The Chronicle

Vik Bhardwaj
Managing Editor


      The recent shootings at Northern Illinois University, Virginia Tech University and University of Alabama in Huntsville are cause to reflect on the safety of school campuses.


      Identifying the cause of these shootings has been an issue of national debate.


      A recent study by Christopher J. Ferguson at Texas A&M International University’s Behavioral, Applied Sciences and Criminal Justice Department looked into the causal relationship of violent video games and found significant “divides between existing video game research and acts of serious aggression and violence.”


      Ferguson said much of the research on violence and video games is mixed.


      For instance, Ferguson said neither the NIU shooter Steve Kazmierczak nor the VT shooter Seung-Hui Cho were violent video gamers, but the Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold played a lot of the violent PC game Doom.


      The nature of correlated research is to associate two variables. In this case, violence and video games are the variables. The problem is that other important variables, such as genetics, personality, and gender are omitted from most studies. 


      CLC Psychology Professor Dr. Martha Lally said the correlation of research on violence and video games is hard to weigh with any certainty.


      Ferguson’s claim was that rather than video games, the media’s spotlight on the violence is the bigger issue because it is inaccurately greater than reality. Ferguson pointed to this as the idea of moral panic. 


      CLC Sociology Professor David Asma said moral panic occurs “when a large number of people become disproportionately fearful about an otherwise isolated event.”


      Ferguson said once fear is instilled, researchers are more likely to pass along biased studies with uneven support. Thus, societal beliefs are formed. Ferguson said the media uses this tactic to increase ratings and politicians use it for political gain.


      Asma said moral panic leads to “mean world syndrome.” This idea says that constant exposure to violent media will portray the world as a very scary place.


      In a recent CLC poll, 50 students were asked whether violent crimes were on the rise. 70 percent said it was. 


      Asma said there exists a belief that violence is on the rise, when actually the inverse is true.


      Lally and Asma said school shootings are rare. Both said primary schools are the safest places for young people.


        “Students are much safer in their schools than in their homes and their communities,” Lally said.


      Lally said bullying contributes to school violence as a whole.


        She said a lot of research has gone into making schools safer in an attempt to nip violence in the bud.


      Implementations have been made to “bully-proof” schools and a recent U.S. Department of Justice study found that from 2002 to 2008 bullying and aggression among children had decreased, Lally said.


        “We are seeing a lot of our anti-bullying programs pay off,” Lally said.
      She said an integral part of making schools safer is the cooperation from school 
counselors and teachers to target “at-risk kids.”


      This means having faculty pick up on such cues as students who suggest violence in their speech, literature or behavior.


      Asma said bullying affects certain people differently.


  “We’re all victims of bullying at one point or another,” Amsa said. “The question is what impact does that have on the individual.”


      Lally said, higher education also needs to pick up on these cues.


      Students at large four-year institutions can get lost in a sea of anonymity. Schools can keep track of students through residency hall check-ins and mentoring programs, Lally said. 


      In part two, an investigation of campus safety at CLC. Look for it in the next issue.