VIOLENCE

Vocabulary Find the "odd one out".    There may be more than one answer. Give your reasons.

	A	B	C
1.	an assasin	a murderer	a killer
2.	a paedophile	a rapist	a stalker
3.	to assault	to harass	to pester
4.	masochism	misogyny	sadism
5.	a cane	a combat knife	a hand-gun
6.	to batter	to beat	to club
7.	to bully	to provoke	to tease
8.	manslaughter	murder	casualty
9.	injure	wound	assault
10.

Text for dictation

There have been several crimes that have led British people to reflect on the causes of violence in our society. One case involved a married couple, who sexually abused a number of women, murdered them and then buried them under their house. A second case involved a member of a gun club, who walked into the sports hall of a Primary School and gunned down all the members of a class and their teacher. A third case involved two young boys who battered a baby boy to death after abducting him from a shopping centre.

Crimes involving both violence and sexual abuse lead to attempts to limit the availability of magazines and videos that link the two. Some sex shops dealing in sado-masochism have been forced to close. The content of films, such as "Belle de Jour", involving the violent treatment of prostitutes, has also been questioned. Certain films involving gratuitous violence such as "Clockwork Orange" have been censored in Britain, because of the bad example that they set for young people.

Crimes involving guns have led to new legislation in Britain banning the possession of hand-guns in spite of the strong opposition put up by shooting clubs. Many parents refuse to buy toy guns for their children, not wanting them to associate war with play. It is difficult to shelter children in this way since they are constantly exposed to violence as entertainment in the form of books, comics and television cartoons.

The case involving the young boys led many people to ask whether violence is inborn or whether it results from poor parenting, allowing children to surf the web unsupervised or to access video nasties, for example. Current concern is directed towards the Internet. The lack of censorship means that children can search for potentially damaging texts and pictures and to make contact with strangers on chat lines.

Dialogue

A: What do you think are the causes of the increase in violence in our society?

B: Without doubt, television has a lot to answer for.

A: In what way? 

B: You've only got to switch on a film and you'll see a violent incident every five or ten minutes on average. Even the news bulletins dwell on violence.

A: But on the news, that's violence which actually happens, isn't it?

B: Yes, but other things happen in the world which aren't violent. 

A: Well, maybe they don't qualify as news.  

B: In that case, you're saying that the news isn't representative of what's happening around us. 

A: Well, neither are Shakespeare's plays. Many of those are centred on wars and tragedies. Novels too are usually based on conflict. That's what gives them their interest value.

B: The problem with television is that the images of violence are highly graphic and they're shown to us again and again. Some people are easily influenced by visual images. Young children may come to believe that the world's like that.

A: That's highly unlikely. Everybody understands that films and plays contain drama and that the purpose of the news is to report on what's wrong. 

B: I think you underestimate the damage that can be done by all this focus on hatred. You only have to visit a war zone to see how the minds of young children are twisted by killings, torture and executions. Spend some time in Rwanda and you'll understand what I mean.

A: Come on! The films we see on TV don't go that far. At least there's some censorship.

B: Now you're saying that you want good, clean violence on TV. You want it to look clinical. I'm beginning to think it would be a good thing if we were shown genocide... if war correspondents showed us what they meant by collateral damage, instead of sanitizing violence. Viewers would soon get sick of seeing the real thing.

A: Make up your mind! Do you want more or less violence on TV? 

B: More of the real world and less sanitized violence.

Discussion questions

1. "There should be strict censorship of films and news bulletins on television to prevent children from copying violent incidents." Do you agree? 

2. "Children’s cartoons such as Tom & Jerry and Popeye teach children the wrong lessons." Do you agree? 3. "Television cameras should not record crowd disturbances during sporting events such as football matches." What do you think? 

4. "Combat sports such as boxing where the aim is to injure your opponent should be banned and should certainly not be part of the Olympic Games." Do you agree? 

5. "Products such as pornographic videos and rap music which give expression to violence against women should be withdrawn from sale." Do you agree? 

6. "In most countries, military training which prepares people for violence against an enemy, should be replaced by schemes to serve the community." Do you agree?

7. "Nobody should be permitted to own a hand gun for a hobby." What do you think? 

8. "Combat knives should be made illegal." Do you agree? 

9. "Parents should not buy toy guns or war toys for their children." Do you agree?

10. "Corporal punishment should not be used either at school or in the home." Do you agree?