Does watching violence produce violence?

Within society, the concept of watching violence and therefore producing violence is quite debatable. Interestingly, this concept has various oppositional readings as certain groups in society such as concerned parents may be against their children playing such games, as they evoke violent ideas and instill a homicidal tendency amongst teenagers mostly. Conversely, certain people might want to catharsise themselves or desensitize against violence such as groups in society such as Quakers, Buddhists and other such people.

In society, there have been various cases of reenactment of such violent video games, such so, that there was a infamous case regarding a video game related murder. On February 27, 2004 in Leicester, UK, 17-year-old Warren Leblanc lured 14-year-old Stefan Pakeerah into a park and murdered him by stabbing him repeatedly with a claw hammer and a knife. Reportedly, Leblanc was fascinated by the game Manhunt, however it was discovered that he never owned the game. Consequently, this case resulted in worldwide moral panic, as many people especially, adults and parents were concerned about violent video games and their effects on the teenage or young audience. Also, there were media effects (hypodermic model), as research was conducted into how violent games or violence in general links to aggressive and addictive behaviour.

Eventually, the Manhunt game was withdrawn from shelves across the UK, as it provoked violence and portrayed strong graphic content.

From a different view, certain people may be civil and mature enough to not be engrossed by such violence as they might not be so impressionable on them, as people like David Gauntlet might believe that the media negatively effects them and causes them to be irrational ,senseless and carefree. Generally, this concept of watching violence and therefore producing it usually causes moral panic as people might be objecting against violence in media, such as peaceful protests which end up in police inflicting violence on innocent people, terrorism and violence in wars.