bloodshed during the medieval era up to the twentieth century St. Valentine’s day massacre , coined the phrase from the brutal killings of mafia crime bosses on valentine’s day in 1929 on the west end of Chicago. Even heinous criminal activity has found a way to transcend into our current millennium, with one of the most infamous criminal acts today being the brutal mass killings etched in most American’s minds during the attack on our native soil in September 2011; now known as 9/11. However, although these criminal acts of violence stemming from individualistic masterminding were gruesome, none of these occasions are quite insidious and detrimental as where they derived from, the hearts and minds of delinquent individuals who many initiated abhorrent behavior as juveniles. Juvenile Delinquency, as defined by Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary is the conduct by a juvenile characterized by antisocial behavior that is beyond parental control and therefore subject to legal action. [1] Juvenile Delinquency, as it is often termed today, is considered to be one of the vastest and expedient approaching forms of chaos, not only to our youth, but all factors in society. Many of the social discord caused by juvenile delinquency can be traced to the inundation of violence being portrayed in the media, especially within the context of today’s music.

Primarily, because of the perceived ignorance and immaturity of our youth, many actions juveniles commit are granted a certain level of clemency in imposing punitive measures to ensure justice in our society. However, in an analysis of today’s music and its impact on the delinquency of our youths, there is a plethora of violence in its lyrics and videos. Across almost every type of genre of music from Rock, R & B, to Rap and even country, one can find violent overtures hailing and supporting such criminal acts ranging from assault and physical abuse to illicit drug dealing, suicide and even murder.

To bring some scope and understanding to why the later quite often happens, one would need to observe the etiology of Juvenile delinquency and how music from today’s pop culture often influences its occurrence and prevalence. According to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary again, the term Juvenile by itself is given to youth who are between the ages of birth and up to 16 - 18 years of age, depending on the state in which they reside. Hence, this is often why a filter has been developed and created to temper sentences gauged by the severity and the length of certain heinous acts or crimes that have been committed by juveniles. Often in society, it is believed that juveniles lack the necessary understanding to make proper decisions as well as harbor the improper leadership skills to follow them through, because of their immature age. Due to this ineptness, when juveniles listen to music that tout and glorify violence in their lyrics, they, are said to lack the proper discernment to extrapolate sensationalized rhetorical verse with reality. For example, in the genre of rap there is a song that has hit the top charts of billboard lately named "Pop the molly I'm Sweatin' (Whoo!)" by the artist Trinidad James. Molly is a drug made up of cocaine, crack, ecstasy, meth and bath salts. It is a fairly new drug cocktail that has gained popularity in our nation. Pop one molly and it literally makes you sweat profusely as it delivers its so to speak rush. However, the problem is that it considerably slows down your heart rate, damages your brain cells after two uses as well as causes your lungs to stop functioning after five uses. Many rap artists are celebrating and promoting its use as well as the development, sell and trafficking of the drug and its paraphernalia. Recently, many of our youth in mostly our nation’s metropolitan epicenters such as Chicago, New York, Baltimore and Los Angeles have been getting incarcerated and entering the juvenile penile system behind the use and sale of this drug. Due to the latter ineptness discussed earlier of our youth, they often lack the necessary knowledge and wisdom to make informed decisions in the midst of negative exposure to sensationalized lyrical verses in some of today’s music. In the Journal of Undergraduate Psychological Research researcher, Eliana Tropeano details her findings ratifying music’s detrimental impacts on violent behavior in her study questioning the effects of Rap and Rock on the violent behavior of our youth. Tropeano, in her study, details:

"Forty-six African-American males (ages 11 to 16

years) from an inner city boys club in Wilmington, North

Carolina were recruited to participate in this study. Participants

were randomly exposed to violent rap music videos, nonviolent

rap music videos, or no music videos. They read two vignettes

involving: (a) a violent act perpetrated against a man and a

woman and (b) a young man who chose to engage in academic

pursuits to achieve success, whereas his friend, who was unemployed,

"mysteriously" obtained extravagant items (i.e., a nice

car, nice clothes). The results showed that participants who saw

the violent rap videos reported greater acceptance of the use of

violence. In addition, participants who saw the violent rap videos

reported higher probability of committing similar acts of violence

and greater acceptance of the use of violence against women" 1.

Although, as known to well, none of these reasons vouch for an excuse for committing criminal acts and thus causes punitive consequences. There must be proper sentencing structure prescribed to meet the severity of the delinquent acts committed to ensure that justice prevails. Therefore, to ensure justice, punishment to youth that fully don’t understand the laws of the land and how they operate, still must be imposed and readily occurs.

Hence, the absence of or rebellion to following societal norms, often causes unstructured disorganization and chaos. However, because of the nature of juveniles immaturity and their age factor, societal thoughts and viewpoints on our youth and how we extend punitive correction are different in almost every arena, figuratively as well as literally. These are mainly factors that over the years have caused a lot of biasness as well as debate over how to handle and correctly discipline the delinquent actions caused by our youth. Thus in a dual approach to curving and deterring crime from juvenile delinquency, there must be a factored development and mission that will effectively deal with the situation in two areas, prevention and rehabilitation.

In summary, the greatest measure to combating this problem and curtailing any delinquent behavior is to address the ignorance. The lack of proper values and decision making skills in our juveniles derives primarily from this ignorance. The truest way to make any measureable gain when dealing with ignorance is through education. One can firmly attest that, with the proper access and exposure in the pursuit and acquisition of knowledge, especially character-based knowledge, character can be developed and instilled. Properly developing a child, in such a mannerism that he will be able to handle certain situations that calls on his decision making skills is critical. Education and training our children to listen to wholesome music and creating that environment through our parenting is of the utmost importance. This helps to forge the development of a healthy character, driven by morality and a disciplined lifestyle. Learning this needed information is very important for juveniles as well as the ethics to carry it out. Immoral and unethical behavior not only will breed delinquent acts but often will transcend into criminal acts. According to Reynolds, et al, the amount of people that are currently incarcerated in prison has a direct correlation with educational disadvantages when growing up throughout their childhood. For example, Reynolds also reports:

"Chicago publicly-funded Child-Parent Centers have served almost 100,000 three- and four-year-olds since 1967. For 14 years, researchers tracked 989 of those children and 550 similar children not in the program. The children who did not participate were 70 percent more likely to be arrested for a violent crime by age 18.1 above" [2] 

According to the latter prediction, 90 percent of those that have grown up since this correlation was projected; in many ways, have proven valid. Thus we must deal with our juvenile population effectively through proper education in our schools as well as in their homes. By educating our youth, they become more informed. However, this knowledge can’t just be a series or acquisition of collected facts. Acquired knowledge today needs to encompass also the teaching, dissemination and integration of titrated principles of wisdom to help our youth develop a greater sense of purpose and overall healthy esteem.