Expert takes aim at growing climate of fear
The Courier Mail
9 July 1998
AUSTRALIANS were increasingly living in fear of young people despite the Hollywood image of handgun-wielding youths ruling the streets being far form reality, it was claimed yesterday. According to crime research consultant David Barton, the fear was being created as a result of a “saturation” of violent media images.
But he said while the fear outweighed the reality, there was evidence that the ecposure of young people t such images was creating a less civil, less polite and more “aggro” society.
Speaking at the Australian and New Zealand Criminology conference on the Gold Coast, Mr Barton said the influence of the mass media including television, movies, videos, CD’s, magazines, newspapers and computer games was such that it has “taken over much of the educative role in the community”.
He also claimed fun parlours and so-called family leisure centres, in particular, could be viewed as “training grounds” for violent behaviour in children.
“There are banks and banks of these machines in these parlours with kids standing there with handguns blazing away,” he said.
He said as well as violence, the majority of the amusement machines involved speed - “two things that are ultimately going to end up with young people getting in trouble with the law”.
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